Current Studies
Under our CEO, Dr. Borkon's leadership, Mid America Heart & Lung Surgeons group is committed to cutting edge research. This includes clinical trials involving ventricular support devices, percutaneous valves, stem cell therapy for both cardiac and critical limb ischemia, anti-inflammatory mediators, vaccines to prevent postoperative staph infections, nuero protective drugs, hemostatic factor replacement, and outcomes research in cardiac transplantation to name a few.
In addition, members of our group serve on the Board of Directors of the International Society for Minimally Invasive Cardiothoracic Surgery (ISMICS)(Allen), participate as a panel member on the FDA Circulatory Device Panel (Allen), serve on strategic UNOS committees at the national level (Borkon), and participate in manuscript reviews for the Journal Cardiothoracic Vascular Surgery, Transplantation, Annals of Thoracic Surgery, Circulation, Innovations, and Journal American College of Cardiology.
Members of our group have written and spoken widely including book chapters, papers, abstracts, and invited talks. This body of work includes publications in prestigious journals such as The New England Journal of Medicine, Cell Transplantation, Annals of Thoracic Surgery, JACC and Circulation and includes talks by the CV surgery department at regional, national, and international venues.
MAHLS is currently involved in two active studies:
Sunshine Heart Trial http://www.sunshineheart.com/
THE PARTNER TRIAL: Placement of the Aortic Transcatheter Valve Trial http://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT00530894 and http://www.edwards.com/Products/TranscatheterValves/Pages/SapienTHV.aspx