A final farewell from this medical journalist

Kaitlyn Dmyterko, Associate Editor

Today, sadly, marks my last day with Cardiovascular Business. For almost three years I have had the pleasure and honor of working with the crew here at CVB and all of you. It is a bittersweet goodbye for me, but I am moving on to start a new adventure in Beantown.

I still remember my first day at TriMed Media/CVB. I was fresh out of grad school and clueless about the cardiovascular world, which I am now so familiar with. Nearly a month in, I was asked to do a web feature on PCI volume. Having no idea what the acronym even meant, I emailed Deepak Bhatt, MD, chief of cardiology at the VA Boston Healthcare System (woah), and asked him if he would speak with me about hospital primary PCI volume and mortality rates in STEMI patients, as featured in a Journal of American Medical Association article.

Before I had a chance to write down questions, Dr. Bhatt called me out of the blue. Horrified, I managed to somehow maintain the conversation and write my first web feature. Now, nearly 1,500 articles down, I can say cardiology no longer scares me; it intrigues me (despite the fact that I give myself angina thinking about all the ailments we write about).

It’s funny to look back and remember the days when I had trouble pronouncing roziglitazone and dabigatran, and when I was surprised to find that the national renowned hospital, Mayo Clinic, was pronounced like the condiment. Now, these things and more, including just how low my CT scan has the potential to be dose wise, have become so familiar and will come in handy someday.  

While what I think I will miss most is writing about ICD-10 codes, a topic that is so near and dear to my heart, and an initiative that I still wonder will ever be put in place, I may not miss sitting through eight-hour FDA panel discussions about rivaroxaban or Edwards' transcatheter aortic valve replacement device. However, wondering whether a new agent will ever replace warfarin is still a question that will keep me up at night.

So, I would like to thank healthcare reform for providing me with job security over the past three years, and thank all of those who helped me out with interviews. I hope to work with you again sometime in the future.

Kaitlyn Dmyterko
Cardiovascular Business, associate editor
Kdmyterko@trimedmedia.com