Texas Heart’s School of Perfusion Technology Illuminates Houston’s Contributions to Medicine Near and Far
The Texas Heart Institute (THI) School of Perfusion Technology held its on June 7-8. The two-day long conference featured leaders in the perfusion field, and illuminated the latest trends in the techniques and technologies used by perfusionists and surgeons today.
The conference opened with remarks from Terry Crane, Director, and Deborah Adams, Associate Director of Academics and Clinical Coordinator for the THI School of Perfusion Technology.
Over 150 attendees from the United States, Canada, and Japan enjoyed presentations from 30 impressive speakers on diverse perfusion topics including History of Cardiovascular Assist Devices, Perfusion Considerations During Lung Transplants, and Perfusion and Professionalism. The agenda also included unique case reports and presentations reviewing current perfusion technology.
The Perfusion Conference included an inspirational afternoon session celebrating both the 50th Anniversary of the World’s First Total Artificial Heart and the 50th Anniversary of the NASA expedition landing on the Moon.
The session included a presentation from former NASA Astronaut, Colonel Jack Lousma, who was the pilot of the second space flight crew on the Skylab space station in 1973 and Commander of STS-3 Space Shuttle Columbia, NASA’s third Space Shuttle mission in 1982.<
Colonel Lousma opened his enlightening presentation with a photo montage from the STS-3 mission set to “On the Road Again” by Willie Nelson in true Texas style. He shared how he and his crew learned to live and work in the first scientific laboratory launched into space and used the mission to understand the medical aspects of long-duration, zero-gravity spaceflight, as well as how to construct the permanent International Space Station now in orbit. He discussed the medical experiments they performed and other medical-related aspects of spaceflight.
Dr. Bud Frazier gave this year’s keynote address commemorating Dr. Denton A. Cooley where he detailed the 50-year history of the development of the total artificial heart. After his presentation, Dr. Frazier sat down with Colonel Lousma for a lively discussion on the bright future of exploration in medicine and space.
A special thank you to our Visual Communications Student Intern, Carlos Uribe for his help with this article.
