The SBH Foundation has been a constant supporter of the Cardiac Sciences Program. The most recent Foundation campaign on our behalf has resulted in the upcoming acquisition of an endoscopic vascular harvester (EVH) system that will replace the open dissection of leg veins in the course of CABG. Cardiac Sciences maintains an evergreen priority list of Foundation asks based on submissions from across the Cardiac Sciences community. In advance of our next meeting with the Foundation to share our wish list I have appended the intake form for those requests for Foundation support that you may have been thinking about. Requests for capital equipment, technology and (sometimes) personnel have all been supported. There is no deadline for submissions. However, I do meet with the Foundation on a quasi-regular basis and would love to be able to pitch the case for your suggested acquisition to support cardiac care.
Shout Outs!
Sals Star of the Week: Samantha Deguzman.
Introduced by Sara Unrau
It was rather difficult to pick just one Cardiac Critical Care staff member to recognize as the Star of the Week. Everyone has stepped up in the setting of pandemic, picking up extra shifts, supporting new staff, embracing and supporting both ICU trained and non-ICU trained reassigned staff. There are so many that have taken extra steps during this time.
For the Star of the Week, I really wanted to recognize and acknowledge someone that was pushed well beyond their usual experience and has embraced this disruption with a smile. I would like to recognize Samantha “Sam” DeGuzman as the Sals Star of the Week. Sam is a unit clerk in PARR and was reassigned when the ICU overflow moved into PARR. She was asked if she would be willing to make this new area her “home” for now. She graciously accepted this challenge and increased her hours to full time to support the unit. In one of her very first shifts in the unit she supported the team through a Code Blue and ECMO insertion. Her calm, can-do attitude kept her focused and able to contact the appropriate people and resources, even as she expressed how intimidating and scary the situation was. She is quick to learn, asks questions and has been instrumental in assisting with the flow of patients in and out of ICU. She always has a smile on her face, welcomes any new faces into the unit. Family members have commented that she is always friendly when she answers the phone. This makes such a difference to anyone who is unable to visit! Please join me in congratulating Samantha DeGuzman.
Congratulations to Carly Lodewyks who has won the Best Presentation Surgeons Award and the People’s Choice Presentation Award from the Department of Surgery Research Day for her presentation entitled: A province wide analysis of ten year outcomes in patients with thoracic aortic disease: long term survival is worse in women regardless of age.
Barbara Knight is retiring after 34 years of service at SBH. Barb has worked in several areas within St. Boniface Hospital and the Cardiac Sciences Program including CSIU and Cardiac Clinics.Wishing Barb all the best in her retirement!
This Week’s Faculty Publications
Manji RA, Manji JS. Studying Xenograft Rejection of Bioprosthetic Heart Valves. Methods Mol Biol. 2020;2110:227-243. doi: 10.1007/978-1-0716-0255-3_15.
Sheth T, Pinilla-Echeverri N, Moreno R, Wang J, Wood DA, Storey RF, Mehran R, Bainey KR, Bossard M, Bangalore S, Schwalm JD, Velianou JL, Valettas N, Sibbald M, Rodés-Cabau J, Ducas J, Cohen EA, Bagai A, Rinfret S, Newby DE, Feldman L, Laster SB, Lang IM, Mills JD, Cairns JA, Mehta SR. Nonculprit Lesion Severity and Outcome of Revascularization in Patients With STEMI and Multivessel Coronary Disease. J Am Coll Cardiol. 2020 Sep 15;76(11):1277-1286. doi: 10.1016/j.jacc.2020.07.034.
Luc JGY, Archer MA, Arora RC, Bender EM, Blitz A, Cooke DT, Hlci TN, Kidane B, Ouzounian M, Varghese TK Jr, Antonoff MB. Does Tweeting Improve Citations? One-Year Results From the TSSMN Prospective Randomized Trial. Ann Thorac Surg. 2021 Jan;111(1):296-300. doi: 10.1016/j.athoracsur.2020.04.065. Epub 2020 Jun 3.
Muller Moran HR, Yamashita MH, Arora RC. Commentary: Vita ex machina-life from the machine. J Thorac Cardiovasc Surg. 2020 Nov 24:S0022-5223(20)33128-7. doi: 10.1016/j.jtcvs.2020.11.066. Online ahead of print.
Beattie WS, Lalu M, Bocock M, Feng S, Wijeysundera DN, Nagele P, Fleisher LA, Kurz A, Biccard B, Leslie K, Howell S, Landoni G, Grocott H, Lamy A, Richards T, Myles P; StEP COMPAC Group. Systematic review and consensus definitions for the Standardized Endpoints in Perioperative Medicine (StEP) initiative: cardiovascular outcomes. Br J Anaesth. 2021 Jan;126(1):56-66. doi: 10.1016/j.bja.2020.09.023. Epub 2020 Oct 20.
