Latest / The Inspired Stories Podcast / Dr. Kintur Sanghvi: The Virtua Health Leader Transforming How We Treat High Blood Pressure
Transcript
- 0:04Welcome to another edition of the Inspired Stories podcast,
- 0:08where leaders share their experiences so we can learn from
- 0:11their successes and be inspired by how they've overcome
- 0:14adversity. My name is Anthony Kotaspodi,
- 0:17and today's guest is Doctor Kintur Sangvi, Chief of
- 0:21Cardiovascular Intervention at Virtua Health.
- 0:24They are an academic health system in South Jersey that
- 0:27offers a full range of services from heart care and cancer care
- 0:31to urgent care and more. Their mission is to help people
- 0:35be well, get well and stay well. And they're known for their
- 0:40innovative outreach programs like a pediatric Mobile services
- 0:44unit and the Eat Well Initiative.
- 0:47Doctor Sangby himself has been recognized as a top Dr. by New
- 0:51Jersey Magazine, Philadelphia Magazine, and South Jersey
- 0:55Magazine. He has performed over 13,000
- 0:59cardiovascular procedures, authored multiple research
- 1:03articles, and is a professor of Medicine at the Virtua Rowan
- 1:07School of Medicine. He has shared his expertise
- 1:10across 5 continents and pioneered the use of wrist and
- 1:14foot arteries for catheterizations.
- 1:17He also serves as Director at the Virtua Lords Cath Lab where
- 1:22he continues to advance patient focused innovations.
- 1:26Now before we get into all that good stuff, today's episode is
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- 1:58All right, back to our guest today, the Chief of Intervention
- 2:01Cardiology at Virtua Health, Doctor Kintur Sangvi.
- 2:05I appreciate you making the time to Share your story today.
- 2:09Anthony, thank you so much for the opportunity to talk to you
- 2:12and your audience and hopefully share our journey of innovation
- 2:19and taking care of patient and be inspirational to each other.
- 2:23This conversation should be. Looking forward to it.
- 2:26So cancer, you've now done over 13,000 cardiovascular
- 2:32procedures. You've trained more than 100
- 2:33cardiologists, launched multiple programs across major hospitals,
- 2:38and you're helping to shape what the future of cardiovascular
- 2:41care looks like. But I want to go back a little
- 2:43bit to the beginning for a moment.
- 2:45You were 23 ish when this all started, 23 and completely
- 2:50locked in on cardiovascular medicine.
- 2:53What sparked that focus for you? Was there a moment or experience
- 2:58that kind of lit the fire for you?
- 3:02We started medical school back home in India at right after the
- 3:06high school and having a immediate family member, my
- 3:11mother suffering from heart value disease.
- 3:14My focus was on cardiovascular Physiology and anatomy more so
- 3:20over the other system. You know, because your immediate
- 3:25family member has some history of cardiac condition.
- 3:27And as I graduate from medical school around age 22, I would
- 3:34say I had a unique opportunity to work with a cardiologist
- 3:42right out of my graduation as a junior medical registrar.
- 3:48And there it was very obvious that this is what I want to do.
- 3:54And that started the spark happened from about 36 year old
- 3:57guy who had two kids present. I still remember his face
- 4:01because it was the first patient that really kind of locked me in
- 4:04to do cardiovascular medicine in particularly interventional
- 4:08cardiology, who came in in cardiogenic shock.
- 4:12That means the heart rate was low, the blood pressure was in
- 4:1690s. He had a major heart attack when
- 4:20he was in the emergency room. He coded, we had to do CPR
- 4:25briefly, came back and then the cardiologist who I was working
- 4:29with went in and put a stent in his main artery on the left side
- 4:33called left main artery, also known as Widowmaker.
- 4:37And you know, this is all transpired within time of 25
- 4:41minutes or less. He fortunately presented in the
- 4:45daytime while we were all in the lab and almost somebody would
- 4:50die in front of my eyes as a very young doctor.
- 4:54Next day I was holding his hand and have him walk and seeing at
- 5:00that time he had like two young kids.
- 5:02This was very, very rewarding part of practicing medicine.
- 5:05You know, everything we do in medical science does not always
- 5:08yield prompt and solid results. If you look across all the
- 5:13different sub speciality, this one was very appealing because
- 5:19it was wow, this immediate response and from that day on,
- 5:24so it was like early on I was locked in because of that
- 5:27particular 2 reasons that I mentioned.
- 5:29I have to imagine that was an emotional experience to be a
- 5:32part of for the first time. Absolutely, absolutely.
- 5:36You are. When you are a new medical
- 5:37student and then you graduate from your clinical rotations and
- 5:41now you're in a real field and everything is very complicated
- 5:45at that time. Everything is very difficult.
- 5:47And in that situation, a quick diagnosis, quick response, quick
- 5:52treatment, all overwhelming. Still remember it.
- 5:55Yeah, yesterday. Does it give you goosebumps
- 5:58still to talk about it? Yeah, sure.
- 6:01Absolutely. Yeah, probably.
- 6:03You can sense it. Yeah.
- 6:05So then, you know, after your training, you spent over a
- 6:07decade at a major academic hospital in New Jersey.
- 6:11You're publishing, you're teaching, performing thousands
- 6:14of procedures. What do you remember about some
- 6:16of those early years? You know, my journey was
- 6:23definitely not easy. Was, was difficult, but I would
- 6:26say that after graduating the international cardiology
- 6:30Fellowship, you know, the first year as you go out into practice
- 6:35and now you're on the first call and the patient comes in with,
- 6:39as I said, you know, heart attack, cardiogenic shock and
- 6:42somebody who had CPR in the field, things like that.
- 6:45It's very, very unnerving. Even though you are trained for
- 6:49it, the day you are taking responsibility of a human life
- 6:52in front of you and, and also understands it's not just one
- 6:55person, it's the whole family and everything that's connected
- 6:58with that person. It's, it's definitely unnerving
- 7:03and challenging, but I was very fortunate to have a lots of
- 7:06great teachers across my career, great inspiring human beings
- 7:11around me and I felt very comfortable and confident from
- 7:16day one when I went out. But you know everything, you
- 7:23know, life takes your places and the journey that you go through,
- 7:25it's kind of, you know, you don't know what it's going to
- 7:29lead to. But international cardiology
- 7:33field, if I think of early days of my after fellowship
- 7:38finishing, being part of a tertiary care academic place,
- 7:43being involved in the cardiology and international cardiology
- 7:46fellowship program and their training and their upbringing
- 7:51really makes you better at everything you do because you
- 7:54are now going to think through on every aspect of patient care.
- 8:00And that makes you mature because you're going to teach
- 8:02somebody. You want to make sure you learn
- 8:04from that process. And when you're teaching
- 8:07somebody, you want to teach that, right.
