Los Angeles-based Smidt Heart Institute at Cedars-Sinai named Tyler Gunn, MD, director of the Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation program in the department of cardiac surgery, Diagnostic and Interventional Cardiology reported Nov. 30.
Dr. Gunn, a cardiothoracic surgeon, gained an interest in ECMO during his residency and fellowship during the COVID-19 pandemic.
ECMO is a portable heart-lung machine which deoxygenates blood. Traditionally used as a last resort, the device was effective in treating COVID-19 patients, according to the report.
"In my last year of surgical residency, I worked in a hospital where most of the patients we treated were unvaccinated against COVID-19 and many of them required ECMO for survival," Dr. Gunn said in the report. "I learned alongside my mentor, who happened to be a co-inventor of ECMO, which further fueled my understanding and interest in its use."