Timeline
As Northern Virginia's leading, not-for-profit health care organization, Inova Health System, with its multiple hospitals and health services, is uniquely capable of offering specialized services at its various locations.
Inova Heart and Vascular Institute cardiac specialists, coupled with advanced technologies, provide cardiac patients of all ages with the complete line of services including prevention, education, evaluation, diagnostic, treatment, rehabilitation, and home and long-term care. Inova's systemwide approach helps ensure that resources are available to care for our patient's specific needs, regardless of where they firs receive care.
When appropriate, cardiac surgeons can use robotic surgery. Prevention, risk factor reduction, rehabilitation and patient education programs round out the hospital's cardiac services.
1972: Inova Fairfax Hospital performs its first cardiac catheterization.
1976: Dedicated Cardiac Cath Lab opens at Inova Fairfax Hospital.
1977: Inova Fairfax Hospital creates the open-heart surgery program. The first surgery, an atrial septal defect repair, is performed in September.
1978: The first dedicated catheterization laboratory opens. Previously, these procedures were performed in radiology suites.
1979: Second Cath Lab opens at Inova Fairfax Hospital.
1981: Inova Mount Vernon Hospital opens a cardiac rehabilitation program.
1983: The cardiac rehabilitation program is established at
Inova
Alexandria Hospital.
Also in 1983, Inova Alexandria performs its
first cardiac catheterization.
1984: Inova Heart Center is the first program in Northern Virginia to use catheter-based interventions to dilate narrowed coronary arteries, a procedure called percuatneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA).
Interventional cardiology begins with first PTCA.
1986: The Washington, DC region’s first successful heart transplant is performed on Dec. 28 at Inova Fairfax Hospital.
Also in 1986, Inova Heart Services establishes the area’s only accredited program for cardiac rehabilitation in which patients follow structured exercise programs with cardiac monitors and close medical supervision. Cardiac nurses, nutritionists and exercise physiologists also conduct nutrition and lifestyle assessments to assist cardiac patients in their recoveries.
1988: The Inova Heart Center’s program is expanded to include pediatric heart surgery.
“The Dome” opens. This observation area above an operating room was designed to facilitate education for the hospital’s clinical staff through observation of cardiac surgery. The Dome opens to the public in 1992 with nurses serving as tour guides explaining what is taking place below and educating observers about heart disease.
1989: Inova Fair Oaks hospital performs its first cardiac catheterization.
First Balloon Valvuloplasty performed.
First EP Lab opens at Inova Fairfax Hospital.
1990: The Health Care Financing Administration designates Inova Fairfax Hospital as the region’s first Medicare Center of Excellence for heart transplantation in the Washington, DC area.
Three cath labs perform 700 PTCA’s and 2800 diagnostic procedures.
Arrhythmia Services at Inova Fairfax Hospital begin
1991: The Washington, DC area’s first single lung transplant is performed at Inova Fairfax Hospital.
The Inova Institute of Research & Education is established to advance the frontiers of medical knowledge through original research and participation in national clinical trials. Since then, Inova Heart Services has served as a testing center for new catheterization devices and techniques, advances in cardiac surgery, and many of the most promising medications to treat coronary artery disease. At any given time, dozens of research projects related to cardiac care are underway at Inova.
1992: The first combined heart-kidney transplant in the Washington area is performed at Inova Fairfax Hospital.
1993: Inova Fairfax Hospital is one of the first in the nation approved to use battery operated portable left ventricular assist devices (LVAD) as a bridge to transplantation.
Inova Fairfax Hospital places the first stent in a patient to open a narrowed coronary artery.
Fourth Cath Lab opens at Inova Fairfax Hospital.
First Rotablator performed.
One of a few in the country conducting pediatric and adult ablations.
1994: The Adult Congenital Heart Clinic is established to offer up-to-date technology and surgical intervention to correct heart defects. The clinic treats patients who had repairs as children and can now benefit from further treatment, as well as patients who are first diagnosed with heart defects as adults.
Two cardiac catheterization labs open at Inova Alexandria Hospital.
1995: Second EP Lab opens at Inova Fairfax Hospital.
1996: U.S. News & World Report names Inova Fairfax Hospital one of “America’s Best Hospitals,” awarding the hospital top rankings in cardiac surgery and cardiology.
Inova Fairfax Hospital’s first transmyocardial revascularization (TMR) surgery is performed. Used for patients who are not candidates for conventional open heart surgery, this less invasive procedure creates tiny holes in the left ventricle to stimulate the growth of new blood vessels in the heart muscle.
Inova Fairfax Hospital surgeons install a pacemaker in a heart transplant patient to facilitate post-transplant monitoring of the patient.
1997: Inova cardiac rehabilitation staff members develop a national prototype for a Fast Intervention Track (FIT), which offers an abbreviated course in cardiac rehabilitation at minimal cost.
1998: Inova Fairfax Hospital is the winner of a Mercury Award for Excellence in Health Care for having the highest quality of care in cardiology/cardiac surgery in the Washington, DC area.
Inova Fairfax Hospital’s first bi-ventricular device is implanted.
The first atrial linear ablation is performed at Inova Fairfax Hospital.
1999: Also in 1999, a permanent left ventricular assist device (LVAD) is implanted into an Inova Fairfax Hospital patient.
Inova Fairfax Hospital is named among the nation’s top hospitals for cardiology and cardiac disease treatment, in a new study called “100 Top Hospitals: Cardiovascular Benchmarks for Success,” conducted by Solucient, a leading health care research company.
2000: Cath Lab 3 becomes digital.
Ablation performed on a 6-week old child – the youngest ever.
First to ablate pregnant women with DX of ectopic atrial tachycardia.
2001: Inova Fairfax Hospital is the first in the Washington, DC metro region to use a surgical robot, called the da Vinci Surgical System, to assist in heart surgery. The evolving technology promises minimal trauma and faster recovery times for patients, and enhanced capabilities for surgeons.
Inova’s first heart transplant patient celebrates 15 years of life after transplantation.
The Congestive Heart Failure Program at Inova Fair Oaks Hospital begins.
Vascular brachy therapy is used as a new treatment for instant restenosis at Inova Fairfax Hospital.
Fifth Cath Lab opens at Inova Fairfax Hospital.
2002: Inova Heart Services breaks ground for the Inova Heart Institute, a 156-bed cardiac facility dedicated to the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of heart disease. The Institute will open in the summer of 2004.
Inova Heart Services performs its 100th lung and 200th heart transplantation.
Enhanced external counterpulsation (EECP) is offered for the treatment of angina at Inova Mount Vernon Hospital.
First in country to implant Guidant’s Renewal Bi Ventricular ICD.
2003: Era of Drug Eluting Stents begin with first implantation at Inova Fairfax Hospital.
Purchased Accuson Intracardiac Echo machine to perform upcoming atrial fibrillation ablations.
Chest Pain Observation unit opens at Inova Fairfax Hospital.
2004: Inova Fairfax Hospital begins using cryoablation for
the
treatment of arrhythmias.
Inova Heart and Vascualr Institute opens
the regions first facility dedicated solely to cardiac care.