- 8:09So I think that played a huge role in where I am today is that
- 8:15interaction with the medical students, residents, cardiology
- 8:19fellows and international cardio fellows and constantly getting
- 8:22involved in teaching and sometimes getting inspired by
- 8:26them, You know, sometimes helping them bring idea to a
- 8:30fruition and, and getting a research idea executed and get
- 8:34it to a publication that the entire journey kind of makes you
- 8:43get involved 100% on everything you're doing on every day.
- 8:48So I, I would say if I at a high level, if I think of those early
- 8:51days, I would say that that was like really fun time.
- 8:57A lot of new learnings. We did a lot of new programs,
- 9:01new procedures. This is the, also the time when
- 9:04international career field evolved through a lot of new
- 9:06procedures. So we adopted some of this new,
- 9:08some of them we, we were able to lead the, the revolution or, or
- 9:13evolution. So it was great days.
- 9:16I was very involved in what we call transfereal approach.
- 9:19So doing catheterization through the wrist instead of drawing and
- 9:24you know, again, that's something I can think of early
- 9:27days that was really. Say say more about that
- 9:29procedure. What was your level of
- 9:32involvement and how did the idea come about?
- 9:36So I did my first trans radial, the wrist catheterization, in
- 9:401999 back home in India. The cardiologist with who I was
- 9:44working with in the Cath lab those days learned this approach
- 9:47from a Japanese cardiologist named Doctor Saito.
- 9:50So Doctor Patel, Tehas Patel, my mentor back home in India.
- 9:55And we kind of wanted to bring this approach because it was a
- 10:00safe approach. We did not think that we can
- 10:03easily do this catheterization procedure that we used to do
- 10:06from the the groin. And it seemed that would be very
- 10:13safe for patient because it is the anatomy the groin artery is
- 10:17much more vulnerable for bleeding complication after the
- 10:22procedure. So if you do any catheter
- 10:23pressure procedure from the groin irrespective of your level
- 10:25of training or experience is just the anatomy and atomic
- 10:29variation and the the the location of the artery with this
- 10:33room for bleeding inside the stomach called retroperitoneum
- 10:36bleed and inside the thigh can lead to large hematoma.
- 10:40So a lot of patients in those days in 1999 to 2004, I would
- 10:45say if you look back to the history, there's a high
- 10:47mortality associated with this complication.
- 10:50So you do a very important procedure, you open up
- 10:53somebody's blocked heart artery, but then the patient ends up
- 10:57suffering from the bleeding or even sometimes you lose the
- 10:59patient from bleeding and pseudo aneurysm versus the wrist artery
- 11:03which is sitting right in front of the bone which is having a
- 11:06collateral circulation. That means this is not an end
- 11:08organ artery. If the groin artery gets closed,
- 11:11your leg can get in fact or can get gangrene or you can lose the
- 11:16leg. But here if the wrist artery
- 11:18gets blocked, there is a collateral circulation that
- 11:20continues to perfuse the heart. So perfuse the hand I mean to
- 11:24say and the easy, easy of compressibility against the bone
- 11:30and stopping the bleeding right after the procedure and compared
- 11:33to the groin where it is difficult.
- 11:35So it was coming up from evolving need of patient safety.
- 11:42We got better at balloons, we got better at stents at the
- 11:45heart artery level, but we did not improve anything from where
- 11:49we enter the body and how we reach to the heart.
- 11:52And that's how it started. And then, you know, I was
- 11:55involved early on. So I, I, I was very involved in
- 12:00bringing that procedure to America in a way through my
- 12:04fellowship, through my mentors here in America, Doctor John
- 12:07Coppola, Dr. Cindy Grimes, The places where I went for
- 12:10fellowship, I had them come with me back home to India and do
- 12:14procedures with my mentor at Doctor Patel in India.
- 12:17So they will do like 200 risk catheterization in two days and
- 12:21bring that technique over to America.
- 12:23And that's how you know the the spread happened, that the radial
- 12:27procedure spread happened through Saint Vincent's Hospital
- 12:30in New York City. And then we continue to
- 12:32experiment and understand as going through what are the
- 12:35difficulties. There is a variations in the
- 12:37anatomy. How can we reach through the
- 12:39heart safely? How can this become as good and
- 12:42as safe as the groin procedures? Can we do it just in a regular
- 12:45cases or can we start doing that for heart attack patients?
- 12:48Can we do it for complex coronary blockage and blocking?
- 12:51Should we start doing it for leg artery blockage or kidney artery
- 12:54blockage? Or should we start doing what we
- 12:56call structural heart intervention?
- 12:58And that's how things evolve. And that's where I was kind of
- 13:00very much involved in transadial peripheral interventions.
- 13:04My first paper was in 2007 about doing transadial iliac artery
- 13:09intervention. That means the arteries in the
- 13:12between the belly button and the hip joint and then transfidal
- 13:17structural interventions, transfidal use for complex
- 13:20coordinate interventions. We did research on what happens
- 13:23to the wrist artery after the catheterization.
- 13:26What can we do to preserve the integrity of the wrist artery.
- 13:31We came up with the design of a sheet or the excess that is
- 13:35specific to the wrist artery. We came up with the design of
- 13:38the wrist artery. I had a couple of my own
- 13:43patterns in this area from my research and from my learning on
- 13:48how to improve the access from the risk to go to the heart,
- 13:52something called railway sheet less access system, which is
- 13:56which is, you know, Cordis, Johnson and Johnson worked on
- 14:01that product ID and it's now available across the world.
- 14:05Then there was a shot and tight tip wire that I was involved in
- 14:09developing. So the things like that that
- 14:12play the role in in evolution of the radio approach.
- 14:14So let me hop in here because there's a couple of interesting
- 14:18things at play here. I think 1 to sort of zoom out,
- 14:21you know, especially, you know, being based in the USI think a
- 14:24lot of times we think, oh, you know, all the world's innovation
- 14:26comes from here. But this is a great example of
- 14:29the Japanese Doctor Who who first came up with this
- 14:32procedure. It was really being advanced in
- 14:35India, you know, years before the US that adopted it.
- 14:39You played a big role in taking doctors to India, say, hey,
- 14:43look, this is better. Look and see how they're doing
- 14:45it. But then as you're talking about
- 14:49this, I'm like, oh, so you didn't come up with the
- 14:51procedure. What was your involvement?
- 14:52And then you answered that, which was, and there's a lot of
- 14:56like fine tuning, like, you know, what's the correct way to,
- 15:00you know, enter the wrist and you know, the, the different
- 15:03anatomy that we run into in there.
- 15:05And you know, the, the patents that you came up with to kind of
- 15:07improve that process. And as I heard you kind of
- 15:10explaining all of that, you're also talking about, you know,
- 15:13entering through other points of the body.
