Newswise — Katherine Lietz, MD, PhD, one of nation's leading experts on the implantation of mechanical pumps to assist failing hearts, has joined Loyola University Health System as medical director of the Heart Failure Device Program.
Lietz was recruited from Yale University School of Medicine, where she was medical director of the Heart Transplant and Ventricular Assist Device Program.
Lietz has treated more than 500 heart transplant patients and about 200 patients who have received left ventricular assist devices (LVADs). An LVAD is an implantable device that helps pump blood from the heart's left ventricle to the rest of the body. It can be used as a temporary therapy until a patient receives a heart transplant or as a permanent therapy for patients with end-stage heart failure.
Lietz is an internationally recognized expert on the selection of LVAD patients, the optimal time to implant LVADs and the assessment of patient outcomes. She developed the Lietz Score, a tool to access surgical risks, and is a key member of a team of physicians who are writing clinical LVAD guidelines for the International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation. She has written more than 60 papers, book chapters and review articles on heart replacement therapy, and has lectured extensively at national and international meetings of her professional peers.
Lietz received her MD and a PhD in Transplantation Immunology from the Medical University of Warsaw. She completed a Heart Transplant and Assist Device research fellowship at Columbia University and cardiology fellowship training at the University of Minnesota and Georgetown University.
As many as 300,000 patients with end-stage heart failure potentially could benefit from LVADs each year in the United States, but fewer than 2,000 patients receive LVADS.
"We need to increase public awareness about this life-saving treatment," Dr. Lietz said.
Lietz is an assistant professor in the Department of Medicine, Division of Cardiology at Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine.
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