Society of Thoracic Surgeons

[on-hold music] Welcome to Thinking Thoracic, the podcast dedicated to exploring the advancements in thoracic surgery, brought to you by the Society of Thoracic Surgeons.

This podcast features leading thoracic surgeons discussing and debating the latest research, surgical techniques, and trends to expand your knowledge, challenge your thinking, and help you stay ahead of the curve.

Whether you're a thoracic surgeon, advanced practice provider, researcher, or industry professional, Thinking Thoracic is for you.

Let's get started.

[on-hold music] The Society of Thoracic Surgeons Thinking Thoracic podcast is sponsored by AstraZeneca.

[instrumental music]

Hi, everyone, and welcome to Thinking Thoracic, an STS podcast.

Thanks for tuning in, and we'll see you next time.

The new version was developed jointly by the European Society of Cardiology, American College of Cardiology, American Heart Association, and World Heart Federation.

It was endorsed by the European Association for Cardiothoracic Surgery and the Society of Thoracic Surgeons.

L. Kristen Newby, the ACC AHA co-chairperson, noted at an ESC press conference that the fifth UDMI's classification of MI aligns well with how cardiologists already work in clinical practice.

And she said, quote, it doesn't really change at all how we see a patient, what our diagnostic testing is, but it brings in some new rigor, if you will, with regard to functional consequences of the myocardial infarction.

Yeah, because you were able to watch other people help your father and you just instantly felt connected to that.

In the specialty of cardiac surgery, there is a unique feature where the Society of Thoracic Surgeons, which is the highest governing body of the specialty in America, collects very granular information on every case that's done in america the quality of a program is determined when based on all the information related to the patient there's a prediction of what the risk of various complications or not surviving is going to be and then the actual outcome of that operation is really measured against that prediction And if you significantly do better, meaning patients do better compared to what the prediction was, then you receive a star rating, which is publicly reported.

So this is shared with everyone.

And the majority of the programs in America are two star and 10 percent of the programs end up receiving three star, which means their patients did significantly better than they would have been predicted to.

You know who knows the denominator is your cardiac surgeon.

They know how many people they put on dialysis, right? Because they have to report that to the STS, the Society of Thoracic Surgeons.

And then I think it can vary anywhere from maybe 1 to 3 or 4%.

If you're at a big referral center, right, and you're taking patients that other people say no to, your rate is going to be a little higher.

We like to toot our own horn about that.

And so in response to public audits of cardiac surgical outcomes, our club, the Society of Thoracic Surgeons, made a risk calculator for the commonly performed adult cardiac operations.

And it's extensive.

It includes things like, you know, the patient's age, their body size, their ventricular function, labs like the hematocrit and the creatinine.

So, you know, I remember initially when I was hearing, obviously, you know, researching ergonomics and hearing about sort of latest things on the market, I actually met the NexSpine team.

I think I was doing a workshop at the Society of Thoracic Surgery early 2024.

That's when I met them.

I had heard about them from Dr. Halbeck before.

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Welcome to Thinking Thoracic, the podcast dedicated to exploring the advancements in thoracic surgery, brought to you by the Society of Thoracic Surgeons.

This podcast features leading thoracic surgeons discussing and debating the latest research, surgical techniques, and trends to expand your knowledge, challenge your thinking, and help you stay ahead of the curve.

Whether you're a thoracic surgeon, advanced practice provider, researcher, or industry professional, Thinking Thoracic is for you.

Let's get started.

The Society of Thoracic Surgeons Thinking Thoracic podcast is sponsored by AstraZeneca.

Hi, everyone.

Welcome to Thinking Thoracic, a podcast of the Society of Thoracic Surgeons.