A Legacy Of World-Class Cardiovascular Care

Scripps has been a leader in heart care for decades

Scripps cardiovascular providers check the monitors in surgery. SD Health Magazine.

Scripps has been a leader in heart care for decades

When Mother Teresa experienced heart problems on a mission trip to Tijuana, she was rushed to Scripps for lifesaving care. She was treated with an experimental stent developed in part by a Scripps Clinic cardiologist — one of many pioneering treatments and advances in patient care that started at Scripps. 


“We used a stent that was, at the time, investigational,” says Paul Teirstein, MD, chief of cardiology, Scripps Clinic, and medical director, Prebys Cardiovascular Institute. “She blessed it, and we called it the ‘sacred stent’ ever since. She ended up recovering beautifully.” 


For decades, Scripps has been synonymous with excellence in heart care. From the pioneering work of cardiologists, such as David Carmichael, MD, and John Carson, MD, at Scripps Memorial Hospital La Jolla to innovators like Dr. Teirstein and others who continue to advance lifesaving treatments at Prebys Cardiovascular Institute today, Scripps physicians have been trailblazers in cardiovascular care. 


In 1924, when Scripps Memorial Hospital and Scripps Metabolic Clinic first opened, the field of cardiology was in its infancy, with limited technology and understanding of heart disease. Physicians used the best practices of the time, which primarily focused on bed rest and early medications to help manage heart conditions. 


Decades later, Scripps Memorial Hospital La Jolla was at the forefront of advancements in the field when Drs. Carmichael and Carson incorporated new diagnostic tools, such as the electrocardiogram (EKG), which revolutionized the way heart conditions were detected and managed. They were among the leaders who expanded services at Scripps Memorial Hospital La Jolla and embraced new procedures that improved outcomes for patients with heart disease during the 1960s and 1970s. 


As technology continued to advance, Scripps remained on the leading edge of cardiovascular care, offering lifesaving interventions, such as angioplasty and coronary artery bypass surgery. These procedures, once considered high-risk, soon became commonplace, thanks to the skilled surgeons and state-of- the-art facilities at Scripps hospitals. 

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Paul Teirstein, MD, Larry Klein, MD, and Patricia Aubanel, MD, were among the Scripps Clinic physicians who provided Mother Teresa with lifesaving cardiac care.

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Scripps cardiologists were the first in San Diego County to use a Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement (TAVR).

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Nicholas Olson, MD, Scripps Clinic cardiac electrophysiologist, working on the clinical trial that led to FDA approval of the Farapulse pulsed field ablation system.

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Scripps Clinic cardiologists Poulina Uddin, MD, Christina Adams, MD, and Namee Kim, MD, lead the skilled team of caregivers to support the growing number of women experiencing heart disease.

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Scripps’ team of cardiologists using some of the most advanced tools to detect and treat heart disease.

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Scripps cardiologists in surgery.

Trailblazers in heart care

Trailblazers in heart care

Physicians at Scripps Clinic invented and were the first in the world to use vascular brachytherapy to treat stent narrowing; the first in the US both to use rotational atherectomy and implant a dual-chamber defibrillator; the first in California to implant the world’s first smartphone-compatible cardiac monitor; the first in San Diego County to use the minimally invasive transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) to replace a failing aortic heart valve; and one of the first to use the Palmer-Schatz stent — the type used to treat Mother Teresa — which was co-invented by a Scripps Clinic cardiologist. 


In 2015, Scripps took another giant leap forward by opening the Prebys Cardiovascular Institute on the campus of Scripps Memorial Hospital La Jolla. The seven-story, 383,000-square-foot tower serves as a center for medical research, clinical trials, wireless medicine and graduate medical education. It’s a hub for heart care on the West Coast, and most importantly, it’s where patients receive individualized care in a healing environment. 


Scripps continues to transform medicine in unprecedented ways through leading-edge procedures and advancements in interventional cardiology, structural heart disease care, women’s heart disease, wireless heart care and more. 


Additionally, the Cardiovascular Disease Fellowship Program at Scripps Clinic trains top candidates to become leaders in cardiovascular medicine, including many who remain at Scripps and provide lifesaving care. For decades, Scripps Memorial Hospital La Jolla physicians have provided cardiovascular surgery and interventional cardiology services for Kaiser Permanente’s patients in San Diego County. 


