Institution of a formal multidisciplinary heart team for high-risk coronary revascularization

Introduction: The heart team approach is now the standard of care for patients with complex coronary artery disease; however, the definition of a heart team is variable. We embarked on a project to create an extended, multidisciplinary heart team to evaluate patients we deemed high risk for coronary revascularization. In doing so, we created a new service, workflow, and paradigm.

Methods: Herein, we describe the process through which we created our high-risk percutaneous coronary intervention team, our criteria for determining risk, our process for evaluating these patients, and quality assurance. Additionally, we describe the design of our prospective study assessing 200 patients with complex coronary artery disease. The primary outcomes include the final heart team revascularization decision, all-cause mortality, major adverse cardiac events, acute kidney injury, postintervention bleeding, and length of stay.

Conclusion: Establishing a multidisciplinary heart team may help with complex and high-risk patient and family scenarios and potentially improve patient outcomes. A study has been initiated to test this hypothesis formally.