What new heart failure treatments are being investigated and used at the Medical Center?
One thing we’re doing is a telemonitoring program to see if we can keep people out of the hospital by giving them scales and blood pressure cuffs to take home. The results from the scales and cuffs are automatically sent to our server through a modem so that we can follow the patients and pick up changes in weight, blood pressure or rhythm. The whole idea is to prevent hospitalization. I’ve been investigating a number of different new medications for heart failure. In particular, we’ve been concerned about kidney function in people with heart failure. We’re looking at drugs that will permit people to get rid of the extra fluid without harming their kidneys. We’re also looking at drugs that help the heart to contract better, and these are some investigational drugs. In addition, we’re looking to see if low blood counts (which are often associated with heart failure) can be improved. We want to see if we can increase blood counts and whether that will make patients feel better. We’re als
