The Christ Hospital Health Network has established the Harold C. Schott Foundation Artificial Heart and Mechanical Cardiac Support Program, made possible by a $2 million grant from the Schott foundation.
Announcement of the gift follows the Nov. 6 first heart transplant surgery at the hospital.
The Christ Hospital Heart & Vascular Institute’s latest program expansion comes after the successful recruitment of two highly renowned heart transplant specialists with more than 50 years of combined experience: Rob Dowling, the Chris and Trey Heekin Family Endowed Chair for Cardiac Transplantation and surgical director of The Christ Hospital Heart Transplant Program, and Geetha Bhat, medical director of The Christ Hospital Heart Transplant Program.
“This $2 million grant will allow The Christ Hospital Health Network to serve the growing population of patients in the Tri-State region who are suffering from end stage heart failure,” said Debbie Hayes, Christ Hospital’s president and CEO. “Using innovative technology and groundbreaking clinical research, this new program within our Heart & Vascular Institute will help us to continue our mission and will enable our teams to utilize the newest and most effective mechanical heart technology.”
Heart disease remains the leading cause of death in the United States. Of that, an estimated 6.5 million Americans live with heart failure and an additional 1 million are diagnosed with heart failure every year. Annually, about 8,000 Americans need a new heart to survive, but with the limited supply of donor hearts, only an estimated 3,500 transplants are performed. At least half of all patients remaining on a transplant list die within several years of diagnosis.
“Our region is underserved for cardiac transplantation and the gap is widening between those individuals who need a heart and the number of donor hearts available,” said Dean Kereiakes, president of The Heart & Vascular Institute and medical director of The Christ Hospital Research Institute.
The Schott foundation program was established to support the development of artificial hearts and other mechanical cardiac support devices. This program enables Christ Hospital to offer patients with advanced cardiac disease options not available anywhere else in the region and not widely available in the country.
“Like other transplant centers around the country, our team is limited in the number of transplants we can perform due to the finite number of heart donors,” said Dowling. “The development of artificial heart pumps that can be used as an alternative to heart transplantation will allow us to treat the increasing number of patients with heart failure. This extremely generous gift from the Harold C. Schott Foundation will help our team at The Christ Hospital develop the next generation of artificial heart pumps that will benefit our current patients and have a global impact on the treatment of advanced heart failure patients for generations to come.”
Harold C. Schott was born in Cincinnati in 1907. He and his brother, Walter E. Schott, began their careers by opening several automobile dealerships throughout the region. A staunch Cincinnati philanthropist, Schott formed the Harold C. Schott Foundation in 1959 for the purpose of funding grants to support healthcare, spiritual, arts and educational institutions.
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