For the third year in a row Dr. Joseph Stella, an interventional cardiologist with Heart Care Centers of Illinois at St. Francis Hospital & Health Center in Blue Island, has been elected to the faculty of the prestigious Cardiovascular Research Foundation’s Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics (TCT) Symposium.
The 2006 TCT symposium was Oct. 22-27 in Washington D.C. It is the world’s premier interventional cardiologist conference attended by 12,000 interventional cardiologists world-wide.
Stella is one of only 500 interventional cardiologists world-wide who are elected to the TCT faculty each year.
Stella proctored and provided advice about the use of drug-eluting stents in complex angioplasty procedures to interventional cardiologists around the world, who were performing procedures live via satellite from the United States, Europe and South America.
“I am honored to serve on this year’s TCT faculty,” Stella said. “The TCT symposium really helps set the tone for interventional cardiologists world-wide as to the devices, techniques and medications that work best for patients.”
Stella has spearheaded and participated in numerous studies at St. Francis Hospital in Blue Island.
Most recently, he is participating in the Champion Trial which will research the effectiveness of Cangrelor, as short-acting injectable platelet inhibiting drug that thins the blood and prevents clots from forming during interventional heart procedures.
St. Francis hospital in Blue Island is only one of 50 hospitals in the world, and the only hospital in the Chicagoland area, to participate in the study.