- 15:16So are there times where the wrist is not the best entry
- 15:20point, even though that you know this has far fewer complications
- 15:24than entering through the groin? Yeah, absolutely.
- 15:28There are patient situations that wrist is not the best.
- 15:32Sometimes the wrist artery is very small.
- 15:35People who have a dialysis needs, they may be needing
- 15:38fistula for dialysis and you don't want to enter the wrist
- 15:41artery and, and, and disrupt that wrist artery.
- 15:45So there are definitely clinical situations where groin artery
- 15:48access is superior. If you want to use large device.
- 15:51For example, now we do transcatheter valve replacement.
- 15:55It's a very large device. You cannot, you cannot get
- 15:57through the wrist artery to get get that kind of device.
- 16:01So, but let's say if we dial back in 2008, the first what we
- 16:10call NCDR database paper that talked about radio was published
- 16:14from by a guy from from a Duke University.
- 16:17And at that time in America only 1% of the catheterization
- 16:20procedures were done through the Hill approach.
- 16:23Today that number is in upward of 50%, almost 60%.
- 16:29And do you? Think it's not closer to 100%
- 16:31because still there's some people who don't know about it?
- 16:34Or is it because 50% of the time it's the right choice and 50% of
- 16:38the time there's a better choice for that particular patient?
- 16:41I think it's still not there because of people who have not
- 16:47got themselves into doing it. Some of the, you know, older
- 16:52physicians who started the groin did not evolve into using
- 16:55radial. There are multiple factors
- 16:57behind it, but if you look at our self and compared to other
- 17:00part of the world, and I want to correct just a little bit.
- 17:03The transhedial procedure was really not invented by a
- 17:06Japanese cardiologist. It was first described by a
- 17:09doctor Campo in in Quebec City, Canada.
- 17:16And then in 1993, that was for a heart catheterization for 1993,
- 17:20first angioplasty paper was described by a guy from
- 17:24Netherland. But if you look around and if
- 17:28you kind of look back in the history, there are about 6 or 7
- 17:31guys or maybe 8 guys who played a huge role in spreading this
- 17:35technique across the globe. And Doctor Saito and Doctor
- 17:39Patel, along with probably Dr. Ian Leward and you know, few of
- 17:43the other names that I mentioned are probably part of that.
- 17:46And I'm glad that you mentioned that it just shows the value of
- 17:48this kind of international collaboration and moving new
- 17:52ideas forward. As you were trying to introduce
- 17:54this to more doctors in the US, did you run into resistance from
- 17:59folks that are, you know, part of the old school?
- 18:01This has worked forever kind of a thing.
- 18:04Absolutely yes. Absolutely yes.
- 18:06How do you? Overcome that.
- 18:09So first, you know, you need to have a clear understanding why
- 18:14you are doing something is that you know when you have a right
- 18:18objective, their objective is very clear.
- 18:20It's a patient safety issue. There is reduced complication.
- 18:25Does not matter how good of an operator you are is about the
- 18:28anatomy, the safety of the anatomy, right?
- 18:32So when the patient safety is your most important priority,
- 18:36people will get you eventually. It's not about you're able to do
- 18:41something superior to somebody else.
- 18:43It's not like that, right? So first, that was one thing
- 18:46that played a huge role. Second thing, the staffing, when
- 18:50the staffing's buying came in, the staff really thought, my
- 18:54God, why are you doing this? Such a use it.
- 18:56I can tell you some of very well known physicians in our field,
- 19:00you know, in, in conferences, when, if I talk about excess
- 19:03related bleeding, we'll say why would you go to this small wrist
- 19:06artery? There's a huge pipe here in the
- 19:08groin. We have closer device.
- 19:11We have a medication called bivalrudine or Angiomax that
- 19:14doesn't allow too much bleeding. Why would you struggle to go
- 19:17through this wrist, right? And so there was a resistance
- 19:21all over, but eventually it became a staff involvement.
- 19:27That staff said this is much better for patients.
- 19:30They don't have to hold the groin for hours.
- 19:32They don't have to worry about bleeding as much.
- 19:33They don't have to run them or wield them to CAT scan for
- 19:37rolling out bleeding in the groin.
- 19:38It is so simple for patients. They can sit up right away for a
- 19:42catheter ration done through the groin.
- 19:43You have to lie flat for four to six hours versus when you are
- 19:46doing it to the wrist. You can sit up right away, you
- 19:48can eat right away. You can even walk.
- 19:51And there are centers in the many centers in the world, they
- 19:54don't even have the patient undressed below their pants and
- 19:57and they just prep the wrist to the catheter and to the stent.
- 20:01And in the outpatient center, they go do the stent procedure,
- 20:04go sit in a chair for six hours, recover and go home.
- 20:07So, you know, the staff really sound like a patient started
- 20:11seeing it. Patients say, oh, why do I have
- 20:12to lie flat while the other guy is sitting next to me is sitting
- 20:16up? So patient drove it.
- 20:18So you know it nothing happens over time it.
- 20:22You know, it takes the, the, the, the spread of innovation
- 20:25takes years and it took its own course.
- 20:28There was like a point of chasm from which the spread happened
- 20:31very fast. But the in early adopter being
- 20:35in the 1st 3% of the operator across the globe to, to start
- 20:39this procedure and to bring it to now where it is.
- 20:42You know it. The initial phase took a longer
- 20:45time from the point of chasm. It was a faster spread.
- 20:49And then people trained each other.
- 20:51And I think it's a very good thing that happened in our
- 20:54field. We just translated into
- 20:56improving mortality and morbidity for countless lives, I
- 20:59can tell you. Do you have any idea what the
- 21:01stats are on that? Difficult to say, but I can tell
- 21:04you from major studies that nearly let's say 1% versus 0.1%
- 21:11risk of bleeding. So you know, if you talk in pure
- 21:16statistical terms, it's almost nearly 100% or 90% improvement
- 21:22in excess related complications. That's amazing.
- 21:25And you, you, you've been involved in a number of other
- 21:28innovations. We're going to talk about 1:00
- 21:29here in a moment that just received FDA approval.
- 21:32But before we do that, I'm kind of curious to get your
- 21:34perspective on from having been through this multiple times, is
- 21:39there something that would help speed up the adoption of these
- 21:45new technologies? I mean, human beings, you know,
- 21:48by our nature, we're resistant to change, right?
- 21:50Hey, I'm comfortable. This is the way I've always done
- 21:53it. This is the way I was trained.
- 21:54But is there something in your experience it's like, oh, if we
- 21:57could turn this one dial or flip this one switch or it would, it
- 22:02would help speed up the adoption of these new technologies?
- 22:05So if you, it's a very good question, Anthony, and I think I
- 22:09think about this a lot because, you know, everything that we do,
- 22:15every new information has this time to spread.
