Changes afoot for Dr. Natale and Al Sabah Arrhythmia Institute in New York City

A message for patients of Dr Natale in NYC,

There have been some recent developments regarding Dr Natale’s association with the Al Sabah Arrhythmia Institute at St Luke’s Hospital in New York City that will be of interest to those patients who have seen Dr. Natale at St. Luke’s, or that are planning too in the near future. Some of you are aware that in April of this year Dr Natale accepted an offer to become Executive Director of the new Al Sabah Arrhythmia Institute being formed at St Luke’s in New York City, and that is being funded by the Amir of Kuwait.

When Dr Natale accepted the offer at Al Sabah Arrhythmia Institute, the vision and mission was to transform this center into a world class arrhythmia institute. Since that time, events have changed and Mt Sinai Medical Center is now in the process of completing a comprehensive merger of sorts with St Luke’s Hospital and, as such, the inevitable changes that such a combination between medical centers of this nature can present means that Dr Natale will no longer be continuing on as Executive Director at Al Sabah Arrhythmia Institute.

In spite of this upcoming change of venue, Dr Natale does hope to continue offering his expert ablation services to the people of NYC.
Dr Natale's main concern, in the meantime, is to reassure his existing NYC patients that he is now engaged in the process of arranging another suitable office and facility for maintaining periodic follow-up with his growing group of patients in the area, and he wanted to assure them all that he will remain available to them as their EP and insure their continued contact with him. Current NYC patients will be informed how to contact Dr Natale and insure continued follow up care.

It is possible Dr. Natale will have follow-up arrangements in place sooner, rather than later, for visits in person with his NYC area patients. All such patients will be informed of those arrangements when they are available and how best to contact Dr Natale.

The bottom-line, is that Dr. Natale wants to insure an unbroken connection between himself and all of those that have received his care in New York City over the last six months, and going forward, and thus reassure them all of the same high quality of continued care going forward under his guidance during this transition period.

Take care, Shannon



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 11/11/2013 11:19AM by Shannon.

Too bad, do you know if Dr Barrett is continuing there as Director?

Thanks again for alerting us to these changes, Shannon. I know you had mentioned that a phone call appt. might be possible with Dr. Natale for those of us already on his calendar for follow ups...OR to go in and talk with Dr. Barrett at St. Lukes. My questions are: What typically takes place in the 2-3 month post ablation follow up, and would it be wiser for me (or any of us) to go in and get the EKG's and whatever other tests they might give than to just talk on the phone to Dr. Natale? While it's certainly more convenient to just call, I'm willing to make the trip if they do more than talk...ie. listen, test, take recordings, etc. Besides, as you said, Dr. Natale does have quite a thick accent....a little hard to understand.

~ Barb

P.S. I sure am glad I took the leap and had my ablation with him in September! I would probably have chickened out again if he wasn't in the NY area....

Hi Afhound,

Yes it is my understanding that Dr Barrett and Dr Danik are still there at Al Sabah at this time, and both are trusted colleagues of Dr Natale who he will ask to work with the existing patient NYC base, as needed, on his behalf as well so that a smooth communication between the patients and Dr Natale will continue.

And yes, its unfortunate that big hospital politics and business dealings can bring such unanticipated changes. Of course this was not what Dr Natale had in mind when first agreeing to the Executive Directorship there 7 months ago, but such is life sometimes and he seems to be working quickly to try and make the best of the situation and arrange the a good solution for continuing serving the NYC patient base there as soon again as possible,

Shannon

Hi Barb,

Keep your regular appointment and ask to see only Dr Barrett as you are familiar with him and get an EKG and ask him to communciate all that to Dr Natale who will be in touch with Dr Barrett in any event, and you can then arrange to speak with Dr N on the phone too after your Barrett meeting about your next 6 month follow up and TEE.

Cheers!
Shannon

Hi Shannon, Thanks for the heads up on this unfortunate turn of events. I hope it works out for him here in NY. A follow up to Barb's post- what is Dr Natale's typical follow up monitoring. I see you mentioned a TEE -do all of his Pt's get a TEE at a certain time. Is monitoring done by our regular cardiologist based on a Dr Natale's request or will our cardiologist know what the typical post ablation protocol is? Thanks, Dennis

Must have been some serious politics.

______________
Lone paroxysmal vagal atrial fibrillation. Age 62, female, no risk factors. Autonomic instability since severe Paxil withdrawal in 2004, including extreme sensitivity to neuro-active drugs, supplements, foods. Monthly tachycardia started 1/11, happened only at night, during sleep, or when waking, bouts of 5-15 hours. Changed to afib about a year ago, same pattern. Frequency increased over last 6 months, apparently with sensitivity to more triggers. Ablation 6/27/13 by Steven Hao.

Dr. Natale has moved around a lot in these last few years, maybe he is a little difficult to get along with, but, he is good so who cares.

Liz

Yes, definitely thanks for the heads up. Of the three centers where Dr. Natale currently performs ablations (St. Lukes though this is now in question, California Pacific Medical Center (Sutter), and the Texas Arrhythmia Institute, anyone have any sense which center has better support for Dr. Natale, better overall medical environment in terms of safety and quality of care?

