There has been a predicted low number of cardiologists that is causing the Mayo Clinic to look into telemedicine to try some slightly invasive coronary interventions… one of those happens to include entering stents.
The health system that is based in Minnesota recently made an announcement of multiple phases, multiple year partnerships that will take place with a Corindus Vascular Robotics company that is based in Waltham, Massachusetts. There will be a charitable grant in the amount of $3.3 million that will be funded. This grant will be used to develop a platform for telemedicine that will have a remote doctor that will be able to perform percutaneous coronary interventions or PCIs.
Mackram E. Eleid, MD will lead the stent project, which will be called “telestenting”. He is an Interventional Cardiologist at the Mayo Clinic and works in the Department of Cardiovascular Medicine. He is also an Associate Professor of Medicine at the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine. He will be working with the Corindus CorPath GRX System. The process that will enable a remote doctor to guide a telemedicine robot to be able to conduct the procedure for them.
This is a preclinical project that has the backing of the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration. They are helping in driving this project, and they have also done a study that shows there will be a large shortage of physicians by 2025… this shortage of physicians will include a loss of 7,000 cardiologists. There will also be a shortage of global specialists that will be able to do PCIs.
“Corindus has made a commitment to develop a cardiovascular model that is high tech and that will be able to improve efficiency, put in the latest technology and it will overall improve the care that patients see” according to comments made in a press release by Mark Toland who is the CEO.
He also feels the platform that was given the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval in 2016 for robotic-assisted PCI in putting in a cardiac catheterization lab, will, in turn, be able to help with the remote treatment that you will need for endovascular disease and stroke. He also stated that “telestenting is at the core of the strategy that is set forth”.