Cardiologists on the Move
Dr. Lynn H. Harrison Jr., credited with revitalizing the cardiac surgery program at the University of Massachusetts Memorial Medical Center, has joined Baptist Health South Florida, a six-hospital health care system based in Miami.
Dr. Harrison was brought on board at UMass Memorial in January 2006 as chief of the cardiac surgery division. The division's elective cardiac surgery program had been shut down for 2 months in 2005 because mortality rates for coronary artery bypass graft had exceeded the state average. Dr. Harrison spearheaded department changes, including the standardization of pre- and postop management, that led to its current ranking as one of the top 100 U.S. programs.
The most important change, he told C
Dr. Harrison serves as clinical director of cardiac surgery for Baptist Health's newly formed Cardiac and Thoracic Surgical Group.
Dr. Harrison received his medical degree from the University of Oklahoma in Oklahoma City. He trained in general and cardiothoracic surgery at Duke University in Durham, N.C. Prior to joining UMass, he was professor of surgery and chief of cardiothoracic surgery at Louisiana State University, New Orleans.
Dr. Mark E. Anderson was named head of the internal medicine department at the University of Iowa Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine and UI Hospitals and Clinics. Dr. Anderson, associate director of the university's cardiovascular research center, is a cardiac electrophysiologist whose research has focused on a signaling protein, calmodulin kinase II, and its role in heart rhythm abnormalities and heart muscle enlargement. His clinical interests include pacemakers, defibrillators, and catheter ablation therapy. He joined the UI faculty in 2005 as professor of internal medicine and director of the cardiology division.
He received his medical degree from the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, and completed an internship and residency in internal medicine at Stanford (Calif.) University, where he also trained in cardiology and clinical cardiac electrophysiology. He was a faculty member at Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tenn., from 1996 to 2005.
Abbott Expands Stent Trial
Abbott has announced the expansion of its Xience V USA postapproval study to allow more than 2,000 of its patients to cross over into the Dual Antiplatelet Therapy (DAPT) 20,000-patient trial.
Originally designed to study 5,000 patients, Xience V USA's expansion will allow enrollment of an additional 3,000 patients. The trial's primary end point is a measure of stent thrombosis every year out to 5 years, as defined by the Dublin/Academic Research Consortium.
DAPT, a consortium of pharmaceutical and medical device companies (including Abbott), is designed to determine the duration, safety, and efficacy of dual antiplatelet therapy to protect patients from stent thrombosis and major adverse cardiovascular and cerebrovascular events after stent implantation.
DR. LYNN H. HARRISON
DR. MARK E. ANDERSON