I had an ablation with Steven Hao at CPMC, not Dr. Natale, but I can tell you the CPMC set-up is excellent, fully staffed with 24-hour phone coverage.

______________
Lone paroxysmal vagal atrial fibrillation. Age 62, female, no risk factors. Autonomic instability since severe Paxil withdrawal in 2004, including extreme sensitivity to neuro-active drugs, supplements, foods. Monthly tachycardia started 1/11, happened only at night, during sleep, or when waking, bouts of 5-15 hours. Changed to afib about a year ago, same pattern. Frequency increased over last 6 months, apparently with sensitivity to more triggers. Ablation 6/27/13 by Steven Hao.

Thanks. That is good to hear.

Randy,

Both St Davids in Austin, Natale's home base, and CPMC are excellent. I have had procedures and TEEs at both and wouldn't hesitate to recommend either one. Let you location be your guide. It might be a little quicker to see him in Austin simply because he is there at least 2 weeks per month.

Shannon

My gut is telling me he'll end up at Lenox Hill North Shore LIJ. They need a rock star!
There's where Chintz was heading till NYU Langone I'm assuming countered the offer.

[www.crainsnewyork.com]#

McHale



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/15/2013 12:25PM by McHale.

Hi McHale and Liz

McHale, You never know, that could be a good fit as it sounds like a solid organization, time will tell which way the wind blows.

And Liz, the issue with leaving St Luke's has nothing to do with Natale not being able to get along with others as you assume might be the case. Far from it, one of his most recognizable traits that almost everyone who has seen him and worked with him reports is his very easy going and friendly attitude and demeanor.

Natale has worked at various facilities across the country in an effort to fulfill one of his prime goals to help educate a broad number of promising EPs across the US in how to do the more complex forms of ablations correctly and reliably. He tends to set up a base center which was Cleveland Clinic and now the last 5 + years has been St Davids in Austin and then continue seeing patients and training EPs in other locations such as CPMC, St Lukes and Scripps on a more part time basis.

The only center he previously had left and that doing so was not of his choosing was Cleveland Clinic. At CC the board politics there among a couple of board members who didn't like him working occasionally at CPMC in San Fran, came to a head. This was in spite of Natale working at CPMC almost entirely on his own dime and on his vacation time away from CC and with full knowledge and acceptance by the previous CC board of his west coast training visits that had gone on with no complaints for a number of years previously. In any event, he got a real railroad job there and it was unfortunate the way CC handled the whole thing, but Natale immediately had his choice of top spots and within a month accepted the Directorship at St David's Medical Center.

This situation with St Luke's in NYC had little to do with Natale, and certainly nothing about his personality or ability to get along, and is much more about sweeping changes that happened when a bigger fish ( Mt Sinai Med Center) swallowed a smaller one ( St Luke Hospital where Al Sabah Arrhythmia Institute is located) resulting in too many changes to the original situation under which Dr N took the job as Director for him to be able to continue on there in that capacity with the goals they were trying to accomplish.

In any event, he is certainly a busy man and I think he feels this is his time to make a major mark on the AFIB world while he is still in his early 50s and at the top of his game and top of his profession. No doubt, within ten years he will start to scale back some, but in the meantime, he really seems to enjoy his work and is passionately dedicated to it for sure from all that I have seen in my associations with him. Many of us have been very lucky to have hooked our AFIB fates to his star, as it is, and he has told me more than once how much he enjoys and feels compelled to spread this knowledge and skill to as many more EPs as he can. He obviously can't possibly ablate everyone himself, and its with the more challenging cases, and often with the multiple follow-up scenarios, that he sees the biggest gap among some EPs in not really knowing how to approach those cases with consistent success that he would like to remedy.

Shannon



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/16/2013 02:25PM by Shannon.

Don't care about the specific reasons why Natale left the Cleveland Clinic.
Bottom line.....the result was he moved to Austin and that was a windfall for me!!!!

Based on my experience with Natale.....should I ever require a follow-up ablabtion and he no longer is in Austin....will go to where he is located!!!!


Steve
Spring, Tx.

Yes, I am very glad I had my ablation with Dr. Natale during his brief stint at St. Luke's. As it turned out, I needed a lot of work in my LAA and he was the best guy to do it. I am very fortunate to have found this Board, as I never would have known the difference and may have gone to the local EP....probably fine if you are a simple, infrequent, afibber that just needs a PVI, but having had Afib for 10+ years and having it daily for at least a year or two....well...I am grateful for Dr. Natale. I now have a follow up appt. with Dr. Barrett next Tuesday, and am looking forward to meeting him and getting continued great care. Ablation was Sept.5th...so far, so good.

Hoping Dr. Natale does work at another NY area hospital in the near future, as I would like to know he's nearby if needed. That sure made it alot easier.

~ Barb

Hi Barb,

Good to hear things are going so well. And I agree, a case like yours was tailor-made for Natale and you are lucky to have had him in your own backyard for that first index, and possibly only, procedure. You're in good hands with Dr Barrett too and who will be in direct contact with Dr Natale as well so all is good.

I suspect he will have some new set up in the area before too long for future follow-ups and should a final touch up be needed, but its a bonus you and the others got to get the major first one out of the way in your own backyard.

Take care and best wishes,

Shannon