RESEARCH UPDATES: IMPROVING PATIENT OUTCOMES

With generous support from our donors, our team can set aside protected time for research that fuels Inova's mission to provide world-class, integrated care and our vision to be among the leading health systems in the nation. In 2022, physicians and clinicians at Inova Heart and Vascular Institute participated in drug trials, consensus recommendations and dissemination of findings that clearly establishes our preeminence in the field of heart and vascular medicine.

The Advanced Heart Failure Research and Ventricular Assistive Device Teams, led by Palak Shah and Mary Looby, PharmD, launched the first Inova FDA Investigational New Drug trial, a single-center, randomized-controlled trial designed to evaluate the safety of apixaban, an anticoagulent that reduces risk of blood clots in patients supported by left ventricular assist devices (LVADs). The results of this trial may change anticoagulation from warfarin-based to apixaban for future generations of patients with LVADs.

Dr. O'Connor and team presented consensus recommendations by the Heart Failure Academic Research Consortium on changes in healthrelated quality of life and functional capacity in Functional and Symptomatic Clinical Trial

Endpoints: The HFC-ARC Scientific Expert Panel State-Of-The-Art Paper, Mitchell Psotka, Christopher M. O’Connor, et al Journal of the American College of Cardiology Nov 09, 2022

Acute coronary syndrome in older adults is addressed in Damluji AA, et al American Heart Association Cardiovascular Disease in Older Populations Committee of the Council on Clinical Cardiology; Council on Lifestyle and Cardiometabolic Health; and Council on Cardiovascular Radiology and Intervention. Management of Acute Coronary Syndrome in the Older Adult Population: A Scientific Statement From the American Heart Association. Circulation Dec 12, 2022

The importance of identifying frailty and intervening appropriately is highlighted in Ijaz

N, Buta B, Xue QL, Mohess DT, Bushan A, Tran H, Batchelor W, deFilippi CR, Walston

JD, Bandeen-Roche K, Forman DE, Resar JR, O’Connor CM, Gerstenblith G, Damluji

AA. Interventions for Frailty Among Older Adults With Cardiovascular Disease: Journal of the American College of Cardiology, State-of-the-Art Review. Feb 8, 2022.