J. Michael Bacharach, MD, FACC, FSCAI, MPH
Vascular Medicine Section Head, North Central Heart in Sioux Falls
New catheter technologies are great. There is no doubt over the course of my career outcomes have improved because of new catheter technologies. But it comes with a burden. Listen, we got balloons everywhere. We got closets full of stuff. For less frequently used specialty balloons or niche devices, most companies don’t want to carry them on consignment. They might expire. So, I can only carry certain sizes. Then, when I need one for a case, invariably, the size I need we don’t have.
If I want to bring in a new technology that I think will benefit patient care, it can put a burden on the hospital. Rightfully so, I get asked
“Why do you need that? and
Can’t we get rid of this? and
Why do you have so much of that? or
How can we leverage some other device?”
That last question. Can we leverage some other device? This is precisely what Covellus Modular Catheter Systems do. With the Modular Balloon System, we are extending the utilization of something we carry and use all the time
Dr. Bacharach is Section Head in Vascular Medicine and Peripheral Vascular Intervention at the North Central Heart Institute in Sioux Falls, S.D. He earned his medical degree from the University of Wisconsin in Madison, Wis. and did his residency and Cardiology fellowship at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. He completed his fellowship in Vascular Medicine and Peripheral Vascular Intervention at the Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland. An educator and mentor, Dr. Bacharach is also a Clinical Professor of Internal Medicine in the Division of Cardiology at Sanford School of Medicine at the University of South Dakota. He is also an Assistant Professor of Surgery at the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine. Dr. Bacharach serves as the primary investigator in multiple peripheral vascular drug and device studies and has earned national and international recognition for his lectures and expertise in vascular medicine and peripheral vascular intervention. In addition to SVM, Dr. Bacharach is also a member of the American College of Cardiology (ACC) and the Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions (SCAI).