• Press Release

Mount Sinai Heart Awarded Transcatheter Valve Certification by American College of Cardiology

Only program in New York City to receive prestigious recognition

  • New York, NY
  • (November 18, 2020)

Mount Sinai Heart at The Mount Sinai Hospital has earned the American College of Cardiology’s Transcatheter Valve Certification. Mount Sinai is the only cardiac center in New York City and one of three in New York State to receive this recognition. This award is a symbol of expertise, quality and safety of care, and commitment to treating patients who need transcatheter aortic valve replacement.

This award follows a prestigious “high performing” rating in transcatheter aortic valve replacement from U.S. News & World Report. This rating is based on multiple categories including patient survival, patient volume, and stroke prevention.

Transcatheter aortic valve replacement, also known as TAVR, is a minimally invasive procedure for patients with severe aortic stenosis, in which the aortic valve doesn’t fully open. This reduces blood flow leaving the heart and causes chest pain, fatigue, and shortness of breath. TAVR allows the aortic valve to be replaced without open-heart surgery. Interventional cardiologists and cardiac surgeons work together to deliver the new heart valve through a catheter that runs from a blood vessel in the groin to the aortic valve. The team then deploys the transcatheter valve within the diseased aortic valve so the new valve can function immediately.

“It is an absolute honor that we have received Transcatheter Valve Center certification from the American College of Cardiology after a very detailed review of our structural heart program. This certification solidifies Mount Sinai Heart as one of the premier centers in the nation for percutaneous non-surgical valve procedures,” says Samin Sharma, MD, Director of Interventional Cardiology for the Mount Sinai Health System.

Mount Sinai Heart underwent a rigorous nine-month evaluation in which reviewers from the American College of Cardiology conducted an analysis of key areas including:

  • Quality of care
  • Clinical outcomes and patient experience  
  • Quality assessment and performance improvement initiatives
  • Multidisciplinary approach and shared decision making by heart team for patient care
  • Review of metrics from national registries
  • Staff credentialing, training, and education
  • Equipment safety and inspection
  • Infection control guidelines

“The American College of Cardiology Certification is a testament to the close collaboration and active involvement including interventional cardiologists, cardiac surgeons, imaging specialists, heart failure specialists, and nurse practitioners working closely together to offer the best experience possible to our patients at Mount Sinai,” says Gilbert Tang, MD, MSc, MBA, Surgical Director of the Structural Heart Program at the Mount Sinai Health System.

“Our center, through a combination of technically skilled operators and careful attention to patient details, has achieved the best outcomes. Regular communication with patients’ families and the referring physicians has made us a preferred center for transcatheter valve therapies,” says Annapoorna Kini, MD, Director of the Cardiac Catherization Lab at The Mount Sinai Hospital.

The certification is based on established national clinical measures to support clinical decisions and links process improvement to patient outcomes. Hospitals that achieve Transcatheter Valve Certification learn best practices for implementing evidence-based medicine to support patient-shared decision making and can track key performance metrics to better identify opportunities for improvement.

About the Mount Sinai Health System

Mount Sinai Health System is one of the nation’s leading integrated academic health systems and one of the largest in the New York metropolitan area. The Health System includes approximately 48,000 employees, more than 9,000 physicians, and 8,600 nurses across seven hospitals, more than 400 outpatient practices, over 600 research and clinical laboratories, a school of nursing, and schools of medicine and graduate school of biomedical sciences.  

As a leading learning health system, Mount Sinai combines clinical expertise with scientific discovery to improve patient care while training the next generation of health care and biomedical leaders. The Health System provides care across every stage of life, from prenatal care through geriatrics, while advancing personalized medicine through artificial intelligence, data science, and biomedical research.  

Mount Sinai is consistently recognized among the nation’s leading academic health systems for patient care, research, and education. The Mount Sinai Hospital is ranked No. 1 in New York and recognized as one of the world’s top Smart Hospital by Newsweek. The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai ranks No. 11 among U.S. medical schools for National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding and No. 1 among freestanding medical schools, reflecting the strength of its scientific enterprise and leadership in biomedical research. 

For more information, visit https://www.mountsinai.org or find Mount Sinai on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, X, and YouTube. To listen to news and stories from Mount Sinai, visit the Mount Sinai Podcast Network.

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