- 22:20And from again, a personal experience, you know, somebody
- 22:25very close to me in 1980 died a premature death from cancer
- 22:32because there was only one CAT scanner in the entire state back
- 22:38home in India, my state where I, I grew up.
- 22:42And the technology was available, let's say in America
- 22:47at that time for early diagnosis.
- 22:49It was not there in India, right?
- 22:51If it was there, it could have been a different thing.
- 22:54So if you look around and if you look through the stats, the
- 22:58number of people, they lose their lives or they suffer
- 23:02because of lack of spread of innovation.
- 23:05Know how technique or technology across the the the globe plays a
- 23:12huge role in mortality and morbidity.
- 23:14For simple example, for anybody to understand, some countries in
- 23:17the world today even don't have the most life saving vaccines
- 23:21such as polio not given to their kids, right?
- 23:24And so there are multiple factors and some beyond your
- 23:29capacity, the geopolitical issues and all those things,
- 23:31right? But if you look at the spread of
- 23:34innovation at every step of the way, whether it is innovator,
- 23:39early adopters, point of chasm, mass adoption, one thing can
- 23:45play a huge role and that is education.
- 23:49Education and awareness in each of this stage can speed up this
- 23:54whole curve of spread from over 20 years to maybe 15 years or
- 23:58maybe 12 years if the education is powerful.
- 24:02And I think we are in that space now.
- 24:04We are on a space where there's over information bombardment.
- 24:08There's so much information hitting us from all over the
- 24:10place. But we are also in a situation
- 24:14where the information and knowledge can spread much faster
- 24:18with the global connectivity with, you know, platform like
- 24:23what you are doing, like your podcast, right?
- 24:26It's going to connect so many people and bring them to
- 24:29awareness. So I think this right now we are
- 24:31at also point in the history of human race where our access to
- 24:36tool to help spread this fast is there if we use it right.
- 24:42I want to talk about another technology that you've been
- 24:45involved with and this is more timely renal denervation, I
- 24:51understand recently approved by the FDA.
- 24:55What is this? What's the problem that it's
- 24:57helping to address? So it's going to be a little bit
- 25:01of a long answer, but let's define that first.
- 25:05What is renal denervation? Renal denervation is a catheter
- 25:08based procedure, a minimally invasive procedure, a same day
- 25:12procedure in which we go to the kidney artery using a catheter
- 25:19and using technologies such as ultrasound or radio frequency
- 25:24energy, we tone down the overactive nurse that travels on
- 25:30the outer surface of the kidney artery.
- 25:33So there are nerves that are travelling on the outer surface
- 25:36of the kidney artery. They are called renal nerves and
- 25:39this renal nerves are what we are de nerving.
- 25:42That means we are toning them down, we are reducing their
- 25:44activity by using a catheter from inside the kidney artery
- 25:49and and using the energy and the surrounding space around the
- 25:52kidney artery. So what is the problem with the
- 25:54nerves being too active? What?
- 25:56What is that triggering? So first my question was what is
- 26:00renal denervation? So I explained that procedure.
- 26:03What is it trying to address? That's a longer answer.
- 26:07What it's trying to address is the high blood pressure.
- 26:10There are many chronic illnesses for us such as, and we're going
- 26:14to focus on high blood pressure right now, but there's also
- 26:17diastolic heart failure, sugar control, sugar resistance or
- 26:21type 2 diabetes, obesity, obstructive sleep apnea, heart
- 26:26failure, arrhythmia. There are many other conditions
- 26:29that are associated with this overactive nerves, but we're
- 26:33going to focus on high blood pressure because high blood
- 26:36pressure is the number one cause of death and disability.
- 26:39When we wrote the guidelines in 2017 November on the update of
- 26:45the high blood pressure guideline, the driving principle
- 26:48was that high blood pressure is #1 cause of death and disability
- 26:52for human rights. And imagine that Hardly.
- 26:56I would say 5 out of 100 people will think it that way or know
- 27:00it that way, OK. And the reason is #1 it's very
- 27:06highly prevalent condition. Every second American adult is
- 27:09suffering from high blood pressure, OK Worldwide, about
- 27:161.8 billion people suffering from high blood pressure.
- 27:19So that's number one. The prevalence is high #2 high
- 27:23blood pressure over the years effects multiple organ system.
- 27:27It causes effect on the heart artery to increase the risk of
- 27:31having heart artery blockage and its related problems such as
- 27:34heart attack. It can affect the artery to the
- 27:37brain, cause blockage and also cause bleeding in the brain and
- 27:41causes different kind of stroke, hemorrhaging as well as ischemic
- 27:44strokes. Either bleeding in the brain or
- 27:46lack of blood flow to the brain that leads to stroke is one of
- 27:50the main causes high blood pressure or uncontrolled blood
- 27:52pressure. It causes thickening and
- 27:55stiffening of the heart muscle and causes what we call
- 27:58diastolic heart failure. Eventually, if continuous to
- 28:02heart continues to work against this high blood pressure, this
- 28:04muscle gives up, become dilated and the contraction becomes weak
- 28:08and it's called systolic heart failure.
- 28:13It also leads to gradual decline of the kidney function #1 cause
- 28:19for medical renal disease or failure of the kidneys is
- 28:23uncontrolled blood pressure. So people with uncontrolled
- 28:25blood pressure are very much more likely to get dialysis and
- 28:29and go on to kidney transplant list.
- 28:32It also affects the memory issue.
- 28:39So there is now clear evidence people with uncontrolled blood
- 28:41pressure are more likely to have dementia in their later age.
- 28:47People with uncontrolled blood pressure are also likely to have
- 28:50arrhythmia such as atrial fibrillation.
- 28:53Ventricular arrhythmia #1 cause for atrial fibrillation across
- 28:59the globe is hypertension and not valuable heart disease.
- 29:04So high blood pressure effects the multiple organ and a
- 29:08negative remodeling or negative way over the years.
- 29:11The problem is this disease does not 'cause symptoms.
- 29:14So one in three people who are having high blood pressure don't
- 29:17even know they have high blood pressure.
- 29:20One in three people who know that they have high blood
- 29:22pressure cannot get the blood pressure under control.
- 29:24Because to date whatever is available, all the medications
- 29:28they try medications and Despite that they don't control blood
- 29:31pressure, they try medication, they have side effect they
- 29:33cannot tolerate. They keep on changing the meds
- 29:36because of side effects and and they cannot control the blood
- 29:42pressure, right. So it does not 'cause symptoms.
- 29:47It's highly prevalent. It affects the body day-to-day,
- 29:50every day. When you are talking to me right
- 29:52now and if your blood pressure is 140 versus mine is 120 or
- 29:58next 3.4 years from data, if we extrapolate the data from a
- 30:03trial called splint, splint trial, which was a randomized
- 30:06prospective stamp control trial. If we look at that trial data
- 30:10and if we apply the data in next 3.6 years, your chances of
- 30:16suffering a cardiovascular event is significantly high, almost
- 30:21double than mine. Wow.
