KANSAS CITY, KAN. ? Patients with heart disease will have new treatment options at KU Med.

Hospital officials announced Thursday that they would begin a Congestive Heart Failure and Cardiomyopathy Center to treat complex heart conditions. The center also will oversee patient care for heart transplant patients when KU Med re-establishes its transplant program.

Dr. Dennis Bresnahan, who will oversee the center, said research was allowing more people to survive heart attacks. Survivors often later battle heart disease.

âÂÂItâÂÂs sort of a failure of success,â Bresnahan said. âÂÂWeâÂÂre preventing deaths, and now we have to treat the survivors. This will be the public health issue of the next decade.âÂÂ

The four physicians recruited for the center came from Mid-America Cardiology, which announced in November 2000 it would move from St. LukeâÂÂs Hospital to KU Med. They have a combined 60 yearsâ experience in heart care.

âÂÂWith specialists in this area focusing on congestive heart failure and other critical conditions, the course of heart disease can be significantly slowed,â said Irene Cumming, KU Med president and chief executive officer. âÂÂIt is better for the health of the patient, the quality of their lives and the best use of their medical dollars.âÂÂ

Bresnahan said the center, part of the cardiology offices at KU Med, would allow for seamless care between the hospital and outpatient services offered to heart patients.

It also will allow patients to participate in clinical trials and new treatments, such as biventricular pacemakers, in which both sides of the heart are electronically stimulated.

Bresnahan said monitoring transplant patients would be separate from other patients, though the same set of physicians would be involved. He said KU still didnâÂÂt have a timeline for restarting transplants.

âÂÂWhether or not we ever do transplants, the need for managing patients with this case still exists,â he said.