 What adult doesn’t want to live a long and healthy life? At this time, in this country, our chances of doing so continue to improve, thanks, in part, to a steady stream of medical advancements.
This issue of ProHealth features three patients over the age of 50 who were recent beneficiaries of one such advancement: minimally invasive surgery.
Whether undergoing a pulmonary lobectomy to eradicate cancer cells, heart catheterization to discover and correct ablocked artery, or arthroscopic surgery to mend an injured knee, these patients all benefitted from having minimally invasive rather than “open” surgery. They had less pain, a shorter hospital stay, less chance of infection, less blood loss and quicker recuperation. All of which added up to a better overall outcome.
Two of these surgeries were robotassisted, a “partnership” that provides the surgeon with high-definition 3D vision and beyond-human precision. Miami Valley Hospital was the first to introduce robotic surgery to the Dayton area (in 2006), and physicians here have performed more than 3,000 robotic procedures since.
New neurointerventional technologies, such as those described on pages 11-12, are helping physicians save the lives of stroke victims and those with cerebral aneurysms – diseases which target older people. Neurointervention is a relatively new medical subspecialty. I’m proud that of the few hundred neurointerventional specialists in this country, MVH has four of them on staff!
In matters of the heart, cardiologists are learning more about the power of prevention in decreasing one’s risk for suffering a heart attack or heart disease. You can read about the Premier HeartWorks Risk Assessment program.
All of this is good news for those of us in the over-50 category – myself included. The odds are increasingly in our favor that we will have longer and healthier lives than the previous generation.
At the other end of the spectrum, we’ve made a significant investment in our youngest patients – newborns. In August, we opened a new Maternity Center at MVHS. Our hope is that many of the babies born there will continue to rely on us for high-quality health care; and that, fifty years from now, they’ll be reading articles about the medical advances that created the “over-100” category.
Bobbie Gerhart
President and Chief Executive Officer
Miami Valley Hospital
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