- 30:23OK. But the lack of awareness of
- 30:26this condition, lack of awareness of this implication,
- 30:30and as I said, you know, it's not going to cause you a
- 30:33headache. If you've got a headache, I'm
- 30:34going to take Tylenol right away.
- 30:36But if you don't have a headache.
- 30:37You don't even know what what? So that's the other problem that
- 30:42people are not compliant to their entire hypertensive
- 30:44medication. So you are a good patient, you
- 30:47take care of yourself, you go prevent you care.
- 30:49You go to your primary care doctor, he says your blood
- 30:52pressure is high. I think you need to start taking
- 30:54blood pressure medicine. You are 1140I prescribe your
- 30:58medicine. I'm your primary care physician.
- 30:59Let's say for example 50% of the people stop their anti
- 31:05hypertensive medication in the first year of their
- 31:07prescription. So why?
- 31:10Because of side effects or just general compliance?
- 31:13Number one side effects #2 the disease doesn't cause symptoms
- 31:19day-to-day. To remember to take a medicine
- 31:21as your routine and be committed to it.
- 31:24If you don't have enough education and awareness that
- 31:26what it is doing to your body, you're not going to do it so.
- 31:31What's sorry, sorry, doctor, What is the root cause of high
- 31:35blood pressure for most folks? Is it diet, too much sodium?
- 31:38Is it, you know, carrying too much weight or are those risk
- 31:42factors there? So all of them play a role.
- 31:44But one of the things that we have known, so when I went to
- 31:48medical school in 1990, we were taught something called
- 31:51idiopathic hypertension or essential hypertension.
- 31:54It's something we don't know what causes high blood pressure,
- 31:56but it's there. There has been genetic
- 31:58predisposition, there has been clear establishment of that.
- 32:04But one thing that we always thought that oh it's idiopathic
- 32:07or it's something causing it, we don't know.
- 32:09We have clear understanding that sympathetic nerve over activity
- 32:14plays a huge role in causing high blood pressure, whether it
- 32:17is associated with genetic predisposition or whether it is
- 32:22part of our current lifestyle, our current Society of
- 32:24lifestyle. But the sympathetic over
- 32:27activity, so the body's fight and flight response comes from a
- 32:31sympathetic nervous system and that sympathetic nervous system
- 32:35over activity plays a huge role. And that is why in all the
- 32:38nervation. So the the one of the root cause
- 32:42of this is the activity of sympathetic nerves.
- 32:44Now does diet play a role? Absolutely.
- 32:48Over using of salt, processed food, junk food that tastes so
- 32:54good, does that play a role? Absolutely.
- 32:57Yes, it does play a role in causing high blood pressure.
- 33:00Utilization of alcohol, frequent use of alcohol, tobacco use,
- 33:06overweight, these are all very well known cause to cause
- 33:11hypertension, but at the root cause is this sympathetic
- 33:17nervous system. Now there are some other causes,
- 33:19something we always learn as we call secondary causes of
- 33:22hypertension or secondary hypertension.
- 33:24That means something is causing hybrid pressure, for example
- 33:27overactive gland that is secreting too much hormone such
- 33:30as epinephrine or epinephrine, adrenaline or renin or
- 33:33angiotensin. Those kind of over secreting of
- 33:36hormone can cause high blood pressure.
- 33:38But it's a very small number of patients that suffer from
- 33:41secondary hypertension. The less than 5% of the people
- 33:45who have high blood pressure has a known or established cause
- 33:49other than sympathetic nervous system or activity that causes
- 33:52high blood pressure. But for everybody else,
- 33:55sympathetic over activity is very important or integral part
- 33:58of the cause of high blood pressure.
- 34:00Now if I can take two extra minutes or maybe extra minute to
- 34:04explain what is sympathetic nervous system.
- 34:06Yeah, just related at all to the vagus nerve.
- 34:08I hear a lot of people talking about that.
- 34:10Are these connected? They are connected.
- 34:12It's the everything is connected, The whole existence
- 34:14is connected, the whole body is connected, every organs are
- 34:18connected with each other. And they all work In Sync.
- 34:21And lightness. Yes, please get better.
- 34:23Yeah. But the nervous system, the
- 34:26two-part of nervous system 1 is somatic nerve.
- 34:29So when you thoughtfully move your hand or you feel the touch,
- 34:32you feel the temperature, you feel the pain, that's all come
- 34:35from somatic nervous system. That all goes to the spinal
- 34:38cord, into the brain, to the conscious brain and you perceive
- 34:41and you respond, that's the somatic nervous system.
- 34:45And the second is the autonomic nervous system, which is a lot
- 34:49of things happen in the body while we are talking and the
- 34:54consciously conversing. Our heart is beating, our lung
- 34:58is breathing. Maybe the food that you consume
- 35:01an hour ago is digesting. You know, there's so much
- 35:05process. The wastage is being discarded
- 35:07through the urine formation. The blood is going through a
- 35:11million mile long blood vessel I would say, because in the body
- 35:13if you really put them together, it's a very, very billions of
- 35:17capillaries or or microscopic. And one of these things we're
- 35:20actively thinking about or, or, or or initiating ourselves, our
- 35:24body's just doing it in the background.
- 35:26Automatically, Yes automatically and that automatic regulation of
- 35:31all the organ is conducted by autonomic nervous system which
- 35:35has 2 components 1 is the vagus nerve that's the you know like
- 35:39for every Ying there is a yen. So vagus nerve and sympathetic
- 35:43nerve. Sympathetic nerve is a
- 35:44stimulator, vagus nerve is a calming down nerve.
- 35:47So when you do yoga meditation, you know, you are activating
- 35:51your vagal tone. So you are having a, you know,
- 35:54common response to things. Your heart rate slows down with
- 35:56that, your respiratory goes down with that.
- 35:58What's the sympathetic nerve? You know, you say I had an
- 36:01adrenergic drive. So I did this and did that and
- 36:03you know, I accomplished the most non achievable task because
- 36:08you are on a go, go, go. Your heart rate is working
- 36:10harder. You're all organs are working at
- 36:13a faster, higher paces. So that's the sympathetic nerve
- 36:16system and there is a control that should happen in everybody.
- 36:19Nature's design, but this control system, the negative VCs
- 36:24cycle of over activity of the sympathetic nerve is what drives
- 36:28the high blood pressure. And so now the recent FDA
- 36:33approval is, is this a device, Is this a treatment?
- 36:37What, what is this? What does it actually look like?