“One of the most important things that has grown with cardiology during the last 35 years is personalized care,” says Dr. Teirstein. “The top thing we’re about here in cardiology at Scripps is patient care, and our goal is to take care of patients the way we would take care of a family member.”

A revolution in valve repair 

The heart has four valves: mitral, tricuspid, aortic and pulmonary. When any of those valves are damaged, it causes a range of conditions known as valvular heart disease, which affects roughly 2.5% of the population. Thanks to advancements in the field of interventional cardiology, people with valvular heart disease now have new options for repair and replacement of leaky, damaged and diseased valves. Scripps, a leader in interventional cardiology, is at the forefront of these advancements. 


Earlier this year, Scripps Clinic cardiologists became the first in San Diego County to implant the EVOQUE tricuspid replacement valve and the TriClip device to repair a leaky tricuspid valve. Scripps is also an international leader in transcatheter mitral valve repair, using a revolutionary technology, the MitraClip device, to repair the valve without the need for open heart surgery. 


“We are doing things in our catheterization labs now that we wouldn’t have imagined 20 years ago,” says Matthew Price, MD, director, cardiac catheterization laboratory at Scripps Clinic, and the first to use the TriClip. “We are continuing to evolve catheter technology and use to improve how we treat patients with valvular heart disease. Our expertise in the past decade in catheterization puts Scripps at the forefront of new technology to treat heart valves.” 


Curtiss Stinis, MD, director of peripheral interventions at Scripps Clinic, who was the first San Diego physician to use EVOQUE, adds: “Millions of people with leaky tricuspid valves will have congestive heart failure, which often has a high mortality rate and high probability of a poor outcome. This is a revolutionary treatment for many patients who would not have been candidates for open-heart surgery, and it will improve quality of life and life expectancy for many people. Scripps is on the leading edge of these improvements.”

Innovation in ablation for atrial fibrillation 

An estimated 12.1 million people in the US have atrial fibrillation. Known as AFib, it is the most common type of treated heart arrhythmia. It significantly increases risk of stroke and, if left untreated, can be life-threatening. 


While AFib medications can be helpful, some patients are treated with a procedure called catheter ablation to either burn or freeze (cryoablation) the tissue that’s causing the arrhythmia. Now, Scripps cardiologists are paving the way for a new type of ablation with fewer associated risks. Douglas Gibson, MD, director of cardiac electrophysiology at Scripps Clinic, was the first physician in San Diego County to use a new technique called pulsed field ablation. 


“Pulsed field ablation gets rid of the most feared complications with traditional ablation: damage to the esophagus, nerve damage and pulmonary stenosis,” he says. “Scripps has one of the highest volume ablation centers in California. It’s important to find a center with experienced physicians who are on the leading-edge of advancements. That’s why you come to Scripps.”

Specialized care for heart failure

Specialized care for heart failure

“One of the most important things that has grown with cardiology during the last 35 years is personalized care."

Paul Teirstein, MD

Roughly 960,000 people in the US are diagnosed with heart failure each year. Medications and surgery are the standards for treatment, and both have advanced significantly over the decades. 


“Heart failure is the number one reason that people in the Medicare age group are admitted to the hospital, and it affects more than six million people in the United States,” says James Heywood, MD, director, heart failure recovery and research program at Scripps Clinic. “I came here in 2005 to begin a heart failure program to provide specialized care to these patients. It’s hard to overstate how much the field has changed in those 20 years.” 


Scripps cardiovascular teams are nationally recognized for breakthrough work in diagnosing and treating heart failure. Scripps researchers spent decades developing a treatment for amyloid heart disease, which involves an abnormal protein being deposited in the heart. They are leaders in using small implantable devices to remotely monitor, diagnose and treat patients in the early stages of heart failure. They’re also exploring gene therapy to treat heart failure and have several other promising research studies underway. 


“We’re able to save people that we could never save before,” says Dr. Heywood.  

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This content appeared in San Diego Health, a publication in partnership between Scripps and San Diego Magazine that celebrates the healthy spirit of San Diego.