Balancing provider and patient needs: What keeps 1 cardiology leader up at night

Vaccines for coronary artery disease and a program that keeps a bed open for critical heart patients are just two elements of his field that light a fire under Vincent Sorrell, MD.

Dr. Sorrell, acting director of the Lexington, Ky.-based UK Gill Heart and Vascular Institute, sparked his interest in cardiology as a child. "I was always fascinated by my heartbeat and pulse, even as a kid. I recall thinking about that continuously beating thing in my chest and not knowing much more." When he opted to study cardiology in medical school, "I knew I selected a field of medicine that I would never grow bored of."

The two things that excite him: I think every clinician-scientist is excited about the possibilities afforded by today's artificial intelligence and augmented reality tools. It's hard to fathom how these tools will be sewn into healthcare, and cardiology specifically, in a generation, but it's clear that they will play a major role in how we manage our patients.

Another exciting development in cardiology and all of medicine is our growing understanding of the immune system's role in heart disease, impact of treatments aimed at our natural inflammatory responses to heart disease(s), combined with the capabilities of the recently developed mRNA vaccines as auto-regulating tools. Imagine the hope that one day, children may be vaccinated for coronary artery disease.

His greatest pride at work: I work in a very large hospital that is nearly full every single day, and I also work in a state with many rural communities and very few metropolitan options. The inability to admit patients quickly is a huge problem. To address this access issue, we created a STAR program for our most time-limited critical cardiology patients. The Surgical Triage And Recovery program was a concept borrowed from our surgical colleagues where a dedicated bed is kept open at all times to allow the transfer of those patients needing urgent surgery which is unavailable in the community. Using this STAR program, we are now able to accept patients 24/7 into our cath lab or pacemaker suites who need our immediate attention.

His greatest concern: "The things that keep me awake today have greatly changed from the things that kept me awake years ago. Instead of pondering treatment options on a complex patient or novel teaching methods to instruct a group of learners, today my sleep is disturbed by trying to balance the varied needs of so many care providers while making sure our patients remain front and center with every major decision. Although many of the issues that take most of my time are related to relatively minor, immediate needs, my focus has to remain heavily invested in tomorrow so that we will be prepared to continue to deliver high-quality care for years to come.

His best leadership advice: Everyone has a point of view and perspective that is worth listening to. Never finish a meeting without asking the most quiet among us to speak up and add to the discussion. Don't let the same people dominate a conversation. I try to go on "listening tours" on a regular basis where I have learned many relatively minor issues that we subsequently resolved prior to becoming greater issues.

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