Building on St. Luke’s Heart & Vascular’s recognition as a Top 50 Heart Hospital, the initiative strengthens cardiology capacity across its network.
BETHLEHEM, PA, UNITED STATES, April 27, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ — Auxira Health today announced a collaboration with St. Luke’s University Health Network (SLUHN), a nonprofit regional health system serving communities across eastern Pennsylvania and New Jersey, to enhance access to high-quality cardiology services while preserving the deeply trusted doctor-patient relationship. The collaboration brings Auxira’s proven model to St. Luke’s Heart & Vascular, an eight-time nationally ranked “Top 50 Heart Hospital” that’s part of the SLUHN system.
Auxira’s model adds a virtual care team to support each cardiologist. These teams include nurse practitioners, medical assistants and registered nurses who help with follow-ups, paperwork and care coordination online. This lets providers stay focused on diagnosing, treating, and caring for patients.
SLUHN is leveraging this model with 24 cardiologists, with plans to expand across St. Luke’s Heart and Vascular network that includes multiple locations across Pennsylvania and New Jersey. The system-wide collaboration builds on St. Luke’s Heart and Vascular’s legacy of exceptional cardiovascular care and aligns with its mission to improve community health through easily accessible, integrated care. It was the first hospital in its region to do open heart surgery in 1983 and continues to be the first in the region to pioneer new and advanced surgeries to this day.
“We understand that many patients – especially our older patients – value their time with a cardiologist above all else. At St. Luke’s, we are making sure that commitment remains at the heart of our care while also creating new ways to give patients easier access to timely appointments and more coordinated support when they need it most,” said Ray Durkin, MD, cardiology chair at St. Luke’s. “This collaboration allows us to strengthen the connection between patients and their doctors, while surrounding them with a broader care team that enhances follow-up and continuity. It’s another step in ensuring that every patient receives both the personal attention they trust and the nationally recognized quality they deserve.”
Working with Auxira will add important resources to support administrative tasks and routine virtual patient care, helping to reduce after‑hours EHR time and streamlining workflow so SLUHN clinicians can devote more attention to high‑value patient interactions. The integrated team‑care model ensures detailed, coordinated care, enabling:
• Physician-led, team-supported model that respects patient preferences;
• Greater access and timeliness, enabling more patients to be seen, more quickly;
• Embedded integration that requires no new platforms, leveraging existing SLUHN systems and operational workflows; and
• Reinforcing SLUHN’s iCARE values: Integrity, Compassion, Accountability, Respect, and Excellence, by delivering exceptional care with personal connection.
Cardiovascular disease remains the leading cause of death in the U.S. and impacts more than one in three adults, with projections suggesting up to half of the adult population may be affected by 2035. In New Jersey, heart disease continues to top the list of causes of death, with an age-adjusted mortality rate of 157.5 per 100,000 residents, and in Pennsylvania, recent county-level data indicates age-adjusted coronary heart disease mortality rates around 106 per 100,000.
“At Auxira, we believe the future of cardiology lies in strengthening the connection between patients and their physicians. Our role is to surround cardiologists with the right support so they can focus fully on the moments that matter most in patient care,” said Auxira Health Co-founder and CEO Inna Plumb. “By working together with Saint Luke’s, we are showing how a team-based model can preserve the trusted physician-patient relationship while making care more responsive, more personal and more sustainable for both patients and providers.”
St. Luke’s
Founded in 1872, St. Luke’s University Health Network (SLUHN) is a fully integrated, regional, non-profit network with annual net revenue of more than $4.5 billion. With 23,000+ employees at 16 hospital campuses and 350+ outpatient sites, it is the Lehigh Valley’s biggest employer.
The Network’s service area includes 11 counties in two states: Lehigh, Northampton, Berks, Bucks, Carbon, Montgomery, Monroe, Schuylkill and Luzerne counties in Pennsylvania and Warren and Hunterdon counties in New Jersey. St. Luke’s Children’s Hospital is based at the Bethlehem Campus.
Dedicated to advancing medical education, St. Luke’s is the preeminent teaching hospital in central-eastern Pennsylvania. In partnership with Temple University, the Network established the Lehigh Valley’s first and only four-year medical school. It also operates the nation’s oldest continuously operated School of Nursing, established in 1884, and 60+ fully accredited graduate medical educational programs with 550+ residents and fellows.
In 2025, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services ranked St. Luke’s #1 – ahead of Houston Methodist and Mayo Clinic, two of the nation’s most prestigious institutions – as the nation’s top health system for quality, safety and patient experience. This objective recognition, based on public data reported to the government, reaffirms St. Luke’s position as THE BEST OF THE BEST among the most respected health care systems in the US.
St. Luke’s was named a Leapfrog Group and Healthgrades Top Hospital and a Newsweek World’s Best Hospital. It’s the only Lehigh Valley-based health care system to earn Medicare’s five-star ratings for quality, efficiency and patient satisfaction. In 2025, the Network earned straight A’s from Leapfrog across all of its acute care hospitals. It has earned 100 Top Hospital designations from Premier 11 years in a row, including in 2021 when its flagship University Hospital was identified as THE #1 TEACHING HOSPITAL IN THE COUNTRY. Utilizing the Epic electronic medical record (EMR) system for both inpatient and outpatient services, the Network is a multi-year recipient of the Most Wired award recognizing the breadth of SLUHN’s information technology applications such as telehealth, online scheduling and online pricing information.
About Auxira Health
Auxira Health is on a mission to bring balance to cardiology by empowering physicians with expert clinical support that is seamless, personal and truly impactful. Through precision-matched, virtually-embedded teams of advanced practice providers (APPs), medical assistants (MAs) and registered nurses (RNs), Auxira helps deliver exceptional care to their patients. By expanding care capacity and streamlining workflows, providers thrive in today’s healthcare landscape. Co-developed with MedStar Health and Abundant Venture Partners, Auxira is building a sustainable, human-centered future for cardiology care.
Inna Plumb
Auxira Health
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