Build Your Practices
Establishing a Competitive Advantage for Long-Term Growth
Healthcare consumers are more informed than ever before. As soon as a diagnosis is made, the patient will often do their own research into the available treatment options, and will self-refer to the centers that are positioned as offering minimally invasive, safe and effective therapeutic alternatives. It's what patients have come to expect, especially given the ever growing number of advanced medical technologies coming into the marketplace.
The first Stereotaxis system was installed in 2003. Since that time a growing number of world class centers have installed Stereotaxis systems and built programs around the technology to gain competitive advantage and maintain their leadership positions. Investment in a Stereotaxis program leads to distinct advantages in terms of safety and effectiveness across a broad spectrum of interventional applications and provides efficiencies that are instrumental for advanced practice building.
Patients want effective treatments but always balance their desire for a "cure" with concerns about procedural safety. In interventional medicine, safety is defined by several key metrics, including radiation exposure, rates of perforation and other major complications.
- Radiation Reduction for the physician and patient
Data from multiple publications have demonstrated significant radiation reduction to patients when compared to manual techniques, including a study from Dr. Arash Arya and colleagues in University of Leipzig Heart Center. In these very challenging VT storm patients, Dr. Arya was able to reduce the radiation dose to the patient by 67% when compared to his previously completed non-magnetic patients. An additional publication from Prof. Nadir Saoudi in Monaco demonstrates that when Stereotaxis is employed for a wide variety of electrophysiology procedures, radiation exposure to the physician is reduced by more than 90%.
- Low Major Adverse Event Rate
Catheter ablation in the left atrium carries with it an inherent risk for serious and expensive complications, including perforation of the cardiac wall. The reported rate of major cardiac adverse events using the Stereotaxis system is less than 0.1%. Recent published surveys report major cardiac adverse event rates as high as 2.8% in manual procedures, 28 times the risk for major complications versus Stereotaxis. This risk reduction has been confirmed in a "real world" publication from the Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam. In a prospective, consecutive series that included all types of EP ablation patients, Dr. Szili-Torok and colleagues demonstrated statistically significant reduction in serious complications when magnetic navigation was used.
- Improved Catheter Stability
Stereotaxis' magnetic catheter is firmly held in place with a magnetic field. It "rides" the wall of the beating heart without imparting excessive force to the tissue. In a study of 14 atrial ablation patients, Dr. Michael Orlov from St. Elizabeth's Hospital in Boston used a measure of ECG stability to demonstrate that magnetic catheters are more stable than conventional catheters. This increase in stability gives physicians the confidence to safety treat arrhythmias that may originate near the heart's vital conduction system.
- Vascular Injury
Significant vascular access injury requiring surgical correction is a serious and costly complication of interventional procedures. Published studies have shown that these complications can occur in as many as 3.4% of patients. Using the smallest possible catheters minimizes trauma on the vascular access site. Stereotaxis uses catheters that are 74% smaller in diameter than those of other remote manipulation systems.
By developing a complex arrhythmia ablation program, a hospital gains not only the revenue from the procedure itself but also additional revenue from other procedures that are required during the patient's visit. For example, many electrophysiologists now employ advanced imaging techniques such as CT and MRI scans as well as other diagnostic and follow up tests in their treatment paradigm for complex arrhythmias. So an increase in ablation procedure volume can clearly drive an increase in hospital revenues related to additional procedures.
Standard interventional labs are an array of expensive, complex, disparate and often competing technologies. Stereotaxis fully integrates and automates the lab to orchestrate the most efficient treatment for the patient while minimizing clutter and confusion for the lab staff.
- Simplifying Complex Cases
The large growth in the number of patients with left atrial and ventricular arrhythmias combined with the improved survival of patients after congenital heart procedures will increase the number of complex cases referred to the EP lab. As physicians gain expertise with these conditions they demand the cutting-edge technology required to treat them safely and effectively. Stereotaxis integrates multiple data and imaging sources, automates catheter movement, and enables real time communication. With this advanced organization, a case that is extremely complex may become more routine, benefitting physician and patient alike.
- Optimizing Procedural Workflows
As patient conditions become more complex, the workflows needed to address these problems can also gain complexity. Variability in workflow can add significantly to procedure time, thus reducing lab efficiency. Stereotaxis, through its advanced software solutions, anticipates the needs of the physician and provides tools that walk the physician through the workflow required to treat the patient's condition. This precise workflow is enabled by the ability of the magnetic navigation system to precisely move a catheter in increments as small as 1mm.
- Reduce Procedure Time Variability
One of the most frustrating aspects of interventional medicine is the inability to reliably predict procedure time. With complex ablation cases often exceeding 8 hours, this unpredictability can be frustrating to both administrators and staff and can be a driver of excessive procedure-related costs. Studies have demonstrated that Stereotaxis can reduce the variability of procedure times when compared to similar procedures completed using manual techniques.
