Adult ECMO Specialist Training Course Faculty
Joseph W. Basha, Jr.
LP, CCP
Joseph has been a practicing clinical perfusionist for 40 years. Currently, Joseph is the CEO of Houston Extracorporeal Technologies and is the program director of The New Orleans Conference and MediWeb which includes PerfWeb and NurseWeb.
Vickie L. Carlyle
RN-BSN, CCRN, E-AEC
Vickie Carlyle has been in critical care for over 10 years. She received her Bachelor of Science in Nursing from the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Cizik School of Nursing. Most of her critical care experience has been focused on cardiovascular critical care where she developed a real interest in ECMO support and perfusion. Currently, she is certified in critical care nursing and adult ECMO certified, working towards getting a degree in perfusion.
Tammy Sparacino
LP, CCP
Tammy graduated from Texas Heart Institute and had been practicing for nearly 17 years in Houston and surrounding areas. She is employed with Houston Extracorporeal Technologies as a clinical perfusionist. Her professional interests are perfusion education, ECMO management, and blood conservation.
Kimberlee Spurlin
RN-MSN, NP
CV ICU Clinical Coordinator
Memorial Hermann The Woodlands The Woodlands, TX
Mike Brown
BSN, CCP, LP
Micheal Ray Brown, CCP, LP, is a graduate of The Texas Heart School of Perfusion Technology. He has been a perfusionist for 38 years in and around the city of Houston, Texas. Over his career, Mike has done approximately 5500 adult and pediatric open heart surgeries, hundreds of hours of adult, pediatric and neonatal ECMOs and IABP monitoring, and scores of RVAD and LVAD initiations and bypasses. and thousands of ATS cases at various hospitals in the United States. Mike served as a clinical instructor at The Texas Heart Institute for 11 months after graduating from the Class of 1982. In November of 1983 he joined Houston Life Support providing perfusion services in the Houston area and worked for 31 years in that company he later joined SETA, Baxters Perfusion Services, Fresenius, Hospital Clinical Services Group, and Specialty Care. For the past 6 years, he has worked with HET as a clinical perfusionist. Mike was instrumental in the development of the CPS system for temporary cardiopulmonary bypass and placed the first patient on that device in the county. He also was involved with The Medicins Company to perform clinical trials and protocols concerning the drug Angiomax. He provided relief services to 12 hospitals in the United States and Puerto Rico, as well as two-week perfusion medical mission in Perm Russia. Mike also serves as faculty for the HET Perfweb Webinar series.
Minh Q. Tran
BS, RRT, CCP, LP
Minh has been involved in health care for over 17 years in which began in the greater New Orleans area where he grew up. He graduated from LSUHSC in 2003 with a Bachelor of Science in Cardiopulmonary Science. A double occupational major in Respiratory Therapy and Cardiac Ultrasonic Sonography. He was also part of the Ochsner medical relief team during Hurricane Katrina, in addition to volunteering as relief help for Hurricane Ike in the Greater Houston area in 2008. He worked in respiratory care from 2002-2008 and then graduated from the THI School of Perfusion Technology in 2008. He began his Perfusion career in Richmond, VA where he worked with Specialty Care during 2009-2012. In Richmond, he was instrumental with the CV team helping to introduce a HeartMate II LVAD program in addition to performing minimally invasive robotic mitral valve repairs. He then continued his next venture to the Houston area where he became part of the Houston Methodist CV team at TMC. There he was able to continue to build on his experience and knowledge in addition to sharing his own with the perfusion program and became a part of the heart failure program assisting with LVAD, Bi-VAD, Tandem, and total artificial Heart implants. After joining HET in 2013 he is involved in the coverage of many areas of Houston from the Woodlands throughout to downtown for coverage relief with TMC Memorial Hermann. He is also a faculty member involved with occasional appearances and offers help with PerfWeb.
Mark Mettauer
MD
Dr. Mark Mettauer, MD is a cardiac surgery specialist in The Woodlands, TX, and has been practicing for 16 years. He specializes in cardiac surgery and thoracic surgery.
Lucus Duvall
MD
Lucas M. Duvall, MD, FACS is a board-certified and fellowship-trained cardio-thoracic surgeon and a fellow in the American College of Surgeons. Dr. Duvall is the Houston Methodist The Woodlands Hospital Cardiovascular Surgery Medical Director and the Vice President of the Medical Staff.
Vivekkumar Patel
MD
Dr. Vivekkumar Patel is a thoracic surgeon in The Woodlands, Texas and is affiliated with multiple hospitals in the area, including Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center and Michael E. DeBakey Veterans Affairs Medical Center. He received his medical degree from Texas AM Health Science Center College of Medicine and has been in practice between 11-20 years.