JAMAICANS in need of urgent pacemaker-related heart interventions will soon be able to benefit from the services of Jamaican-based certified pacemaker technologists instead of having to rely on overseas-based technologists.

Isaac Sapio and Shelleta Gordon, two cardiovascular technicians at the Heart Institute of the Caribbean (HIC), have been sponsored by the institution to complete advanced training in Pacemaker Technology. The two departed for the St Jude Medical Training Centre in Austin, Texas, USA on August 17, for a two-week intensive training to complete the practical modules.

Upon completion of the training, Sapio and Gordon will be the first certified pacemaker/ICD technicians in the English-speaking Caribbean.

The announcement was made by Professor Ernest Madu, chairman and CEO of HIC on August 12.

The two have been sponsored to undergo training in Cardiac Rhythm Management (CRM), which will focus on pacemaker and Implantable Cardioverter-Defibrillator (ICD) implantation and technology. Sapio and Gordon completed the rigorous online, didactic module prior to their departure last week.

According to Professor Madu, this most recent investment in staff training is an essential part of HIC’s mission to build internal capacity within the Caribbean and particularly Jamaica, to improve access and timeliness to treatment of patients with various cardiovascular conditions.

“This investment will allow the Heart Institute of the Caribbean to implant pacemakers ‘on demand’. As there are currently no trained or certified pacemaker technicians in Jamaica, consistent with international best practices, HIC has to normally await the arrival of trained and certified technicians from overseas which means that all such procedures must be pre-scheduled,” Professor Madu said.