Channel 8 updates medical series
Episode returns to advances in operating room
“Grey’s Anatomy” might give viewers a dose of contrived medical drama, but a new series on Channel 8 (KAET-TV) gives viewers an up-close, real-life look at what goes on inside the operating room.
The most recent episode of “The Latest Procedure,” the second in the series, focuses on a non-surgical approach to aortic-valve replacement. It aired Feb. 20.
Chris Wooley of Ahwatukee, managing producer of VAS Communications, the company co-producing the series, said the idea was a couple of years in the making.
This year marks the 30th anniversary of the first live telecast of open-heart surgery, which was broadcast on Channel 8. Wooley, whose company specializes in medical-procedure videos, had worked with the television station on other projects, so he and Wayne Dickmann of Even Keel Productions suggested that the station produce a new procedure telecast for the anniversary.
“Initially it was we’ll do another live one, but now we’ll do it with the new technology where you don’t have to saw,” Wooley said.
Wooley said Channel 8 General Manager Kelly McCullough told him he’d like to do a series of procedures, maybe as many as one a quarter.
“And just do all sorts of specialties, stuff that’s unique to Arizona,” Wooley said. “We’ve got a big issue with skin cancer, so maybe we do one on dermatology.”
The episode that aired last month dealt with aortic-valve stenosis, which occurs when the valve is unable to open fully and blood flow is hindered. The most common way to replace this heart valve is by cutting open the chest and spreading the ribs, giving the surgeon a direct view into the heart.
With transcatheter aortic-valve replacement, however, a small incision is made in the patient’s thigh area, and the new valve is carried via catheter up the artery, through the vascular network and into the heart, where it is carefully snapped into place.
Dr. David Rizik of Scottsdale, director of heart and vascular medicine at Scottsdale Healthcare hospitals and the cardiologist who performed the televised valve-replacement procedure at Scottsdale Healthcare Osborn Medical Center, said it benefits older patients whose bodies couldn’t handle open-heart surgery, and therefore had no options available.
“That’s critical to remember if you think about the disease,” Rizik said. “In these elderly individuals, once they start having symptoms, most of these patients are dead within two years.”
Rizik said that these people now may still enjoy their lives, and “we have the ability to make them feel better and extend their life.”
“Tom Brokaw referred to these individuals as the greatest generation of Americans,” Rizik said. “They survived the world wars and the Depression, and to be able to offer this therapy to this great generation of individuals is very rewarding.”
The first episode in the series, showing anterior total hip-replacement surgery, aired in November.
McCullough of Channel 8 said he hopes this will be an ongoing series.
“I’m anticipating within the next couple of months or so we’ll have the funding at least in place to deliver more of these programs,” McCullough said.
McCullough said the station has a long history of producing this type of content, and he hopes viewers will become better health-care consumers.
“One of our goals as a community-service multimedia enterprise is to help people be better informed,” McCullough said. “That’s kind of the overarching idea behind this project.”
McCullough said the station intends to repurpose some of the content of this series and distribute it to teachers in Arizona and the rest of the country.
“Our mission is all about lifelong learning, and this is our latest, greatest local project,” McCullough said.
Dr. Ted Diethrich of Paradise Valley, founder of the Arizona Heart Institute and founder/medical director at the Arizona Heart Foundation, performed the live open-heart surgery in February 1983, and Wooley said Diethrich championed the idea of trading scalpels for lessinvasive techniques.
“He was one of the few heart surgeons that said, ‘Hey, this field is moving to where scalpels and saws are going to go by the wayside, so we better get into this catheter-based movement,’ ” Wooley said.
Diethrich, who is also the main partner in VAS Communications, said there are many benefits to this less-invasive aortic-valve operation.
“(The patients) are in intensive care for a very short period of time, and the risk of the procedure is less,” Diethrich said.
Diethrich said he always has been a proponent of public awareness, and when he moved to Arizona, a lot of the teaching was done by recording procedures.
“It was a great teaching tool, and you could use it for doctors or to teach the public,” he said. “And so it’s just a wonderful way to communicate.”
Wooley agrees that among the main goals of this series is to educate the public to options that are available and what happens after they make a decision.