Dr. Tom Jones: The Art of Cardiac Catheterization
The pioneering work of Dr. Tom Jones has revolutionized the way congenital heart defects are repaired.
An innovator of devices, developer of techniques and teacher of colleagues, Seattle Children’s Dr. Tom Jones is a Renaissance man in the cardiac catheterization lab.
As director of Seattle Children’s cardiac catheterization laboratories, Jones leads an interventional cardiology service that is one of the nation’s busiest — and boasts some of the lowest complication and morbidity rates. His pioneering clinical work has revolutionized the way congenital heart defects are repaired at Seattle Children’s and throughout the world.
At the same time, Jones is an internationally known teacher of advanced catheterization procedures and an innovator of heart devices — a man who demonstrates the art beneath the science of interventional cardiology.
Teaching — and Transferring — Technology
With video cameras rolling and his microphone headset on, Jones begins closing an atrial septal defect (ASD) — a hole in the heart — of a 3-year-old girl in one of the cardiac catheterization laboratories at Seattle Children’s.
Meanwhile, more than 1,000 cardiologists from 56 countries watch his every move from the Pediatric Interventional Cardiac Symposium in Las Vegas. They pepper Jones with questions as he performs the procedure using a device he helped evaluate in clinical investigations before it was approved by the FDA. After inserting the tiny double-disk device made of wire mesh through a cardiac catheter, Jones positions the device across the hole in the child’s heart, and then leaves it holding the pulsing tissue.
Those viewing the live broadcast not only want exposure to innovative procedures such as this, they also want to see how a pro handles the unpredictable or unforeseen events that invariably arise during treatment.
For Jones — one of only a handful of physicians in the world with the expertise to demonstrate advanced cardiac catheterization procedures — this brand of teaching is “reality TV at its best.”
In addition to teaching advanced catheterization techniques to his colleagues, Jones is applying these same techniques and technologies to treat adults.
“Most adult cardiologists deal with coronary artery disease and aren’t that comfortable repairing congenital conditions that affect the heart’s structure,” explains Jones. “The physicians with the most highly developed skills for working on adults with structural heart defects are pediatric interventional cardiologists.”
During the last decade, Jones’ pioneering clinical work has helped interventional cardiology evolve from a diagnostic tool to a treatment-focused technology. Today, two-thirds of the procedures in Children’s cardiac catheterization laboratories are therapeutic.
A Technical Innovator
Jones’ innovation began early. As an undergraduate engineering student, he was fascinated with design and construction. This interest only deepened when he became a cardiologist. For the last 24 years, he has collaborated with biomedical engineers from universities and private companies to develop new types of catheters and all manner of heart devices — an ability that greatly enhances his clinical work.
Because of the national reputation Jones has built at Seattle Children’s cardiac catheterization laboratories, he is currently participating in seven clinical trials for cardiac devices that are pending FDA approval.
His latest collaboration with biomedical engineers from the University of Washington takes his work in yet another direction. Instead of using plastic and metal to close holes in the upper chambers of the heart, he is helping develop a “non-device” that uses radiofrequency energy to weld heart tissue — a truly visionary way to mend a broken heart.