June 2002

Surgery seen via satellite

Monash Medical Centre was a focus of international attention when a team of interventional cardiologists performed ground-breaking cardiac and coronary procedures live via satellite to a conference of cardiologists in Paris.

‘We are one of only a handful of centres chosen throughout the world to demonstrate our skills live to air,’ said Associate Professor lan Meredith who coordinated the team that represented the Asia Pacific Region.

‘This was a fantastic honour for our hospital and for Melbourne.

‘It highlighted the great standards of care on offer in our public health system in Victoria.’

The procedure demonstrated some of the latest techniques in interventional cardiology including inserting novel stents that release drugs to prevent blood vessels from re-narrowing.

‘In about 10–30 per cent of patients treated with coronary stents, tissue growth is seen within six months of stent placement,’ Associate Professor Meredith said.

‘This growth may cause the re-narrowing of the blood vessel.’

EuroPCR 2002 was one of the world’s largest interventional cardiology conferences and attracted several thousand cardiologists from Europe, North and South America, Asia and Africa.

Procedures were performed at the Cardiac Laboratories at Monash Medical Centre's Clayton Campus, France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Italy, the UK and the USA.

‘The live case format meant that in addition to delegates seeing us perform, they were able to ask questions and have them answered—live!’

The team comprised Associate Professor lan Meredith, Director of Interventional Cardiology at Monash Medical Centre, Professor Richard Harper, Dr Garry Barron and Dr Andris Saltups from Monash, with Dr Geoff Cope (Perth), Dr Adam Cannon (Townsville), Dr Seung- Jung Park (South Korea), Dr Mathew Samuel (India) and Dr T. H. Koh (Singapore).