Dr. Sonny Jackson's secret

Don R. recently posted that Dr. Sonny Jackson said that "there are advancements that he is incorporating in the next year that will be a tremendous improvement in the ablation procedure". What are they? Is he keeping them a secret? Will he be plowing new ground, or will he just be catching up? Although I don't doubt that with time improvements will be made, if major improvements are imminent, someone on this board surely would have heard about them. There are probably many hundreds of afibbers on this board (and maybe thousands), and they visit a wide variety and a large number of EPs from around the world, many of them leaders in ablation research. Surely if there were some tremendous improvements coming in ablation procedures in the next year, many of us would be hearing about them from our EPs. Why would they not want to tell their patients? Would one of his patients ask Dr. Jackson for details and then post the information on this board? I am skeptical!

Newman

Dr.Jackman is a world class E.P. and deserving of all the respect he receives, However the fact that he is an investor and has a huge financial stake in the new catheter and imaging device make me greet his announcments with a grain of salt.This in no way reduces the effects of the advances but don't get to excited when the cow is selling the milk.Lets just hope the results match the hype.

Kenny,

Where did you get the information that he is an investor? Is it not the University that has made the investment in the new lab? This was told to me by Dr. Jackman himself! And I bet that it is the University that has the most at stake in the success of the new catheters along with the technology companies and the European partners that Jackman has been working with for years.

I am of the opinion from what I have gleaned from my visit with him in September that Dr. Jackman and his group will be setting a new paradigm for ablation surgery.

I will elaborate on my visit with Dr. Jackman later.

Don R. and Anyone Else who might know,

I will ask the same question again. What are these advancements that will be a tremendous improvement in the ablation procedure during the next year?

I am also interested in knowing how many ablations he has performed, what his success rate is, what his definition of success rate is, what his major complication rate is, does he do pulmonary vein isolations (PVIs) as part of his normal ablation procedure, and does he use the intra cardiac echocardiogram (ICE) during his ablations. This world class AFIB patient has a keen interest in increasing his knowledge of advancements in ablation procedures. Can anyone help?

Newman

My information about Dr. Jackmans stake in the new catheter came from my cardiologist who had recently been to Oklahoma to study ablation procedures.He may have misinterpreted the info. but since this second hand I can't be sure where the truth lies.For me it's still a numbers game and until someone beats Cleveland thats where the people with few options after diet and drugs fail should go.