Breakthrough Technologies in Medicine: hospitals offer patients better care in Alaska.

• Author: Morgan, Barbara
• Position: Alaska's hospitals

Alaska's hospitals are modern, bright and well equipped. Gone are the days when you had to travel outside the state for medical treatment Most surgeries and other procedures can now be scheduled in one of Alaska's many hospitals. Providence Alaska Medical Center is a leader in breakthrough technology.

Sherry Hill, communications and public relations manager for Providence Health System, Alaska Region, speaks of new developments in health care available at Providence: a new coronary stent, Cypher, aids in keeping arteries open-arteries that before would plug; a new simple procedure for varicose veins has been developed; a uterine alternative is available for women who have been told they need a hysterectomy (it allows tumors to shrink and go away); and interventional laser radiology methods are replacing previously required surgeries.

NEW CORONARY STENT

The Food & Drug Administration recently approved a new Cypher stent for usage, which is available now to medical centers nationwide. Providence was the first hospital in Alaska to use the new technology. Its usage will greatly improve options for patients. "Before we were not able to give people the option they needed," says Hill, "but now the technology is here."

James Scott, clinical supervisor of the cardiac catheterization lab at Providence, says, "Before Cypher (the drug-eluting stent created by Cordis, a division of Johnson & Johnson) and Galileo (a Brachytherapy device developed by Guidant Corp.), a small number of patients were sent to Outside hospitals for procedures that were not available in Alaska. Now there is even less reason for patients to leave the state to receive this kind of specialized medical care."

The use of the new drug-eluting stent helps reduce restenosis, which will keep the patient from having to come back for more treatment. Some patients with multiple-vessel coronary artery disease can be treated successfully with drug-eluting stents versus open-heart surgery. Recovery time for the stent procedure is usually one night in the hospital and the resumption of normal routines within three to seven days. Recovery from open-heart surgery involves a longer stay in the hospital and an extended healing process after the patient is discharged home.

"Five years ago we were doing open-heart surgery for coronary artery disease," says Scott. "Now we can treat them with interventional procedures in the catheterization lab."

Scott, who has 16 years experience in his field...