DuPage Medical Group Heart Doctors Celebrate Milestone Using Innovative, Life-Saving Treatment

September 09, 2020

DOWN­ERS GROVE, Ill. — DuPage Med­ical Group (DMG) heart doc­tors con­tin­ue to demon­strate how great skill and inno­va­tion can come togeth­er to improve the health of patients with heart dis­ease. DMG heart doc­tors are using a one-time, min­i­mal­ly inva­sive pro­ce­dure to place a small device into the heart to help reduce stroke risk for patients with atri­al fib­ril­la­tion (AFib).

AFib, an irreg­u­lar heart­beat that can cause blood clots and increase the risk of stroke, is com­mon­ly treat­ed using blood thin­ner med­ica­tions. While blood thin­ners can help decrease blood clots, they can also cause dan­ger­ous side effects, lead­ing many patients to seek an alter­na­tive treatment. 

The device, called the WATCH­MAN™, is small­er than a quar­ter and works by clos­ing off a small area in one of the heart cham­bers to help pre­vent blood clots from form­ing and trav­el­ing to oth­er parts of the body — reduc­ing the risk of stroke. 

This inno­v­a­tive device allows us to offer a safe and effec­tive treat­ment option for patients who need an alter­na­tive to blood thin­ners,” said Dr. Eugene Green­stein, DMG elec­tro­phys­i­ol­o­gist (a car­di­ol­o­gist focused on heart rhythm problems).

DMG began per­form­ing the life-sav­ing pro­ce­dure in 2018 and recent­ly cel­e­brat­ed an impor­tant mile­stone: the suc­cess­ful com­ple­tion of 100 WATCH­MAN device pro­ce­dures. A pro­ce­dure is con­sid­ered a suc­cess if the device is placed into the patient’s heart with no com­pli­ca­tions and the patient does not need to take blood thin­ners afterwards.

The suc­cess of these pro­ce­dures is attrib­uted to the rep­utable col­lab­o­ra­tion and ded­i­ca­tion among our high­ly-skilled heart doc­tors,” said Dr. Evans Pap­pas, DMG car­di­ol­o­gist and car­di­ol­o­gy depart­ment chair. We are hum­bled to have reached this impor­tant mile­stone and look for­ward to con­tin­u­ing to pro­vide indus­try-lead­ing car­dio­vas­cu­lar care for our patients and communities.” 

We are proud to offer our patients this live-sav­ing treat­ment option and applaud our car­di­ol­o­gy team for per­form­ing its 100th suc­cess­ful WATCH­MAN pro­ce­dure,” said Dr. Paul Mer­rick, the chair­man of the DMG physi­cian orga­ni­za­tion. Inno­v­a­tive treat­ment options and high-qual­i­ty care are cen­tral com­po­nents engrained in our organization’s mission.”

For more infor­ma­tion about DMG’s car­di­ol­o­gists, vis­it https://​www​.duly​healthand​care​.com/​s​e​r​v​i​c​e​s​/​c​a​r​d​i​ology.

About DuPage Med­ical Group 

DuPage Med­ical Group (DMG) is the largest inde­pen­dent, mul­ti-spe­cial­ty physi­cian group in Illi­nois with more than 750 pri­ma­ry care and spe­cial­ty care physi­cians in over 100 sub­ur­ban Chica­go loca­tions. For more than 20 years, DMG has focused on mak­ing health­care bet­ter for its patients and com­mu­ni­ties by offer­ing high qual­i­ty, com­pas­sion­ate health­care. As a physi­cian-led orga­ni­za­tion, DMG’s physi­cians work togeth­er – uti­liz­ing lead­ing-edge tech­nol­o­gy and inno­v­a­tive treat­ment options – to ensure that each patient receives acces­si­ble and effi­cient health­care. For more infor­ma­tion, vis­it www​.duly​healthand​care​.com.