Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center one of first to offer innovative robotic catheter ablation tech

The Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center is one of the first VA hospitals to offer innovative robotic catheter ablation technology for patients suffering from abnormal heart rhythm or arrhythmia, it was recently announced.

According to a press release, "Recently approved for commercial use by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the Sensei X Robotic Catheter System is a very specialized and highly sophisticated tool used for catheter-based mapping within the chambers of a patients heart."

Awarded re-designation for Magnet Recognition for Excellence in Nursing Services in 2008, the Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center serves as the primary health care provider for almost 130,000 veterans in southeast Texas. VA recently ranked the MEDVAMC as the most complex of its 141 medical facilities in terms of patient population clinical services complexity intensive care unit and operative complexity and education and research. Veterans from around the country are referred to the MEDVAMC for specialized diagnostic care radiation therapy surgery and medical treatment including cardiovascular surgery gastrointestinal endoscopy nuclear medicine ophthalmology and treatment of spinal cord injury and diseases.

The MEDVAMC is home to a Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Clinic; Network Polytrauma Center; an award-winning Cardiac and General Surgery Program; Liver Transplant Center; VA Epilepsy and Cancer Centers of Excellence; VA Substance Abuse Disorder Quality Enhancement Research Initiative; Health Services Research & Development Center of Excellence; VA Rehabilitation Research of Excellence focusing on mild to moderate traumatic brain injury; Mental Illness Research Education and Clinical Center; and one of the VAs six Parkinsons Disease Research Education and Clinical Centers. Including the outpatient clinics in Beaumont Conroe Galveston Houston Lufkin Richmond and Texas City MEDVAMC outpatient clinics logged almost 1.2 million outpatient visits in fiscal year 2012.

For more information, call 713-794-7349 or email or visit www.houston.va.gov.