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Electric Heart
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Heart Links | Artificial Organs/Body Parts Links | Books | Special Thanks | Credits


Heart Links
American Heart Association
http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=10000056
Concerned about your heart? The American Heart Association's Web site offers a comprehensive, easy-to-use reference guide with information on heart- and stroke-related topics as well as biostatistical fact sheets.

American College of Cardiology
http://www.acc.org/media/patient/index.htm
A 24,000-member nonprofit, professional, medical society and teaching institution, the ACC offers this page to help educate patients on a wide range of issues concerning cardiovascular health care.

Congenital Heart Information Network
http://www.tchin.org/
This Web site supplies information and resources to families of children with congenital and acquired heart disease, adults with congenital heart defects, and the professionals who work with them. Includes support-group contact information by state.

Jewish Hospital Heart and Lung Institute
http://www.jewishheartlung.org/
The Jewish Hospital Heart and Lung Institute Web site gives physicians, researchers, and patients information on clinical trials, upcoming symposia, treatment options, and medical developments.

National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute
http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/
The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute leads a national program in research and educational activities relating to heart, blood vessel, lung and blood diseases.

Texas Heart Institute
http://www.texasheartinstitute.org/
Home page to the Texas Heart Institute at St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital, this comprehensive site offers information ranging from medical breakthroughs to ways to reduce your risk of developing cardiovascular disease. For the latest information about the total artificial heart and mechanical heart assist devices, go to www.texasheartinstitute.org/mcsthi.html.

United Network for Organ Sharing
http://www.patients.unos.org/tpd/frm_info.asp?org=HR&tab1=info
The UNOS annual report provides statistics on transplants by characteristics such as age, race, gender, blood type, previous transplant, citizenship, etc. The site also offers links to information about survival rates, median waiting times, and waiting list patient characteristics.


Artificial Organs/Body Parts Links
McGowan Center for Artificial Organ Development
http://www.upmc.edu/mcgowan/
The McGowan Center, part of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Health Care System, researches and develops reliable and affordable artificial hearts. In addition, they are researching and developing artificial lungs, livers, kidneys, pancreases, and blood.

The Amputee Coalition of America
http://www.amputee-coalition.org/
Information about ACA, access to a thorough, online library, and a National Peer Network are among this site's extensive offerings.

American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons
http://www.aaos.org/
The AAOS's Web site provides patient information on a wide variety of topics, ranging from arthritis to total joint replacement. You can also search their database, MEDLINE, which is the major index to articles from more than 3,000 biomedical journals, from 1966 to the present.

Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary
http://www.meei.harvard.edu/
The Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary's Web site supplies information about the many treatments available for eye, ear, nose, and throat ailments. One part of the site provides answers to commonly asked questions about cochlear implants.

Retinal Implant Project
http://rleweb.mit.edu/retinaweb/
This site has many interesting articles about the Retinal Impant Project, a collaboration between Harvard University and MIT. The project's goal is to develop a microelectronic prosthesis to restore some vision to patients with retinal disease, specifically macular degeneration and retinitis pigmentosa.

TransWeb.org
http://www.transweb.org/
This site offers information about financing transplants and transplant centers around the world. People who have had organ transplants recount their experiences. The site also offers answers to commonly asked questions and a variety of transplant statistics.

ABIOMED, Inc.
http://www.abiomed.com/
ABIOMED conducts research and development of cardiac assist and heart replacement technology. It is currently developing a battery-powered totally implantable heart replacement device, the AbioCor.

Thermo Cardiosystems, Inc.
http://www.thermocardio.com/
Thermo Cardiosystems produces the HeartMate left ventricular assist device, which has been successfully implanted in more than 2,000 patients to date.


Books
American Heart Association's Your Heart: An Owner's Manual By the American Heart Association. Prentice Hall, 1995.
Uses the owner's manual format to talk in a frank and accessible way about heart surgery and recovery. Includes case histories that enable readers to make up their own minds about various procedures.

Healing from the Heart: A Leading Heart Surgeon Explores the Power of Complementary Medicine By Mehmet Oz, M.D. with Ron Arias and Lisa Oz. Dutton, 1998.
A top cardiovascular surgeon talks about integrating traditional Western medicine - drugs and surgery - with alternative approaches to health care.

The New Living Heart By Michael E. Debakey and Antonio M. Gotto. Adams Media Corp., 1997.
Enhanced by full-color illustrations, this book discusses some of the latest research on heart disease, diabetes, and other related diseases. Offers tips, including recipes, on how to prevent heart disease.

Defying the Gods: Inside the New Frontiers of Organ Transplants By Scott McCartney. Lisa Drew Books, 1994.
A Wall Street Journal reporter investigates the scientific and ethical issues surrounding organ transplantation, using a focus on patients receiving new livers at the Baylor University Medical Center in Texas as a springboard to examine the field as a whole.

King of Hearts: The True Story of the Maverick Who Pioneered Open Heart Surgery By G. Wayne Miller. New York: Random House, 2000.
This is a biography of the late Dr. C. Walton Lillehei, who trained the heart-transplant pioneer Christiaan Barnard and influenced other leading heart transplant surgeons, including O. H. Frazier and Denton Cooley.


Special Thanks
Amputee Coalition of America
Dr. Donald Eddington, William Keck Neural Prostheses Center
Dr. David E. Krebs, Massachusetts General Hospital Biomotion Laboratory
Dr. Robert Langer, MIT
Dr. Branof Radovancevic, Texas Heart Institute
Scott Richards
Dr. Joseph F. Rizzo, The Retinal Implant Project


Credits
Lauren Aguirre, Senior Producer
Maureen Dolan, Intern
Rick Groleau, Hot Science Developer
Brenden Kootsey, Technologist
Chesley Lowe, Illustrator
Rob Meyer, Production Assistant
Carla Raimer, Associate Producer
Peter Tyson, Producer
Anya Vinokour, Senior Designer




Map of the Human Heart | Amazing Heart Facts
The Artificial Human | Pioneering Surgeon | Operation: Heart Transplant
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