Driving Innovations in Cardiovascular Care: Q&A With UF’s Dr. John Catanzaro
John Catanzaro, MD, MBA, FACC, associate medical director and program director of University of Florida Health‘s Clinical Cardiology Electrophysiology Section, shares how he is ramping up work on two innovative projects with the help of the educational hospital. The first project will improve the safety and efficacy of atrial fibrillation (AFib) ablation procedures, and the other will develop a first-of-its-kind pre-surgery recipe based on Gatorade, called Operade™.
Catanzaro discusses his ongoing projects, the development process, and the importance of innovations like these in cardiovascular care.
How has UF Innovate helped you in this process?
UF Innovate facilitated the creation of a team and made the introduction to UF materials scientist, Christopher Batich, Ph.D., and his student, Michelle Dill. UF Innovate also provided commercialization funding and legal assistance filing the intellectual property. These funds were used for prototype design and to test the innovative method at the bench, mimicking physiological conditions during ablation. Once proof of concept was achieved, animal testing was performed. (Of note, a consistent model and method for testing a specific hypothesis was devised.) The results and data ultimately led to licensing of the technology and publication of an abstract at Heart Rhythm 2021.
Learn more about Driving Innovations in Cardiovascular Care: Q&A With UF’s Dr. John Catanzaro.