Garnet Health Launches Structural Heart Services

MIDDLETOWN, NY (July 17, 2024) — Garnet Health’s award-winning Peter Frommer, M.D. Heart Center, in partnership with Columbia University Irving Medical Center, proudly brings some of the best interventional cardiologists to our community to perform minimally invasive, lifesaving complex heart-valve procedures such as transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR). Garnet Health’s structural heart services allow for patients to be treated locally, receiving expert heart care without the stress of traveling far from their loved ones.

The structural heart services team is led by world-renowned interventional cardiologist Susheel Kumar Kodali, MD, director of the Structural Heart and Valve Center at Columbia University Irving Medical Center/NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital and a professor in medicine at Columbia University Irving Medical Center. “I am so pleased to bring our highly experienced team to the Hudson Valley, providing local residents access to advanced structural heart procedures,” said Dr. Kodali. “Patients are now receiving the same expert procedures performed in New York City, without having to travel there, allowing them to heal near home and with family.” Specializing in structural heart disease, Dr. Kodali has been at the forefront of worldwide research and valve techniques, particularly transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI), since 2005. 

“In both Orange and Sullivan counties, we know that heart disease is a leading cause of death,” explained Jonathan Schiller, president and CEO at Garnet Health. “Growing our award-winning heart care program in this way recognizes the needs of our community. Partnering with Columbia University Irving Medical Center allows us to provide our patients who have heart-valve disease a direct pathway to care from expert interventional cardiologists, skilled in advanced and minimally invasive valve procedures.”

In addition to Dr. Kodali, Garnet Health’s structural heart services team features specialists Mahesh Madhavan, MD, interventional cardiologist; Luigi Pirelli, MD, cardiothoracic surgeon; Mark Lebehn, MD, structural echocardiographer; and Marco Veintimilla, PA-C, clinical coordinator. The team also includes expert support staff and a skilled cardiac intensive care unit. Structural heart services include minimally invasive procedures, providing patients a shorter hospital stay and reduced recovery time. For instance, in cases of aortic stenosis, where patients have damaged or stiff aortic valves, the TAVR procedure is performed. The doctor uses a catheter to insert a replacement valve that effectively takes over for the damaged valve.  This procedure offers a less-invasive solution to open-heart surgery.
“The structural heart services program at Garnet Health is one more highly advanced program that is part of the long list of cardiac services we provide on a daily basis,” said Schiller. “We are committed to bringing only the very best cardiac care to the Hudson Valley region.”

Learn more about the structural heart services program at Garnet Health.

About Garnet Health

Garnet Health is a New York State not-for-profit corporation headquartered in Middletown, New York, approximately 60 miles northwest of New York City. It is the corporate parent of Garnet Health Medical Center, Garnet Health Medical Center – Catskills, Garnet Health Doctors, Garnet Health Urgent Care, Garnet Health Foundation and Garnet Health Foundation – Catskills. Garnet Health is dedicated to developing specialty services, medical programs and needed healthcare services that allow residents to remain close to home to receive quality care.

Providing healthcare to over 500,000 residents in Orange, Sullivan and Ulster counties, Garnet Health was designed to improve the quality, stability and efficiency of healthcare services in the mid-Hudson and Catskills region. Garnet Health employs more than 4,000 professionals and over 850 medical staff members. An academic affiliate of the Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine, Garnet Health retains compassionate professionals who continually strive toward the hospital’s mission to improve the health of our community by providing exceptional healthcare. To learn more about Garnet Health, visit garnethealth.org