- 36:40There are two devices. These are very small, about 2mm
- 36:47or smaller diameter device that goes to the kidney artery and
- 36:53performs the action. One is an ultrasound denervation
- 36:56device that is approved, which emits ultrasound energy
- 37:01spreading the artery in the artery wall by a balloon that
- 37:05cools the inner surface of the artery and then spreads the
- 37:09ultrasound energy 360° in the surrounding of the kidney
- 37:12artery. And that's how it basically
- 37:15disables the nerve by making the outer layer of the NERD
- 37:18dysfunctional. And that's how basically it
- 37:20makes the NERD dysfunctional completely.
- 37:23It's called perineurium. And then the second technique is
- 37:26the radio frequency energy, which is again a device that is
- 37:29about 1.41 point 6mm in diameter.
- 37:33It has a nickel titanium alloy with electrode on it which
- 37:37basically converts electrical energy into radio frequency
- 37:40energy and express the radio frequency energy at the point of
- 37:43contact and in the surrounding area through what we call
- 37:47adipose tissue or a fat tissue heating any nerve that is
- 37:51travelling inside that becomes dysfunctional or reduce it.
- 37:56So by reducing the sympathetic tone, it translates into
- 38:01controlling the blood pressure. Fascinating.
- 38:04So with recent FDA approval, how long before a patient could
- 38:08actually have access to this? In fact there is the access to
- 38:11the patient now and probably I would say every state in America
- 38:16the approval happened in October, November of 2023.
- 38:24Right now the you know the last year was the phase of post
- 38:28approval evaluation and in that there are regulatory agencies
- 38:33that goes through the approval process for reimbursement and
- 38:35stuff. So 2025, January Medicare
- 38:39approved what we call transition payment or TPT.
- 38:44So the current issue is that many insurance companies and but
- 38:51not reimbursing for the procedure.
- 38:53So that was that were one of the, you know, dissipation of
- 38:57innovation limitation, as I said, geopolitical and lot of
- 39:00different things as a system based problems.
- 39:03So but that's the the situation right now.
- 39:07January 1st, Medicare approved the TPT.
- 39:10Right now it's being considered for payment for the procedures
- 39:13and all that by insurance companies.
- 39:15So today if somebody's suffering from high blood pressure, we can
- 39:19still treat them, work through the insurance company, try to
- 39:23get prior authorization by a pill process and we treat them.
- 39:27If they are Medicare patients, we can treat them through what
- 39:31we what I just described. But that's that's, you know, if
- 39:35you don't consider as the limitation right now is renal
- 39:39denervation treatment available across the United States, I
- 39:42would say probably almost every state has at least one center
- 39:47which can offer this treatment. And in what use cases is this
- 39:52better than the current treatment?
- 39:54Is it better for everybody? Is it better for people who
- 39:57don't respond or have side effects to the current
- 40:00approaches? Anthony, what are what are you
- 40:03you're writing, you're really asking very good questions.
- 40:06OK, So it's not for everybody. This is a new treatment.
- 40:13We have time tested treatment as medications.
- 40:15Medications are being used for over 70 years.
- 40:19Of course we don't have a new class of medicine in the last 25
- 40:22years. There is no new innovation in
- 40:23hypertension care in the last 25 years and this was very much
- 40:27needed. You know, there was like a
- 40:29definitely a need for new, new treatment for high blood
- 40:33pressure. But there are multiple classes
- 40:36of anti hypertensive medications that are available for many
- 40:40years. So the first line of treatment
- 40:43is your lifestyle modification. If you can quit smoking, if you
- 40:48can reduce the number of alcohol intake or the drink you have
- 40:52control the salt intake. There's a diet that has been
- 40:55very well studied. It's called best diet that is
- 40:58translated into reducing the blood pressure as much as the
- 41:01medication will do a regular aerobic exercise, regular
- 41:04aerobic activity, yoga, meditation.
- 41:07All this has been proven in multiple different studies that
- 41:12if you adopt some of this lifestyle, it can help improve
- 41:15your blood pressure control significantly.
- 41:17So the first line of treatment today is lifestyle modification.
- 41:21The second line of treatment is the medication.
- 41:24As I said, there are multiple classes of medication. 1 might
- 41:27be better than other for you depending on your race,
- 41:31depending on your age, depending on your coexisting current
- 41:34comorbid conditions like you know if you have diabetes
- 41:37associated with versus, if you have a heart condition versus
- 41:40you are let's say African American versus white origin.
- 41:44One class of medication may work better than other for you, but
- 41:47the medication is the second line of treatment.
- 41:52People who cannot tolerate medicine, who have tried
- 41:55medications but cannot control the blood pressure, so something
- 41:58called failure of treatment. Then there is something called
- 42:03resistant hypertension where people are taking three classes
- 42:07of medication, they are taking three different medication, they
- 42:10are regularly taking their meds. They are very compliant to their
- 42:13medications. They have tried their diet,
- 42:15exercise, etcetera, whatever the best they can do.
- 42:18Because, you know, idealistically for a physician,
- 42:20it's very easy to say do exercise, do this, do that.
- 42:24By thinking also one can say, yeah, yeah, I will do that.
- 42:26But executing that on every day in a current societal lifestyle
- 42:30that we live in may not be for everybody.
- 42:33So you have tried your best, dad, you have tried medication.
- 42:37So you're taking three class of medicine, but your blood
- 42:39pressure still remains uncontrolled.
- 42:40It's called resistant hypertension.
- 42:42That means the blood pressure is resistant to the current form of
- 42:45treatment. So those are very good patients
- 42:48to consider this treatment. So resistant hypertension,
- 42:51people will try and fail the treatment or they cannot
- 42:54tolerate the medication. Can a young person think of this
- 42:58as a alternate to blood pressure medication?
- 43:02Can I like let's say I'm now 40 and I need blood pressure
- 43:06medication. I'm concerned about side effect
- 43:08and taking it every day. Can I try this?
- 43:11For sure. The clinical trial supports
- 43:13that. Clinical trial says yes.
- 43:15These patients are more likely to respond to the organization
- 43:19in compared to people who are in their 60s with multiple
- 43:22medication. OK, but currently do we
- 43:25recommend that to young people? Now we still say that go for
- 43:28lifestyle and medication is your first line of treatment.
- 43:31It changes in case if you suffered an event.
- 43:33So let's say if you had a heart attack, you had a stroke, you
- 43:35had a heart failure, you had arrhythmia, you had a kidney
- 43:37failure or kidney function going down, not necessarily completely
- 43:40faint kidney, but your kidney function is declining because of
- 43:43uncontrolled blood pressure. In those patients, we recommend
- 43:47they should go for an organization.
- 43:50Because they need a quicker fix. They're more at risk.
- 43:53They've already showed us. They already showed us that
- 43:56look, I'm suffering, you got to do something.
- 43:58Whatever you have done so far does not work.
- 44:00So those are the third class or third group of patients that I
- 44:03would say we want to offer them treatment right away.
