Over the years, I have interacted with many patients that suffer from atrial fibrillation and heart valve diseases including aortic stenosis and mitral regurgitation. To learn more about atrial fibrillation and heart valve disease, I contacted Dr. Niv Ad, the Chief of Cardiac Surgery at Inova Health Systems in Falls Church, Virginia. Here are [...]

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Life is fantastic mixture of good days, tough days, great days and, sometimes, bad days. However, every once in a while, we are fortunate to experience… extraordinary days.
Recently, in Greeneville, North Carolina, I had one of those rare, extraordinary days.
“What the heck happened to Adam?” you might be wondering.
Well… I was very fortunate (and very [...]

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Last Wednesday, our patient and caregiver community was fortunate to participate in an exclusive, online chat with Dr. Marc Gillinov, one of the leading heart valve surgeons from The Cleveland Clinic.

As this was our first, interactive chat with The Cleveland Clinic, I was curious (and a bit nervous) to receive feedback from their team following [...]

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In connection with the launch of our Heart Valve Surgeon Database, we are going to feature one special heart valve surgeon each month.
In the past, we have featured Dr. Starnes, Dr. Adams and Dr. Roselli. With February coming up, you have an opportunity to nominate your surgeon as the “Heart Valve Surgeon Of The Month”.

To [...]

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Thanks to your help… Last month, we announced the launch of our new, online Heart Valve Surgeon Database. This unique database is the world’s first heart valve surgeon directory created by patients for patients.
Today, I am excited to announce that a complimentary Apple iPhone App for the Heart Valve Surgeon Database is now available for [...]

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In the past, we’ve discussed how patients, like Sylvia Woolworth, got physically and mentally fit prior to heart valve surgery. Specific to this topic, I recently opened an email from Dr. Michael Baity, a retired dentist from Michigan. Dr. Baity just had aortic valve replacement surgery at the Cleveland Clinic. Here is what he wrote [...]

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I’m very, very, very excited to announce that the new Heart Valve Surgeon Database (Version 2.0) is going public today. You will quickly note there are several advanced features of the database including:

A completely revised look (shown below). I found a web design team that made the database incredibly easy for patients and caregivers to use.

Over [...]

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I’m currently traveling through Europe for work. Right now, I’m on a train going from Eindhoven to Amsterdam in The Netherlands. Yes, it’s cold. But, not as cold as Helsinki, Finland where it was freeeeeezing.
Luckily, I have a few moments to read personal emails. One of those emails was from Mark Linnus, a 46 year-old [...]

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Kelly just sent me this very insightful patient story which touches on several critical factors specific to heart valve surgery from the patient perspective. That said, I thought you might want to learn about Kelly and her surgeon, Dr. Kevin Miller. Here is what Kelly wrote to me:

Kelly Gaul - Heart Valve Replacement Patient
Hi Adam,
It’s [...]

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I just received an excellent question from Gary about the Heart Valve Surgeon Database.
He writes, “Adam - I had mitral valve replacement eight weeks due to a prolapsed valve. Thanks to your book, your blog and the patients at this website, I’m doing better than expected. My post-op echo is showing no regurgitation! Obviously, I [...]

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