Client News: Oakwood surgeons rated as Top Docs

Source: Oakwood Press Release

Eight Oakwood physicians have been named as top cardiac doctors in a recent Consumer Reports article.

The physicians were chosen based on data from The Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS), a nonprofit organization that represents approximately 5,400 surgeons worldwide who operate on the thorax, including the heart, lungs and esophagus.

The eight are:

Timothy Sell, MD, Reza Dabir, MD, and Ali Kafi, MD, from the Great Lakes Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgeons group in Dearborn

Bruce Washington, MD, and Joseph Bassett, MD, with the Oakwood Medical Offices in Dearborn

M. Salik A. Jahania, MD, of the University Physician Group Surgery office in Dearborn

Christopher Liakonis, DO, with Greater Michigan Cardiovascular Surgeons in Dearborn

Jonathan Hoffberger, DO, whose office is in Dearborn

The STS uses 11 standardized measurements to rank the physicians; those measurements fall into four broad categories:

Patient Survival – based on the chance that a patient will survive at least 30 days after surgery and will be discharged from the hospital

Absence of Surgical Complications – meaning that a patient will not experience any of five serious complications of heart bypass surgery during hospitalization. Those are extended breathing support on a ventilator; an infection in the breastbone incision; kidney failure; stroke; or repeat operation for post-op bleeding or other causes.

Recommended Medications – based on the chance that a patient will receive all of the following drugs: a beta-blocker before the procedure and aspirin, a beta-blocker, and a statin to lower LDL.

Optimal Surgical Technique – based on the chance that a patient will receive at least on graft involving an internal mammary artery, which improves long-term survival compared with grafts taken from the veins.

For additional information on the article, click here.