- 44:06Are there any known side effects to the renal denervation?
- 44:10Once again, very good question. You're talking like you're a
- 44:13patient. So the procedure was deemed very
- 44:19safe when FDA panel. I was fortunate to be part of
- 44:22the panel presenting to the FDA panel about our findings from
- 44:26research styles on renewed innovation.
- 44:29And I can tell you this panel is is solid.
- 44:32This panel that FDA can mean for both the both the devices
- 44:37presentation. They're like some geniuses who
- 44:40have done 608 hundred publication from across the
- 44:42globe. FDA put this panel together who
- 44:45are really objectively examining every point of data that is
- 44:49presented to them, whether they should approve this device for
- 44:51treatment of hyper pressure or not.
- 44:53And one thing that was unanimous, all these people were
- 44:58there that this procedure is safe.
- 45:00Based on the clinical trial data, the risk of any major side
- 45:04effect or complication was less than 1%.
- 45:07The main complication was the exacerbated bleeding for the
- 45:10groin. So right now this procedure we
- 45:12can only do through the groin approach.
- 45:14But as you can imagine evolution continues.
- 45:17Very soon we'll be doing this through the radial approach.
- 45:20There are device iterations and all that being considered,
- 45:23delivery systems are being considered and all that will I'm
- 45:26sure will happen one day. But right now we do it to the
- 45:28groin and the common most side effect was associated with the
- 45:32groin excessive bleeding, which is about 1% the risk of any
- 45:37effect to the kidney. We were concerned that would
- 45:39this require multiple procedure with this because nerves do
- 45:42regenerate, would the nerves regrow again and they will
- 45:45require the procedure. So far we don't see that.
- 45:47On the contrary, we see that that there is an incremental
- 45:50effect if you look at the three years graphs.
- 45:52So we have 36 months data from multiple trials that shows that
- 45:56persistently there is a reduction or maintained
- 45:59reduction of the blood pressure at three years.
- 46:02The third concern was that what if we change this nerve
- 46:06Physiology for the kidney with the kidney function decline and
- 46:10we have data that are three years, the kidney function
- 46:12remains same. So we look at the what we call
- 46:14glomerular filtration rate or creatinine level.
- 46:17So there are parameters that we evaluate the kidney function
- 46:20with and the kidney function is not changing over three years.
- 46:24So there was a rare side effect of the artery where we are
- 46:29putting the catheter and this device through.
- 46:32Can we traumatize that artery? And there's about one in 900 to
- 46:371000 reporting of requiring additional procedures such as a
- 46:41stent placement if there was a disruption of the kidney artery.
- 46:45So those are the potential side effects.
- 46:48This is a crazy idea and a very selfish one.
- 46:51But as somebody who suffered from kidney stones before, I
- 46:53wonder, could this device in a different frequency be used to
- 46:58help prevent the the accumulation of the calcium
- 47:02oxalates in the kidney there? And I know that's outside sort
- 47:05of your area of study or expertise, but something it
- 47:08occurred to me, so I have to throw it out there.
- 47:10Yeah, no, I don't think so. This energy is not at a level
- 47:15where it can break the calcium oxalate stain.
- 47:17If you use that, you know you're asked to be used directly next
- 47:22to it. And you have to always think
- 47:25that everything that we do comes with.
- 47:26So as a physician, I always say to my patient, I always say to
- 47:29my fellows that everything that we do comes with the prize, they
- 47:34the good and the bad. And that's why the hypocritic
- 47:38oath of do no harm because everything that we do can come
- 47:41with a harm. So if you think about this
- 47:42ultrasound energy or radio frequency energy, if we use in
- 47:45too much high frequency, it can start affecting the surrounding
- 47:49organ. It can cause strictures, it can
- 47:50cause effect on the intestine, it can cause effect on the
- 47:53kidney medulla oblongate or the the functional unit of the
- 47:57kidney. So no, it's not OK.
- 48:02Fair enough. I had.
- 48:03I had to plant the seed just in case.
- 48:07That's just how the innovation starts.
- 48:08Yeah, crazy ideas out of left field.
- 48:11And we've got a few minutes left together and I want to make sure
- 48:13we talk about, you know, with your experience, Doctor Sanghvi
- 48:16probably work in all kinds of places.
- 48:18You know, lots of places would be lucky to have you and your
- 48:21skill set. How did the opportunity to join
- 48:25the virtual health system come about?
- 48:26And and why did you choose to plant your flag there?
- 48:32I think more than important question of how did the
- 48:35opportunity came about. I think why I, I decided to join
- 48:39as a more more pertinent question and I think virtual is
- 48:44going through a transformation being in New Jersey for since
- 48:472009, knowing a little bit about virtual health because you know
- 48:51virtual health was a small community based organization,
- 48:56but they had a solid connection with their patients, their
- 49:00solid, good quality clinical programs and solid financial
- 49:09practices. So the organization grew
- 49:12organically very fast. So in 2017 or so, I believe they
- 49:18built a new hospital in Voorhees.
- 49:20Now at this point, they are still a community organization.
- 49:23In 2019, they buy virtual Our Lady of Lords.
- 49:27It's a tertiary care hospital with open heart surgery license
- 49:30in New Jersey. There's a certificate of need to
- 49:33have a open heart surgery program and you cannot open new
- 49:36program because you want to. You can only get if the state
- 49:39approves that. So they acquire this hospital as
- 49:41a tertiary care in 2023 January, they, you know, took over the
- 49:47virtual Arwan Medical College. So if we look back, what they
- 49:50came in with is they had a solid, you know, foot on the
- 49:54ground connection with the community, well recognized in
- 49:58the community, sound financial practices.
- 50:01From there they grew and they're going through this.
- 50:03What what what from top down the system says is the academic
- 50:07transformation. So, and if you can see that
- 50:11journey back, so I was entering at a point where, you know,
- 50:15it's, you know, the early adoption is done and now I'm
- 50:18almost at a point of chasm where I can now, you know, grow
- 50:21multiple program, multiple research programs, initiatives
- 50:27and there's a perfect ecosystem and there's a perfect
- 50:30opportunity. So it was for me in my career.
- 50:32It was perfect opportunity because what virtue is doing as
- 50:35an institution, what I was seeing on a sideline on how they
- 50:39grew from 2010 to now, and it made perfect sense for me to be
- 50:45part of this organization. What is it that you're most
- 50:47excited about at Virtua being a part of going forward with them?
- 50:53I think the the solid presence across 3 county, large volume of
- 51:00patient of very organized systemic leadership where there
- 51:07is a proper chain of command with the proper directions and
- 51:13unified approach to clear objectives and clear goals.
- 51:18I think those are all very solid positive things for for
- 51:23organization to have and I'm very fortunate to be part of it.
