Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
- Intermountain Health has received a $2.4 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to research advancements in treating mitral valve prolapse, a condition affecting approximately 7.8 million Americans.
- Principal Investigator Dr. Benjamin Horne aims to leverage artificial intelligence and extensive patient data to enhance patient outcomes and halt disease progression.
MURRAY — Ever since he was young, Bill Beeston knew he had a heart murmur.
"They just said it was something I'd have to live with," he said.
But as time went on, the Provo man started having trouble doing daily tasks, like mowing the lawn.
"I would get exhausted and winded easier than before," he said.
Through an ultrasound, doctors determined Beeston had mitral valve prolapse, a common heart disorder that affects around 7.8 million Americans.
"They said, 'No, this is a problem. Your heart muscle is going to wear out and it needs to be taken care of,'" he said.
Mitral valve prolapse means your heart's mitral valve does not close properly, allowing blood to leak backward. In some cases, this condition can lead to heart failure.
"When the heart pumps, the blood comes out of the ventricle out to the body. But for people who have this condition, some of the blood goes backward into what they call the atrium, and so the heart needs to work a little harder than usual to get blood out to the body," said Dr. Benjamin Horne, a cardiovascular epidemiologist at Intermountain Health.
Intermountain Health researchers were recently awarded a $2.4 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to study ways to improve care of patients with mitral valve prolapse.
Horne, who is the principal investigator of the study, said they plan to evaluate large amounts of patient data — while utilizing artificial intelligence — to hopefully enhance patient outcomes.
"We want to halt the progression of the disease so that they don't go to the next problem and make it so they have a longer life and that that life is healthier than it would have been," he said.
Thanks to new research, Beeston was able to avoid open heart surgery, instead having a tiny clip — called a MitraClip — placed on his heart to repair the leaky valve.
He's now able to continue to do the things he loves, like traveling the world with his wife, Ruby Beeston .
"It's day and night," he said. "I feel energetic. I feel I have oxygen in my system. I'm ready to go; I'm ready to live my life."
