At the Forefront of Heart Care Innovation

When Tsuyoshi Kaneko, MD, arrived as the chief of cardiac surgery at WashU Medicine and Barnes-Jewish Hospital in October 2022, he delivered a bounty of innovations for patients like Harry Ratliff.

Dr. Kaneko is a world-renowned leader in complex valvular heart disease and is a pioneer in minimally invasive procedures. Over the past three years at Barnes-Jewish, he has introduced a Ross procedure program to treat younger patients with aortic valve disease, robotic-assisted mitral valve repair surgery, and a robotic cardiac surgery program. His team has also implemented several new techniques for heart transplant, along with other novel surgical approaches.

Without missing a beat, the team also started several new transcatheter valve treatments.

“I’m the national principal investigator for several trials, so we are able to bring some of these newer devices to Barnes-Jewish Hospital,” Dr. Kaneko says. “All of these things combined are putting us at the forefront of innovation. We’re the only hospital in the 200-mile radius that can offer this broad portfolio of therapies.”

Barnes-Jewish Hospital has been recognized for extraordinary heart care for decades and continues to build on this history of excellence. Innovations fueled by donor support have changed heart care around the globe. The partnership of the WashU Medicine physicians at Barnes-Jewish, along with the nurses, research coordinators, and other staff, has created one of the best heart teams in the country at the WashU and Barnes-Jewish Heart and Vascular Center.

Growing for the Future

As Dr. Kaneko has grown the heart services available, the number of patients seeking that expert care at Barnes-Jewish has increased by 35% in the past three years.

Meanwhile, Dr. Kaneko’s role was recently elevated to further expand heart and vascular services for patients. In May, Dr. Kaneko was named the new WashU Medicine division director of cardiothoracic surgery. He says because of the nationally recognized leaders and innovators who held the role before him, he feels especially honored to fill those shoes.

“There’s an impressive history here, and there’s an opportunity to create new history. We have great surgeons within our adult cardiac, general thoracic, and congenital groups. Hopefully, we can accomplish similar things as my predecessors did to really move the field forward—that’s something we aspire to do.” Dr. Kaneko is renowned for his dedication to training future cardiothoracic surgeons so all patients—no matter what heart issues they have—receive the same high-level, excellent care.

“I can only treat one patient at a time, but if you train 100 fellows, then you can treat 100 patients at the same time,” Dr. Kaneko says. “Through training the next generation, you can accomplish something big that you can’t do alone. We have an obligation to continue to produce the next generation of leaders in the field.”

Gateway to Excellence

The need for better heart disease prevention and treatment is critical: heart disease is the number one killer in the United States.

“It’s not cancer; it’s not stroke; it’s not other diseases—it’s heart disease,” Dr. Kaneko emphasizes. “And we have a potential, highly impactful way to change that, especially in this Midwest region that has a higher prevalence of cardiovascular disease.”

At Barnes-Jewish, heart patients have access to more than 30 clinical trials.

“We’re going to be bringing a lot of clinical research to heart patients that will change the practice of cardiology and cardiac surgery,” Dr. Kaneko says

Barnes-Jewish Hospital is ranked No. 1 in Missouri. BJC Health System received 109 recognitions for clinical excellence from U.S. News & World Report, including national rankings for Barnes-Jewish Hospital in 11 out of 14 specialties, including cardiology and heart and vascular surgery. Barnes-Jewish and its physician partners at WashU Medicine are once again ranked No. 1 in the metro St. Louis area and in Missouri.