GW Cardiologists, Dr. Cynthia Tracy and Dr. Marco Mercader, along with team members Fernando Najera and John Naylor, implanted a record 42 heart pacemakers and defibrillators on the GW Heart & Vascular Institute's third annual medical mission to Honduras. During the first two-weeks of September, the Institute's medical mission team traveled to rural Honduras to provide a free heart failure and arrhythmia clinic to patients who cannot afford specialty healthcare. Prior to the team's arrival, Honduran-based physicians and social workers identified at-risk patients of all ages from throughout the country, who were then transported to the Centro Medico Comayagua Colonial Hospital in Comayagua for evaluation and care. The Institute's medical mission team evaluated more than 100 patients during their two-week visit to determine which patients would receive one of the 42 medical devices available.

This unique medical mission attracted news coverage from both local and national media in Honduras. You can watch the award winning video documentary, titled Out + Pace, of the 2011 Medical Mission to Honduras on the GW Medical Faculty Associates' YouTube page.  

This medical mission is made possible each year solely by charitable donations and voluntary staff and physician participation. This year, Dr. Tracy acquired more than $600,000 worth of medical devices and equipment donated from industry sponsors and GW Hospital. Since the first mission to Honduras in 2010, the GW Heart & Vascular Institute medical mission team has evaluated more than 300 heart patients and implanted a total of 88 heart pacemakers and defibrillators.