February is American Heart Month which is the perfect time to look at the advances being made in heart and vascular care. Overlake Medical Center's Heart and Vascular Center, in partnership with Evergreen Health Care and Kaiser Permanente, offers a full range of resources for the prevention and treatment of heart and vascular diseases. "[At] The Heart and Vascular Center one of the major programs that we have is the Structural Heart Program, which aims to treat diseases of the structure of the heart. That includes diseases like aortic stenosis, mitral regurgitation and congenital heart anomalies, what people call 'holes in the heart' and atrial septal defect." said Dr. Ron Aviles, a cardiologist for Overlake's Heat & Vascular Care Center. These conditions can be present at birth but they can also be caused by disease or even develop as we age. One of the other diseases that the Center treats deals with stroke prevention. "There's an outpouching in the left upper chamber of the heart that we can seal off to prevent stroke in patients that have atrial fibrillation," Dr. Aviles said. Overlake Medical Center offers the full range of treatment options that include: Open Heart Surgery: The traditional method for repairing heart conditions. Minimally Invasive Surgery: Techniques like valve repairs (e.g., the Ozaki procedure). Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement (TAVR): A minimally invasive catheter-based technique procedure to replace a damaged aortic valve. Mitral Edge-to-Edge Repair Techniques: Minimally invasive methods to fix mitral valve regurgitation. Left Atrial Appendage Occlusion Device Procedure: A technique to seal off the heart's outpouching to prevent strokes in patients with atrial fibrillation. Structural heart disease treatment has seen significant innovations over the past decade. Treatments are now less invasive, more accessible to patients and have significantly reduced recovery times. "There's been an explosion of innovation in this field over the last ten years," said Dr. Aviles. "It has brought in cardiac surgeons and interventional cardiologists to really move the field forward and make it less invasive for people to have these treatment options." Traditional open-heart surgery recovery can take 6 to 12 weeks, whereas catheter-based procedures often allow patients to return to normal activities within a week. "The recovery is night and day. With catheter-based procedures, recovery is overnight, and within a week you're back to doing what you do," Dr. Aviles said. Located on the Eastside, Overlake offers care that is both convenient and nationally recognized. "The reason anybody should choose anything is because of the track record. We are in the top 7% in the nation as far as important outcomes are concerned like survival, like stroke prevention, like use of pacemakers and valve function," Dr. Aviles said. Additionally, the staff at Overlake Medical Center prides itself on its culture of compassion. "Culture is important, having a culture of compassionate care and excellence, the people involved are key for that culture," Dr. Aviles said. "Having well-trained people with lots of experience is essential. It's a premier cardiovascular comprehensive center right in your backyard." For more information on structural heart and vascular care, visit Overlake Medical Center's website. Sponsored by Overlake Medical Center and Clinics Segment Producer Joseph Suttner. Watch New Day Northwest 11 a.m. weekdays on KING 5 and streaming live on KING5.com. Contact New Day.