For more than 20 years, St. Mary's has been on the front lines in the quest for safer, less invasive, and less costly ways to manage cardiovascular disease.

The following are just a few of our trailblazing research efforts:

• The balloon angioplasty procedure (PCTA) was pioneered in the United States at St. Mary's in 1978.
• Use of the internal mammary artery (IMA) with sequential grafts procedure was introduced and perfected by surgeons at St. Mary's.
• Our surgeons are pioneers in mitral valve surgery to repair, rather than replace, heart valves.
• St. Mary's surgeons helped develop minimally-invasive procedures, such as "small-incision" surgery and "off-pump" surgery.