- 51:27Do you attribute all of that recent growth in the last 10 or
- 51:3015 years to the leadership that's there?
- 51:33Are there other factors that are kind of at play that has allowed
- 51:36for this accelerated growth? Honestly, I am not sure if I do
- 51:42have a complete vision to kind of really answer that question
- 51:47because I don't like to answer a question if I don't have
- 51:50clarity. I appreciate that.
- 51:53That's rare in today. So tip of my hat to you for that
- 51:57one. Let's see, we've just got about
- 52:025 or 10 minutes left. I, I, I guess we'll kind of wrap
- 52:05up with this question, but before I ask my last question,
- 52:09I'd like to do 2 things. First of all, I'd like to invite
- 52:11everybody to hit the follow button on their favorite podcast
- 52:14app so they can continue to get more great interviews like we've
- 52:17had today with Doctor Kinter Sangbi from Virtual Health.
- 52:21And I also want to let people know either the best way to get
- 52:24in touch with you or to follow your story.
- 52:27Doctor, what would that be? To for for patient encounters or
- 52:35for somebody who wants to, you know, get an opinion for their
- 52:39healthcare from virtual.org or virtual health website, you'll
- 52:46be able to easily find the lead to get an appointment.
- 52:53Is there somewhere like if people are interested in kind of
- 52:55the innovations that you're a part of and you know, kind of
- 52:58following more of that story that they can look for that
- 53:02info? Yeah.
- 53:03So we do have our organizational website which talks about the
- 53:07research that we are doing, but I'm also kind of active a little
- 53:11bit on the social media for any important innovation that's
- 53:15happening in our field with the Twitter and LinkedIn.
- 53:19OK, great. We'll look for your profiles and
- 53:22include those links in the show notes.
- 53:24So I think maybe where I want to kind of wrap up today, Doctor,
- 53:28and you know, we've got to touch on just a couple of the
- 53:30innovations that you have been a part of.
- 53:32Is there something else that's brewing that's in the works that
- 53:36maybe you're particularly excited about or that's coming
- 53:39that you want to give voice to? I think the right now, you know,
- 53:49the use of the technology in improving the procedures,
- 53:58improving the access to the patient, early diagnosis of
- 54:04under diagnosed undertreated problems is something that right
- 54:10now I'm really kind of focused on and excited about because the
- 54:17goal is health. And people who are not diagnosed
- 54:23or not aware of their problem and their consequences, if we
- 54:27can, when there is an evidence based support to that, identify
- 54:31and treat them and prevent the consequences.
- 54:34So just for an example, at virtual health, people who did
- 54:39not have colonoscopy as a preventive care, X number of
- 54:44people were given a letter because based on the AI search
- 54:49that they did not have that they were sent out information.
- 54:53Some of them chose to do it from let's say about 1000 patients
- 54:57chose to do the colonoscopy, 250 of them were identified to have
- 55:01a polyp that could have grown into cancer that was removed and
- 55:04neutralized, right. So that's just the most simple
- 55:08example that I'm giving that can be understood by anybody.
- 55:13But in our field in cardiovascular medicine and
- 55:15international cardiology, the many other things, I'm not
- 55:18working on that. So I think that's very exciting.
- 55:21What do you think are the biggest levers to pull to get
- 55:23sort of increased, improved diagnosis levels?
- 55:26Because I mean, every time I go to my doctor, heck, even my
- 55:29dentist, you know, they take my blood pressure.
- 55:31And so like, that's a point of reference for me.
- 55:34Oh, still good, still good, still good.
- 55:36But clearly there are people who are not even taking those steps.
- 55:39And so how do you reach those folks?
- 55:40Do you have any thoughts on that?
- 55:46Difficult but it is, it has to start at the early age in my my
- 55:51and I think it is being done in overall US education system.
- 55:56I hope we bring back the focus again a little bit more because
- 56:01you know, like everything else on depending on the need of the
- 56:06time, you know, for last few years our focus in the education
- 56:11system was on different things. But I think the chronic
- 56:15illnesses, the cancer, the heart attack, the stroke, the high
- 56:19blood pressure, the diabetes and early on education of good
- 56:24lifestyle, good diet activity that is good for physical and
- 56:29mental health and awareness starting at an early age would
- 56:32be the best way to do. That's the only thought I have.
- 56:34Again, beyond that, I don't have much clarity to kind of see how
- 56:38we can bring population on board.
- 56:39Yeah, it's, it's a tough question to answer.
- 56:41And, and just kind of a follow on because you, you know, you
- 56:44made the reference to colonoscopies and sort of using
- 56:47AI to identify folks that, you know, might be at risk and we
- 56:49benefit from a colonoscopy. And is somebody who's, you know,
- 56:53heavily involved being at the forefront of different
- 56:55cardiovascular tech, are you seeing ways that AI is being
- 56:59used in your field currently that you're excited about or
- 57:02something that's kind of coming? It's it's coming soon.
- 57:07Yes, it is happening. It is here, It's already
- 57:11happening. It's exciting whether it is
- 57:13characterizing the significant of stenosis of a blockage in
- 57:18terms of anatomically that means how much percentage stenosis is
- 57:21there. And in terms of physiologically
- 57:24evaluating the blood flow beyond the just based on the
- 57:27angiography, just based on the one angiography film, it's here.
- 57:32There are other tools under development that will play a
- 57:36role. We have AI use in implanting
- 57:40valves. So we can we can create recreate
- 57:45A3 dimensional model for individual patients anatomy.
- 57:49If I'm changing the valve today and if that valve fails 10 years
- 57:53from now, if I have to change that valve again, I can implant
- 57:56those valve virtually in a three-dimensional model and see
- 58:00what it would look like and would it work.
- 58:02And there are a lot of nuances. That's a very complex question,
- 58:06but we the technology's here, it's here as it's the starting
- 58:11point. Yeah, this is great stuff.
- 58:13And I know that we just kind of scratched the surface in terms
- 58:16of the different innovations you've been a part of.
- 58:18It'd be fun to have you back on in a year or two and see kind of
- 58:22what new things you've gotten your fingers into.
- 58:24But Doctor Kenter Sangbi from Virtual Health, I want to be the
- 58:27first one to thank you for sharing both your time and your
- 58:30story with us today. I really appreciate it.
- 58:33I would like to be the second one to say thank you for the
- 58:35opportunity to talk to you and your audience and hope our
- 58:39conversation can inspire some people to live healthy, some
- 58:44people to change the lifestyle, some people to seek help for
- 58:47their medical condition to the doctor.
- 58:49And hopefully, if we can even prevent one stroke or one heart
- 58:52attack, it's a big win. Love it folks.
- 58:55That's a wrap on another episode of the Inspired Stories podcast.
- 58:58Thanks for learning with us today.
- 59:00Thank you.