GPS-like Tracking Allows Closer Look

When Howard learned she would need another procedure, she hoped to avoid the risk of long-term effects from radiation. She has a history of breast cancer in her family. She was the first of more than 800 patients treated with ablation each year to be given that choice.

The MediGuide technology from St. Jude Medical, Inc., is a GPS-enabled tool that works similarly to the global positioning system in your car. Using electromagnetic signals to track tiny sensors embedded in catheters and other devices, MediGuide creates a "GPS universe within the body," describes Loren Berenbom, MD, cardiologist at The University of Kansas Health System.

With it, physicians see where the catheter is in real time and can map the route to the heart on a 3D image that uses an X-ray image as a base map. Because the X-ray equipment does not run continually throughout the procedure, exposure to radiation is dramatically reduced by 15-90%.

For Howard, whose procedure was about an hour long, MediGuide reduced her exposure to radiation from 20 minutes to less than 2 minutes.

Howard truly appreciates that. "Being a nurse, I know what good care is," she says. "The University of Kansas Health System delivers excellent patient care."