Delivering better Cardiac care at the Heart Center

Heart disease is one of the world's major health issues - every year, 600,000 heart bypass surgeries are performed, worldwide.

The Heart Center at the American Hospital Dubai is the new regional center of excellence for cardiac care, providing American standards of care to patients in the UAE and the region. The Heart Center is capable of treating all types of cardiac conditions and performing advanced interventional and surgical procedures, all with the assurance that the American Hospital Dubai operates to the high standards required by Joint Commission International from the U.S., which has accredited (and re-accredited) the hospital.

The Heart Center and its comprehensive cardiac program marks the hospital's further shift into tertiary healthcare, offering a greater breadth and depth of service and care to patients in communities across the region. It will offer everything from cardiology diagnostic tools to the ultimate in cardiac surgery procedures. A cardiac catheterization laboratory (Cath Lab), including nuclear medicine as part of the new diagnostics package.

The Heart Center includes interventional cardiology and surgery. The Center is one of a small, select group of medical centers worldwide, and among the few private healthcare institution in the region, capable of undertaking advanced interventional and surgical procedures, such as minimally invasive cardiac surgery and beating heart bypass surgery. The Heart Center is committed to introducing new, advanced techniques such as endoscopic and robotic procedures, as they become available.

The Heart Center is well equipped with the latest state of the art Cardiac Cath lab; a new 10 bed Cardiac Intensive Care unit operated by all American Board Certified Physicians supported by western trained Perfusionist and cardiac nursing staff, perfusionist, with a newly renovated surgical operating room dedicated to cardiac surgery, supported with an advanced radiology unit including the 64 multi-slice CT scanner and nuclear medicine that provide the utmost cardiac care around the clock.

The unit provides inpatient and outpatient catheterization and interventions, peripheral angiograms and interventions; nuclear medicine -using radioactive isotopes injected into the patient to aid diagnosis; cardiac/carotid/ peripheral ultrasonography; and Lipidology.

As the name suggests, beating heart surgery means that the surgeon does not stop the heart while he is operating, which is safer for the patient, reduces the trauma of the operation and ensures a quicker recovery. It is a technically challenging procedure and requires immense skill from a highly trained and experienced physician. Beating heart bypass surgery can be used safely for procedures involving all areas of the heart, including multi-vessel procedures.

The procedure reduces the risk of kidney and lung failure, as the patient maintains better cognitive function, which in turn reduces the risk of stroke - important issues for high-risk patients who may suffer from other health problems such as kidney failure or breathing disorders.

Almost 100 per cent of the Heart Center's surgical procedures will be performed using the beating heart bypass technique and the center will be capable of performing this procedure with high risk patients, as well. One of the measures of a physician's skill and experience is the number of times a complicated surgical procedure has been successfully completed, and the heart surgeon at the new Heart Center has performed more than 500 complex, beating heart operations.

Heart Center Scope of Service

I - Non Invasive Cardiology

Cardiology and Vascular consultation Cardiothoracic surgery consultation ECG (short and long rhythm) 24 hour Holter monitor Transtelephonic Arrythmia Monitor (1 to 4 weeks) 24 hour BP monitor 2D Echocardiogram Transesophageal Echocardiogram Exercise / Dobutamine stress Echocardiogram Exercise Stress Test Tilt table test Nuclear Stress Test Vascular Ultrasound Pacemaker / AICD interrogation and management Electrical cardioversion Cardiac Rehab including smoking cessation Lipid clinic Warfarin clinic

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II - Invasive Cardiology

Cardiac catheterization Coronary intervention Peripheral angiogram: carotid, renal,celiac, mesenteric and extremeties Peripheral vascular intervention Permanent pacemaker placement AICD/ CRT placement ASD/ PFO closure

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III - Cardiothoracic Surgery

CABG : on pump and off pump (beating heart bypass surgery) Total arterial revascularization on a beating heart Valve replacement and repair, mini-valve surgery Surgery for Atrial Fibrillation Thoracic Aortic Surgery Surgery for the Lung and mediastinum (Pneumonectomy, lobectomy, thuymectomy) Advanced Video-Thoracoscopic Surgery (Thymectomy,Endoscopic Thoracic Sympathectomy for severe sweating)

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The Heart Center Team

The Heart Center is based on the professional skills of an all-American Board Certified team of physicians.

