For Dr. Viviana Navas, medical director of the Cleveland Clinic’s Transplant Program, heart failure should be a priority in clinics and hospitals, who may benefit their patients by establishing programs and providing follow-up.

Navas was one of the participants in the XXVII Interamerican Congress of Cardiology SIAC 2019, and the XXVII National Congress of Cardiology, which took place from May 15 to 18 in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic.

In the event, the specialist offered an interview with dominican.news and focused her message on advanced heart failure, explaining everything related to this pathology, how to diagnose it, how to manage it, and its respective treatment.

According to the doctor, heart failure is usually a consequence of coronary cardiovascular disease. “The patient who has had a myocardial infarction ends up having heart failure,” she said.

Navas warned that if coronary heart disease is not adequately treated, the patient may have heart failure.

In addition, if there is a problem with a valve or it is not replaced, the outcome could also lead to heart failure, Navas added.

Objectives in the congress

The expert cardiologist was precise regarding the objectives of her participation in the medical appointment that hosted more than 250 invited specialists from a total of 20 countries in America and Europe.

“My main goal is that attendees begin to see heart failure as a priority in their clinics and in their hospitals. That they are encouraged to start a heart failure program, which should not necessarily be advanced, or that a transplant or support with mechanical devices is going to be performed,” the doctor answered.

What she suggested is the follow-up of heart failure in the patients, as well as the treatment, indicated to keep them compensated.

That is, they first achieve a good quality of life and, secondly, that their prognosis improves.

Dr. Navas said that in the future they seek to initiate advanced heart failure programs to carry out heart transplants and mechanical support, procedures that are currently performed at the Cleveland Clinic.

“We started the transplant program in 2014 and I think that in the next two or three months we will complete 100 transplants, at this time we have made at least 95,” she said.

Finally, the expert cardiologist highlighted his satisfaction at seeing all the patients who have helped in an area of ​​Florida where a transplant program like the one the medical center promotes was really needed.

Who is Dr. Viviana Navas

Dr. Viviana Navas studied medicine at the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana (Bogota, Colombia). She is a cardiologist specialized in heart failure and transplantation who graduated in the United States.

She completed his residency in Cardiac Failure and Transplant at the Cleveland Clinic (Ohio), in 2010.

She has received certifications in cardiovascular diseases and advanced heart failure. Among her specialties are:

• Cardiac Sarcoidosis
• High blood pressure
• Restrictive cardiomyopathy
• Myocardiopathy
• Pulmonary arterial hypertension
• Valvular heart disease

Currently, she is the medical director of the Transplant Program of the Cleveland Clinic in Weston, Florida.