World-first retrievable leadless pacemaker procedure
UC Davis director of pediatric electrophysiology Dan Cortez, M.D., Ph.D., is the first physician in the world to implant a retrievable leadless pacemaker in a child. Aveir VR, manufactured by Abbott, is designed to be easily retrievable for battery replacement. Most traditional pacemakers are surgically implanted through the chest to the outside of the heart, then connected to the heart by leads; this retrievable pacemaker was implanted through the internal jugular vein in the Cardiac Catheterization Lab and has no leads — instead, the heart absorbs it. In 2018, Cortez was the first physician in the world to implant a Micra leadless pacemaker through the internal jugular vein in a child.
Project ADAM helps prepare schools for cardiac emergencies
Project ADAM Sacramento, a UC Davis Children’s Hospital cardiac emergency preparedness program, provides free community heart screenings and reaches out to schools to ensure that staff, faculty, students and families are trained on how to perform CPR and use automated external defibrillators (AEDs). This year, Project ADAM Sacramento designated Davis Joint Unified School District as a Heart Safe School District — the first school district in California to earn this title.
