Vanderbilt University Medical Center was well represented at the 34th annual conference of the Extracorporeal Life Support Organization (ELSO), held recently in Seattle.
VUMC speakers included Whitney Gannon, MSN, MS; Anil Trindade, MD; Lynne Craig, RN; Brian Bridges, MD; and Caitlin Demarest, MD, PhD. Some of the Vanderbilt speakers gave multiple presentations.
ELSO is an international consortium of health care professionals and scientists dedicated to the development and evaluation of new therapies for supporting failing organ systems. Earlier this year, ELSO recognized VUMC’s extracorporeal life support (ECLS) program with the platinum level award for excellence in life support, the organization’s highest honor.
VUMC’s ECLS program offers a life-saving medical treatment called ECMO, or extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, a life-sustaining mechanical system that temporarily takes over for the heart and lungs of critically ill patients, allowing them to rest and recover. The ECMO program, first operating out of Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt in 1989, is the first and largest in Middle Tennessee and one of the largest in the nation, serving about 200 pediatric and adult patients per year.