Our Spotlight Interviews have been a popular monthly feature since EP Lab Digest started in 2001. In this special feature, we check back with one of our previously highlighted EP labs to see how they have changed since first being profiled.

Figure 1.

Einstein Heart and Vascular Institute:
       The Einstein Heart and Vascular Institute recently finalized plans to start construction on a second EP lab. Funding for the new lab came from the Einstein Auxiliary Harvest Ball fundraiser held in the fall of 2006. The new lab will be equipped with a Philips Allura Biplane unit with EP Navigator, Carto-XP and St. Jude Medical’s EnSite mapping systems, as well as Intracardiac Echocardiography (ICE).
       We have hired a new physician, Sumeet Mainigi, MD, who will be joining Allan Greenspan, MD to perform atrial fibrillation ablations in the new lab. Our new EP lab is expected to be up and running by late September 2007.
       At present, we are performing approximately 15 to 20 procedures per week. Our volume is expected to increase with the addition of a second physician and with our population of patients needing atrial fibrillation ablations. We continue to perform tilt table testing, pacemakers, ICDs, radiofrequency ablations, NIPS, cardioversions and diagnostic EP studies. We also work closely with our Heart Failure team, implanting biventricular devices and performing dyssynchrony studies for AV optimization.
       Our Arrhythmia and Device Clinic has grown in leaps and bounds. We are now seeing approximately 25 to 35 patients per week, requiring that we expand our clinic hours and move to a newly renovated floor with more exam rooms. To accommodate the clinic as well as the procedure volume, we now have seven registered nurses and three nurse practitioners. The nurse practitioners cover the inpatient as well as outpatient volume, while the RNs cover the lab and the device clinic.
       We also provide our ICD and BiV patients with remote device monitoring through Boston Scientific’s LATITUDE program. This program enables our patients to be monitored from home with less frequent office visits.
       In addition, we participate in the Philadelphia Regional ICD Support Group for patients and their families. The support group rotates through local hospitals and is run by EP nursing staff. The support group meetings are usually sponsored by a device company, and feature lectures from physician guest speakers. Topics include general information about devices and dysrhythmias as well as question and answer sessions.

Einstein Heart and Vascular Institute was originally featured in the September/October 2002 issue of EP Lab Digest.