Dr. Khaldoun Taha, FACC, Director – Heart Center
Consultant Cardiologist

Dr. Taha is American Board Certified Specialist in Internal Medicine & Cardiovascular Diseases. He is a Member of the American College of Physicians (MACP) and a Fellow of the American College of Cardiology (FACC). A former Instructor in Medicine at the University of Missouri, he has over 18 years experience and special interests include coronary artery disease and congestive heart failure.

Dr. Omar Hallak
Interventional Cardiologist

Dr. Omar Hallak, an American Board Certified in - Interventional Cardiology, Cardiovascular Diseases, Nuclear Cardiology, and Internal Medicine, is a full time, permanent Interventional Cardiologist. During his stay in the United States Dr. Hallak has conducted research, and has co-authored a number of original papers in the field of Cardiology.

Dr. Omar Hallak, performed his Residency in Internal Medicine at the University of Illinois in Chicago and his Fellowship in Cardiology and Interventional Cardiology at Louisiana State University. He has been practicing in Charleston, South Carolina for the past several years. He leads the Interventional Cardiology Team offering Non invasive and Invasive Cardiology surgical procedures including angiograms, angioplasty, peripheral vascular interventions, cardiac and carotid ultrasonography and nuclear Cardiology.

He has performed thousands of interventional procedures, including complex and high risk cases; hundreds of permanent pacemaker implants and also large numbers of AICD implants.

Dr. Fouad Azoury, Cardiothoracic Surgeon
Cardiothoracic Surgeon

Dr. Fouad M. Azoury, a distinguished heart surgeon, who has been appointed Chairman of the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery at the hospital. Dr Azoury is a Diplomat both of the American Board of Thoracic Surgery and the American Board of Surgery, who has also practiced at the prestigious Cleveland Clinic Foundation in the USA.

Dr Azoury, who is from Lebanon, earned his Medical Degree from the Lebanese University and subsequently undertook fellowship training in Cardiothoracic Surgery at the Henri Mondor Hospital in Paris. He then underwent his General Surgery residency training at the South-Brooklyn surgical training program in New York, completing the program with a distinguished flourish as 'Best Chief Resident of the Year'. He then completed his Cardiothoracic Surgery residency training at Case Western Reserve University Hospital, in Cleveland, USA.

In 1998, Dr Azoury joined the staff of the prestigious Cleveland Clinic Foundation, as a Clinical Associate in the Department of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery. He then moved into private practice, in 2001, in his home country as a cardiothoracic surgeon and was also attending surgeon at the Sacre Coeur University Hospital in Lebanon.

Dr Azoury's special interest is in beating heart coronary artery revascularization and he is one of very few surgeons who applies this revolutionary method on essentially all cases of coronary artery bypass surgery. His specialty interests include minimally invasive (or keyhole) adult cardiothoracic surgery, in particular, beating heart arterial coronary bypass surgery, minimally invasive valve surgery, complex high-risk mitral valve repair, surgical procedures for the treatment of atrial fibrillation and videothoracoscopic lung and mediastinal surgery.

Dr Azoury is a member of the Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS), the International Society of Minimally Invasive Cardiac Surgery (ISMICS) and the Lebanese Society of Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery (LSCVT). His work has been widely published in national and international professional publications on topics related to his surgical interests.

The Heart Center includes also specialist Cardiac Anesthetist, and assistant Cardiac Surgeon, along with a team of dedicated western trained Perfusionist and nurses.

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