AUGUST 2015  -

Dr. Choi is winner of the Young Investigator Award at Society of Cardiovascular CT Annual Meeting
  

Dr. Andrew D. Choi, with support from the GW Heart & Vascular Institute, presented several papers at the 10th Annual Scientific Sessions of the Society of Cardiovascular CT (SCCT) in Las Vegas, NV. His paper, "Coronary Artery Calcium Scoring on 320 Detector Row CT Demonstrates Low Interscan Variability at Standard and 70% Reduced Radiation Dose" previously was a co-winner of the 9th Annual Toshiba Young Investigator Award. In collaboration with Dr. Marcus Chen, Director of Cardiac CT at the National Institutes of Health, this potentially practice-changing research demonstrates that physicians can screen for coronary artery disease at very radiation doses and lower than for other clinical indications such as mammography or lung cancer screening.


 

In addition, Dr. Choi and collaborators including Dr. Guy Weigold and Dr. Gaby Weissman presented an oral presentation entitled "Cardiac CT in Reoperative Cardiac Surgery May Limit Intraoperative Complications: A Per-Structure Analysis." In this prospective research, Dr. Choi and colleagues prospectively demonstrated how cardiac CT can create a roadmap to guide a safer surgical approach prior to high-risk reoperative cardiac surgery. This has implications in guiding decision making for patients and their physicians when reoperative surgery is needed.


 

View SCCT's Official Press Release regarding the Young Investigator. 

 

 
Institute Community Health Workers Assist Patients with Heart Failure, Diabetes and Hypertension
  
To meet the challenge of management of heart failure, diabetes and hypertension for inner city DC patients, Drs. Gurusher Panjrath and Richard Katz have developed two innovative programs incorporating community health workers (CHWs) into our health team to enhance patient care. With the assistance of Linda Bostrom, NP, Linda Witkin, RN, and the DC based Institute for Public Health Innovation, our GW staff has trained and deployed three full time CHWs. Our CHWs Tim Mavritt, Kim Holmes, and Meia Jones make home visits and telephone contacts assisting patients with both medical and social needs. In addition, the CHWs serve as "digital navigators" supporting patients with disease-specific cell phone "apps" that further support patient self-management of chronic disease. To date our CHWs have assisted over 135 patients. This month Dr. Katz presented the GW CHW program to the leadership of AmeriHealth DC, Washington DC's largest Medicaid insurer with the hope of expanding this program across the DC metropolitan area. 
Mobile Health and Nutrition Clinical Study with Vignet Launched this Month
  
Drs. Brian Choi and Richard Katz, and dietician Kelli Metzger, have launched a study with Vignet, a Virginia-based mobile health company, to investigate the benefits of dietary counseling supplied through the mobile phone application, Vibrent. Vibrent allows patients to create online food diaries with meal photos that can be reviewed by a nutritionist. Using the Vibrent web portal, our nutritionist provides personalized dietary advice to each participant, with an emphasis on adding components of a heart healthy Mediterranean diet to their daily food choices. We intend to demonstrate that dietary counseling delivered through a smartphone can improve dietary habits in general, and enhance incorporation of elements of the Mediterranean diet into daily use.