News Releases

Grand Rapids, Mich., Nov. 25, 2024 – The Corewell Health^TM Fred and Lena Meijer Heart Center is celebrating two decades of advanced heart and vascular care. The Meijer Heart Center, which opened in November 2004, has brought a new level of cardiovascular care to West Michigan.

Today, Corewell Health offers heart and vascular services and procedures ranging from prevention efforts, minimally invasive interventions and catheterizations to open heart surgery and heart and lung transplants.

“The Meijer Heart Center has garnered national recognition for cutting-edge innovation and excellence in patient care while earning the respect and trust of patients and physicians throughout West Michigan,” said Alejandro Quiroga, M.D., MBA, president, Corewell Health in West Michigan. “The success of the program serves as an example of the extraordinary achievements that can be made when people are brought together with a shared vision to work collaboratively in a multidisciplinary environment — high quality cardiac care close to home.”

The Meijer Heart Center has served as the backdrop for dozens of accomplishments during the past two decades (see milestones below). Among the most significant was in 2010 when Spectrum Health performed its first heart transplant. In 2013, Spectrum Health performed its first lung transplant as well as a combined heart and lung transplant — the first of its kind in Michigan since 1999. In addition, Spectrum Health offers a comprehensive ventricular assist device program and cardiothoracic critical care unit to support patients with advanced heart failure.

Since 2010, surgeons at Meijer Heart Center have gone on to perform 252 heart transplants and 539 ventricular assist device procedures. They also have performed 392 lung transplants with the lung transplant program garnering recognition for the best one-year adult patient survival in the nation.

Recent research efforts have received national attention and are bringing clinical trials and innovative treatment options to patients. Meijer Heart Center leads the state with the highest number of transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) procedures and is consistently among the leaders for the number of coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) procedures.

Much of the progress at the Meijer Heart Center has been fueled by the Frederik Meijer Heart & Vascular Institute. Through another major gift from Fred and Lena Meijer in 2010, the institute was formed by Corewell Health cardiovascular physicians to create a collaborative, multidisciplinary approach to care delivered throughout the region. The institute spurs clinical innovation, thought leadership, leading-edge research, patient and physician education and information as well as clinical and operational best practices in cardiovascular care.

“At Corewell Health, we are thinking differently about what is possible, and we empower our patients, team members and partners to do the same,” said Vikram Kashyap, M.D., Frederik Meijer endowed chair, vice president heart and vascular, Corewell Health in West Michigan. “Over the past two decades, the Meijer Heart Center has become a center for clinical innovation, advanced research, patient and physician education, and operational and clinical excellence, making us leaders in the region, state and nation. This allows our skilled team of physicians and caregivers who collaborate using evidence-based practices to treat patients with any type of heart and vascular condition and to provide expert care and hope to thousands each year.”

A major gift from Fred and Lena Meijer along with support from more than 3,000 other donors resulted in more than $35 million to help establish the heart center with the hope of saving lives, sparking innovation and supporting the community. Individuals continue to embrace the lifesaving work of the Meijer Heart Center by continuing to provide important philanthropic support for heart and vascular clinical care and research efforts.

Trailblazing cardiovascular care for more than 60 years:

• 1958: West Michigan’s first open-heart surgery
• 1969: West Michigan’s first coronary artery bypass
• 1980: West Michigan’s first balloon angioplasty
• 1989: West Michigan’s first implanted defibrillator
• 2003: Among first in the state to introduce drug-eluting stents
• 2004: State’s first accredited 24/7 chest pain center
• 2004: One of the first in the nation equipped with 3-D X-ray equipment for three-dimensional cardiovascular imaging
• 2004: Fred and Lena Meijer Heart Center opens its doors
• 2005: West Michigan’s first prosthetic endovascular thoracic aneurysm graft procedure to repair aneurysms of the aorta
• 2006: West Michigan’s first cardiovascular genetics program
• 2008: First surgeons in West Michigan to repair defective heart valves robotically
• 2008: West Michigan’s first Impella miniature heart pump introduced in high-risk angioplasties
• 2009: Stereotaxis magnetic catheter navigation introduced
• 2009: West Michigan’s first ventricular assist devices (VADs) implanted for heart failure patients as a planned “bridge” to heart transplant
• 2010: The Frederik Meijer Heart & Vascular Institute is formed with cardiologist Richard McNamara, M.D., and cardiothoracic surgeon Lawrence Patzelt, M.D., leading its development as co-medical directors
• 2010 Richard DeVos Heart & Lung Transplant Program is formed
• 2010: West Michigan’s first heart transplant performed by international cardiac surgeon, Asghar Khaghani, M.D.
• 2011: First in Michigan to implant MRI-safe pacemaker in Michigan, allowing patients with a pacemaker to undergo safe MRI scans
• 2011: Second institution in the U.S. to receive Accreditation for Cardiovascular Excellence for percutaneous coronary intervention
• 2013: First lung transplant and first combined heart-lung transplant
• 2013: First in West Michigan to perform Lariat procedure, minimally invasive technique to tie off a left atrial appendage, which can be a source of blood clots leading to stroke in patients with atrial fibrillation (AFib)
• 2014: Richard DeVos Cardiovascular Research Program is formed as a collaboration with Van Andel Research Institute to bring world-renowned cardiovascular researcher and cardiologist Stefan Jovinge M.D., Ph.D., to Grand Rapids
• 2014: Richard McNamara Cardiovascular Fellowship Program is established
• 2017: Corewell Health Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy Program designated a national Center of Excellence by the Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy Association (HCMA)
• 2018: Surgeons complete milestone 100th lung and 100th heart transplants
• 2018: Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital receives accreditation from the Adult Congenital Heart Association (ACHA)
• 2020: Ryan Madder, M.D., performs the first-ever cross-country simulated telerobotic procedure
• 2021: Cardiac MRI Suite with Siemens 1.5 Tesla Sola magnet opens on first floor of Meijer Heart Center, providing full spectrum of advanced cardiac imaging
• 2022: Adult lung transplant one-year patient survival is the best in the nation
• 2022: Edward Murphy, M.D., conducts 300^th lung transplant
• 2023: New Intensive Care Unit opens on eighth floor of Meijer Heart Center
• 2024: Corewell Health is the first health system in the Midwest to use pulsed electric fields to address atrial fibrillation in procedure at Meijer Heart Center