For Immediate Release

For more information, contact:
Gloria O'Connell, 612-863-4801

Minneapolis Heart Institute at Abbott Northwestern Hospital presents therapeutic hypothermia conference

MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. 06/25/2010--Healthcare professionals are invited to "Miracle on Ice: Therapeutic Hypothermia for Cardiac Arrest Patients" September 9 and 10 in Minneapolis. The conference is devoted to the fundamentals of establishing and developing a cooling program and features Minneapolis physicians and other national experts.

"We’ve developed the key elements of a successful resuscitation program: an organized network, collaborative care, established data measurements and feedback to all parties," said Michael Mooney, M.D. "We are sharing what we’ve learned with physicians and hospitals who are just beginning therapeutic hypothermia programs and with those who want to expand existing programs."

Dr. Mooney is an interventional cardiologist and co-director of the "Cool It" program of the Minneapolis Heart Institute at Abbott Northwestern Hospital. The hospital is a pioneer in using cooling to treat comatose patients following cardiac arrest. From its 2006 inception, the "Cool It" program focused on developing a collaborative model within a network.

"The cardiac arrest patient is a true example of why a large multidiscipline approach is needed to care for these critically ill patients," says Barbara Tate Unger, R.N., development director, Systems of Cardiovascular Emergency Care at the Minneapolis Heart Institute at Abbott Northwestern.

"As the patient is handed from paramedics to emergency departments to intensive care units to cardiologists to rehabilitation specialists, understanding the role that each must play is critical to great outcomes."

Thirty-three hospitals and 10 clinics follow the "Cool It" protocol. Paramedics throughout Minnesota and emergency departments as far away as 200 miles from Minneapolis are working together to begin care at the earliest possible moment.

For complete conference information and to register, go to http://miracle2010.eventbrite.com/.

More about the Minneapolis Heart Institute at Abbott Northwestern Hospital

Part of Allina Hospitals & Clinics, the Minneapolis Heart Institute at Abbott Northwestern Hospital is ranked as one of the nation’s leading centers for cardiovascular care and is the largest integrated cardiovascular provider in Minnesota.

More about Therapeutic Hypothermia

Sudden cardiac arrest causes more than 350,000 deaths a year. Even for patients who survive cardiac arrest, chances are high they will sustain permanent neurological damage. One of the ways to lessen this risk is to quickly cool the patient’s core body temperature to 33 degrees Celsius through induced or therapeutic hypothermia – making time and temperature critical components to successfully treating cardiac arrest.