A former Powell Valley Healthcare medical student is now making waves in the medical field. 

In 2012, Dr. Logan Vincent was involved with the WRITE (WWAMI Rural Integrated Training Experience) program with the University of Washington. During this time, she spent 20 weeks in Powell, training at Powell Valley Healthcare (PVHC). 

Over a decade later, she is performing groundbreaking heart surgeries in Portland, Oregon to treat tricuspid regurgitation, a cardiovascular condition that affects the largest heart valve. The valve becomes leaky and causes blood to flow backwards into the heart’s right atrium. Usually, it is treated with medicine, however, sometimes more drastic measures are needed.  

Vincent was the first female in the world to perform a surgery using the Laplace Interventional Transcatheter Tricuspid Valve system as primary implanter.

It is a minimally invasive surgery, and is unprecedented because it is inserted through a vein in the neck, eliminating the need for open-heart surgery. Less than 50 patients have received the surgery, and it is currently an early feasibility study (EFS), and not approved for general use. 

Vincent grew up in Seattle and attended Yale for her undergraduate studies. Then she did residency and three fellowships (General Cardiology, Interventional Cardiology and Structural Heart fellowships) at the University of Washington. 

“She was one of our first WRITE students,” Dr. Michael Bohlman said. “So she, in her third year of medical school, spent 20 weeks here with me being her primary preceptor.”

WRITE students gain experience working in primary care, obstetrics, pediatrics and surgery. 

“[WRITE] was the best,” Vincent wrote to Bohlman. “It’s the reason that I went into a specialty where I get to know patients and their families over time rather than just meeting them once.”

During her time in Wyoming, Vincent developed close relationships with the community and the doctors at PVHC.

“She was a good mentor to my kids,” Bohlman said. “She would talk to them and give them advice… which I appreciated, because she was with us a lot. She spent a lot of time with our family and got pretty close to us.”

Vincent also learned that long-term relationships with patients were appealing to her. This prompted her to become a specialist in interventional cardiology. 

“She was just a real quality person and a good student,” Bohlman remembered. “A good person too.”

Now she’s taken that experience, including her time in Powell, to expand the limits of modern medicine.