Thank you for your commitment to cutting-edge cardiac research. The latest Mustard fellow is Dr. Yasuyuki Kobayashi, who joins the research team of Dr. Osami Honjo to advance his pioneering "heart-in-a-box."
Dr. Yasuyuki (Yasu) Kobayashi arrived this summer from Japan to work on refining the ex-vivo perfusion machine, a novel device that keeps infant donor hearts alive and beating outside the body by perfusing them with warm, oxygenated blood, thus allowing crucial time for transplantation. It's the brainchild of Dr. Osami Honjo, a SickKids surgeon driven by the crushing fact that many children die waiting for a new heart. He hopes his perfusion machine will make more donor hearts viable and available.
Dr. Kobayashi joined former Mustard fellow Dr. Sachiko Kadowaki (who has stayed on) to research and refine several areas of the perfusion machine. They're testing a promising drug that seems to help improve the heart's function during perfusion. And they are also continuing to test the outer limits of how long a heart can be perfused.
In other exciting news, the project has recently been approved by SickKids' Research Ethics Board (REB) and the Ontario Trillium Gift of Life Network. This is a major milestone that will allow the team to run practice trials with human hearts, and eventually support the first transplant of a perfused heart—the true test of this technology. On behalf of the entire research team, thank you for enabling this incredible work. Dr. Kobayashi thanks you too:
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OUR NEW CARDIAC OPERATING SUITE
Thanks to your support, we've rebuilt our Cardiac Operating Suite, one of the hospital's busiest ORs, where surgeons treat the most complex heart conditions in the province.
We are delighted to announce that our Cardiac Operating Suite rebuild is complete, thanks in no small part to generous support by TravelBrands. Although the renovation faced delays last year due to COVID-19 (as did many of our capital projects), the revamped OR is now finally ready for active use. The former operating suites were decades old, with outdated equipment and room configurations that simply were not compatible with the advanced technologies required for Ontario’s most complex cardiac surgeries. Here’s a rundown of the improvements:
BIGGER ROOM, BETTER CARE
Thanks to your investment, we were able enlarge the Cardiac OR Suite, important for several reasons: to accommodate an updated anesthesia electronics system and movable medication dispensing cabinet. The room has new ceiling booms for surgical lights and computer equipment. These movable booms provide flexibility for our surgical teams to easily configure the suite as appropriate for different procedures. Movable towers also allow both cardiac and ear, nose, and throat surgeons to work side by side, as is often required for highly complicated endoscopic surgeries. We can say without a doubt that surgical care is markedly enhanced when the team has more space to work and is able to readily access technologically advanced equipment. The final addition to the suite is a new terrazzo floor. The floor not only looks clean and fresh, the finish is ideal for cleaning and preventing stains.
BROADCAST TECHNOLOGY
We also installed integrated video equipment that enables surgeries to be broadcasted on screens visible to the entire team. This is so important because, as one of our cardiovascular surgeons said, “When everyone can see the procedure in real time, there is better situational awareness. You’ve got a whole room of trained professionals who know what’s going on, and anyone can voice suggestions or concerns, which translates into better patient care.”
IMPROVED VENTILATION
A new state-of-the-art ventilation system was another important feature of this renovation. As you can imagine, clean, reliable air is critical in any operating environment, so much so that each OR requires both a primary and backup fan. Upgrading the ventilation system, including the addition of HEPA filtration, was a complex and costly undertaking, one that would have been impossible without your support.
