The Baptist Heart Institute at Central Baptist Hospital is the nation’s first to utilize a new system that provides remote control of medical devices to navigate the cardiovascular system. On March 18, physicians at the Baptist Heart Institute announced they had performed the first 'robotic' catheterization procedure utilizing the Niobe Magnetic Navigation System, a recently FDA-approved technology that is used to navigate medical devices, such as catheters and guidewires, through the cardiovascular system to designated target sites in the heart and coronary vasculature.

"We’re excited to be the first in the nation to use this revolutionary catheterization system for cardiac applications," said Gery Tomassoni, M.D., cardiologist and electrophysiologist at Central Baptist Hospital. "We have begun the first of at least eight clinical trials using this innovative equipment."

The system is based on Stereotaxis’ innovations using computer-controlled magnets, positioned external to the body, to programmatically steer magnetically enabled catheters and guidewires, directly at their distal tip, throughout the cardiovascular system. The system is fully integrated with Siemens Medical Solutions leading AXIOM Artis dFC digital fluoroscopy system, which is used to visualize the devices as they are navigated.

The system defines a new era in interventional medicine - one in which computers are designed to help the physician navigate medical devices more rapidly and more precisely than they can be navigated manually, freeing the physician to focus on the patient and the outcome, rather than the mechanics of the procedure.

This combination of the Siemens' and Stereotaxis' technologies is uniquely capable of helping cardiologists improve the ease and accuracy of catheter-based procedures to facilitate increased efficiency and productivity in interventional medicine. The fully integrated, image-guided computerized, magnetic navigation and control system is aimed at addressing problems associated with manual catheter steering and positioning. This approach allows for 360-degree rotation of the catheter and is expected to increase the potential for greater precision.

Advanced fluoroscopic technology integrated with distal tip catheter control allows the clinicians to better leverage the imaging information to ensure the catheter is positioned properly, without trial and error. The system fits into a standard cath lab room.