Okyanos Heart Institute

The Okyanos Heart Institute provides cardiac stem cell therapy to patients with chronic coronary artery disease. The procedure utilizes a European Union-approved cell processing device tested in the PRECISE Cardiac Clinical Trial. The PRECISE Clinical Trial began in January 2007 and treated chronic heart disease patients with adult stem cell therapy. Okyanos Heart Institute is located in Freeport, The Bahamas and is an outpatient facility that has been built to U.S. surgical center standards. The cardiac stem cell therapy team is led by Dr. Howard Walpole, a leader of the American College of Cardiology since 1991.
History & name origin
Okyanos Heart Institute was officially founded on August 2, 2011 by Matt Feshbach, Joseph Feshbach and Manuel Vianna. Joseph Feshbach died on August 12, 2011 of a sudden cardiac arrest.
The name Okyanos stems from the Greek God of Rivers, Okeanos, as mentioned in Homer’s the Iliad, which is the deity of the great earth-encircling river Okyanos - the source of all the earth’s fresh-water. The name is used to symbolize the current understanding that adult stem and regenerative cells derived from aid in restoring blood flow to ischemic (blood-deprived) tissue.
Cardiac cell therapy
Physician-scientists have explored the clinical application of many types of adult stem and regenerative cells, including those derived from adult bone marrow and adipose tissue. Over the years, positive results have been reported by many of these studies, while many experts are also quick to point out that such studies have used few patients and additional investigation is warranted. There are currently over 450 studies referenced in clinicaltrials.gov under a keyword search of stem cell AND cardiac disease. Over 200 are either actively recruiting or have an unknown recruitment status. While bone marrow has served as the primary source of cells for most studies, others have reported encouraging outcomes with cells such as adipose derived stem cells after myocardial infarction.
There a number of scientific programs dedicated to the discussion of cardiac cell therapy. In the United States, the Conference on Cell Therapy for Cardiac Disease has been held annually in New York for the past seven years. In Europe, the International Symposium on Stem Cell Therapy and Cardiovascular Innovations has been held for the past nine years. These meetings bring together international leaders in the field of cardiac cell therapy to discuss the latest results, review emerging trends, and discuss the future direction of this therapeutic approach.
The Okyanos Procedure
Cardiac Cell Therapy, a treatment for chronic coronary artery disease, is done on an outpatient basis at Okyanos Heart Institute and is minimally-invasive. The Okyanos Procedure is centered on the use of a patient’s own adipose derived stem and regenerative cells (ADRCs) derived from fat tissue. The choice of fat as a tissue source is based on the fact that excess fat is often available and easy to access. In addition, ADRCs have been shown, relative to other tissue sources such as bone marrow, to be over 2,000 times more plentiful. The PRECISE study, sponsored by Cytori Therapeutics, evaluated the use of freshly isolated ADRCs for the treatment of chronic, no-option myocardial ischemia patients. The double-blinded prospective study was performed in both Spain and The Netherlands at leading institutions. The last data reported on the PRECISE study was 18 month follow-up which demonstrated safety and improvement in heart function for patients treated with cells relative to those treated with placebo.
The clinic’s treatment approach involves three steps and uses a European Union approved cell processing device to treat chronic coronary artery disease patients and congestive heart failure. The steps are as follows:
# Approximately 1 cup of adipose (fat) tissue is removed from each patient by liposuction.
# Viable adipose-derived stem and regenerative cells (ADRCs) are extracted from the patient’s fat tissue and concentrated at the point-of-care. This takes approximately one hour.
# Immediately thereafter, a cardiologist performs a catheterization to guide the delivery of cells into the ischemic (low blood flow) regions of the heart.
The Okyanos procedure is performed in a cardiac catheterization lab by a U.S. licensed chief cardiologist, Dr. Howard Walpole.
Clinic leadership
Matt Feshbach is CEO and co-founder of Okyanos Heart Institute. Along with his brother, Joseph, and partner and COO, Manuel Vianna, Matt founded Okyanos Heart Institute to provide stem cell therapy for people with coronary artery disease who had exhausted all available options from the current standard of care.
The Chief Medical Officer of Okyanos is Howard Walpole Jr., M.D., MBA, FACC, FACAI, FSCAI. Dr. Walpole is a U.S. trained interventional cardiologist and was elected to the American College of Cardiology’s Board of Trustees in 2011. Dr. Walpole is supported by Gretchen Dezelick, RN, who directs the clinical operations and maintains the highest level of standards for safety. Ms. Dezelik has over 25 years of nursing and administrative experience in the U.S. ranging from critical care to outpatient surgical environments.

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