Angioplasty.Org's 30 Years
of Documenting Stents and Balloons On View at TCT 10,000 cardiologists in DC can see award-winning filmmaker Burt Cohen's history of "
the procedure that changed the face of medicine"
THE FIRST ANGIOPLASTY:
See the story of
the very first coronary angioplasty ever done
on September 16, 1977, as told
by the patient himself, Mr. Adolph Bachmann, now
68
years
old,
and his physician,
Dr. Bernhard Meier. Dr. Andreas Gruentzig not only
invented angioplasty, but an entirely new branch
of medicine that made possible treatment for a
variety of diseases without the need for surgery.
(2:33)
October 22, 2007, Washington DC -- After a year of much controversy about drug-eluting stents, attendees at the largest gathering of interventional cardiologists in the world in Washington DC this week are lauding the 30th Anniversary of Coronary Angioplasty, a celebration that began last month in Zurich, Switzerland, the birthplace of the procedure.
Many celebrants at the TCT (Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics) meeting, including Boston Scientific and Abbott Vascular, are turning to the Angioplasty.Org History Center. Established in 1997, this one-of-kind archive of footage, photos and documentary films records the unique history of device-driven interventional treatment of heart and vascular disease, the fastest-growing field of medicine in history
Angioplasty.Org's videos, from home movies of
Andreas Gruentzig, the inventor of coronary angioplasty, to scores
of interviews with leading researchers, are being utilized in multiple
30th Anniversary presentations, and installed in a permanent history
exhibit at the ACC/SCAI headquarters at Heart House in Washington.
Producer Burt Cohen's award-winning documentary "PTCA: A History" is
on view continuously during the TCT at Boston Scientific's exhibition
booth. "It's critical for the profession to maintain historical perspective," says Cohen, founder of Angioplasty.Org. "Gruentzig launched interventional cardiology with unprecedented scientific rigor and a commitment to 'treat the patient, not the lesion'."
"Burt Cohen has been documentarian of this field
of medicine for 30 years," Dr.
Steve Oesterle, Medical Director of Medtronic, told the audience at
the recent NY-ACE meeting, organized by Lenox Hill Heart and Vascular
Institute of New York, where Cohen's new film about the Andreas Gruentzig
Society's 30th Anniversary Meeting was screened. At the Mellon Auditorium in Washington on October
21st, Abbott Vascular featured historical material from Angioplasty.Org
at its "Celebration of 30 Years of Angioplasty: A Special Physician Event." Some
700 cardiologists and a panel of pioneering physicians attended the
meeting, moderated by Barbara Walters. Cohen says, "In 1979, when I produced the first
film on angioplasty, putting a balloon in a person's heart was viewed
as a heretical idea. We developed the live course in the early 80's
to disseminate the concept and technique, never imagining that it would
turn into a multi-million dollar event like the TCT. Advances in cardiology
are moving rapidly, from percutaneous valve replacement to gene therapy
-- the key is to pursue innovation while never losing sight of the
individual patient, and to press on with scientific validation openly
and unflinchingly -- that was Gruentzig's message."
Highlights from 14 hours of interviews with cardiology pioneers at the International Andreas Gruentzig Society's 30th Anniversary meeting in Zurich will be on view at www.angioplasty.org .
Angioplasty.Org, founded in 1997, is an award-winning, highly regarded independent health website used by both health care professionals and patients. The site has been recommended by the Department of Health and Human Services and over 800 other referrers, receives 100,000 monthly visits and has reached 5 million people.
Source: Angioplasty.Org
