MQ Health's cutting edge Structural Heart program includes the busiest accredited private transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) centre in NSW. Our doctors and team are amongst the most experienced in the country.
Structural heart disease involves a heart problem that was either present at birth (congenital) or has resulted from underlying disease or ageing, causing wear and tear on the heart.
Treatments used to be limited to open heart surgery, but minimally invasive therapies are becoming far more common, with excellent results for patients. MQ Health is at the forefront of care delivery and research into these cutting-edge techniques.
TAVI is a revolutionary treatment for aortic stenosis (AS). A minimally invasive procedure for people with AS who can no longer have open heart surgery, TAVI helps people regain quality of life and fitness levels they may not have experienced for years. The procedure is complex and requires extensive resources in technology and medical professionals to ensure good outcomes.
Today, MQ Health's well-established, accredited program offers a full comprehensive diagnostic, surgical and recovery service, achieving outstanding results for patients.
In addition to TAVI, we also perform mitral valve repair using the MitraClip procedure and recently undertook the first successful percutaneous repair of degenerative tricuspid valve regurgitation. This is an internationally heralded achievement that will have implications in providing new therapies for this common heart valve disease.
Established on the foundations of a comprehensive service, the TAVI program offers detailed review and assessment, and a full multidiscplinary team (MDT) meeting for all patients. Uniquely in Australia, MQ Health also applies an interdisciplinary team approach to structural heart procedures, with an interventional cardiologist and cardiothoracic surgeon co-performing all procedures.
MQ Health's Structural Heart Clinic brings together all TAVI specialists in a single location, where they meet, assess and review patients for TAVI.
Importantly, patients are reviewed by a cardiologist, cardiothoracic surgeon and clinical nurse consultant—all of whom receive a balanced view of the case to determine the best possible treatment options.
This rigorous MDT approach and uniquely cohesive heart team model has enabled the achievement of world-leading clinical outcomes in structural heart disease at MQ Health (Martinez GJ et al. Intern Med J 2014;44:876 and Seco M et al. Heart, Lung and Circ 2014;23:462).
All tests and procedures are available to the patient ‘under one roof’ and the care is streamlined and coordinated by a dedicated clinical nurse manager and clinical nurse consultant.
Professor Martin Ng — interventional cardiologist
Professor Michael Wilson — cardiothoracic surgeon
Ms Morgan Smith — clinical nurse consultant
Ms Mareen Maladda — clinical nurse consultant
More than ten years of robust data now demonstrates that TAVI is as effective as traditional open surgical valve replacement for appropriate patients.
The team is actively engaged in TAVI clinical trials and has published extensively on the procedure and patient outcomes.
Our cardiologists are actively involved in research, as well as the training and teaching of medical students, resident doctors, registrars and sonographers at MQ Health.
This keeps us at the forefront of the latest techniques and evidence-based treatments in cardiology, both locally and globally.
MQ Health's cardiology registrars are actively engaged in clinical care and research related to the Structural Heart program.
MQ Health’s Professor Martin Ng successfully performed a minimally invasive repair of the tricuspid valve to address tricuspid regurgitation, a condition where the damaged valve leads to the backflow of blood from the right ventricle to the right at...
Read moreFind out how you can make a difference
See how you can help