喵咪社区

Rod Hanners, CEO of 喵咪社区, talks with Dr. Vaughn Starnes about the vision for the next decade of heart care.

鈥淐onversations with Rod鈥� is a video series featuring 鈥�Rod Hanners, CEO of 鈥�喵咪社区, talking with our doctors about our innovative medical care and research. In this video, Hanners sat down with Dr. Vaughn Starnes, surgeon-in-chief at Keck Hospital of 喵咪社区 and 喵咪社区 Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center and founding executive director of the 喵咪社区 Cardiac and Vascular Institute, to discuss the future of cardiovascular care. Dr. Starnes is also the H. Russell Smith Foundation Chair for Stem Cell and Cardiovascular Thoracic Research and Chair and Distinguished Professor of Surgery at the Keck School of Medicine of 喵咪社区. He is chief of cardiothoracic surgery and director of the Heart Institute at Children鈥檚 Hospital Los Angeles. Watch the full video below 鈥� or read excerpts from their conversation. 

Interview Excerpts 

What is your philosophy of care?  

Vaughn Starnes, MD: It’s really about the patient and getting to know both the patient and their families. I also see children at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. In my work there, it鈥檚 really about trying to understand a child鈥檚 needs, and then taking my skill set and using that to answer the questions about their health care. 

喵咪社区 Arcadia Hospital just joined 喵咪社区 Verdugo Hills Hospital as one of two community hospitals within Keck Medicine. What role do these community hospitals play in our specialized care?  

VS: Keck Medicine now is not just a hospital. It’s a system. What we’re going to do is maximize that system to the benefit of the community. We’ll be establishing cardiovascular care at 喵咪社区 Arcadia Hospital. There we propose to do more straightforward cardiovascular care, coronary revascularization, valve care and, potentially, some aortic work.  

Keck Medicine has become a regional referral center or what鈥檚 known as a quaternary center. So, the community hospitals allow us to make more room for that needed care and deliver quality care near people鈥檚 homes with the same trusted Keck Medicine academic surgeons.  

What may be your vision for the next decade of heart care here at Keck Medicine? 

We started out with an empty hospital, when I came in 1992. And now, we’ve grown a heart program that’s in the top 20 in the nation. We are experts in minimally invasive valve surgery, aortic endo-stenting and aortic care in general. I would like to say, and I really believe, there’s nothing you can call Keck Medicine about in a cardiovascular space that we can’t care for. That’s the reputation we have now.  

So, my vision for the future is to build on what we’ve started. And I will use that word emphatically, we’ve just started. We’re going to build a cardiovascular heart hospital inside the Keck Hospital. It’s going to be able to bring in the latest technology that will continue to grow our innovative science here on this campus. 

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Rod Hanners

Rod Hanners is CEO of 喵咪社区.

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