|
|
| |
|
Current Issue
|
|
| Cover Story | | | | Special Section: Cardiovascular Information Systems | | | | | Features | | | | | | | | News & Views | | | | | Departments | | | |
| more... |
|
|
|
| |
A former executive at Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS) has been indicted on
federal charges for negotiating an undisclosed pact between the company
and generic drug maker Apotex, involving Plavix, and then allegedly
lying about it to federal regulators.
| | |
| |
Top executives of Physio-Control and its parent company Medtronic have
signed a consent decree of permanent injunction issued by the FDA
related to automatic external defibrillators (AED) manufactured by
Physio-Control.
| | |
| |
Joining calls by federal and state lawmakers to monitor or restrict
physicians’ relationships with pharmaceutical companies, the
Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) Task Force has
recommended that academic medical centers strongly discourage their
faculty from speaking at industry-sponsored conferences.
| | |
|
Actavis Totowa, a Morristown, N.J. manufacturing division of pharma
company Actavis Group, has initiated a Class I U.S. recall of all lots
of its heart failure treatment Digitek, as a precautionary measure.
| LAS VEGAS–The Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) formula used by the Centers
for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to calculate the rate for
physician reimbursement is inherently flawed and may be a prime driver
in the growth of ancillary service utilization, such as in-office
diagnostic imaging, according to William F. Jessee, MD, president and
CEO of the Medical Group Management Association (MGMA).
| | |
| Medtronic reported Tuesday that it will cut 1,100 jobs globally, which
constitutes 3 percent of its total workforce of approximately 39,500
employees.
| Merck plans to reduce the size of its U.S. sales force by 1,200 positions.
| | |
| CardioNet, a wireless medical technology company with a focus on the
diagnosis and monitoring of cardiac arrhythmias, has reported positive
results for the first quarter, which ended March 31.
| The FDA is attempting to hire more than 1,300 biologists, chemists,
medical officers, mathematical statisticians, investigators, inspectors
and other professionals by Sept. 30, the end of its fiscal year.
| | |
| Pfizer has confirmed that it will proceed with the development of a new
biological facility in Cork, Ireland, resulting in the creation of
approximately 100 jobs.
| A World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) arbitration panel has
ruled that Boston Scientific stents do not infringe any of the Medinol
patents.
| | |
| Although the ENHANCE trial has highlighted limitations of imaging-based
surrogate endpoints for atherosclerosis, it seems that imaging will
keep a central place in the transition from early Phase II to Phase
III, because strong indications of a beneficial therapeutic profile are
needed before developers commit to the very large Phase III programs,
according to a commentary by Bethan Hughes, published in the May issue
of Nature.
| Based on the current prediction of U.S. demographics, adult care
generalists will be deficient by 35,000-44,000 by 2025, although the
supply for care of children should be adequate, according to a study
published online April 19 in Health Affairs.
| | |
| Over two million people die of coronary diseases in India annually,
which could cost the country $236 billion in the next 10 years due to
loss in productive working days and treatment costs.
| The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has selected six
healthcare IT suppliers to participate in a project that will test IT
solutions to facilitate the submission of Physician Quality Reporting
Initiative (PQRI) measures data gathered from EMRs.
| | |
Surgeons using a da Vinci robotic surgical system and the Cardica
C-Port Flex A anastomosis system have performed eight closed-chest
coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) procedures on a beating heart.
| The ACC’s National Cardiovascular Data Registry (NCDR) and the AHA’s
Get With The Guidelines (GWTG)-Coronary Artery Disease (CAD) Registry
are joining together to create a unified U.S. registry for measuring
and improving safety and outcomes for patients with acute coronary
syndromes (ACS).
| | |
| Remote monitoring can improve the condition of mobile heart failure
(HF) patients and reduce hospital readmissions, according to a pilot
study that included 110 patients admitted to Massachusetts General
Hospital in Boston.
| Increased attention to precipitating factors, frequently identified in
patients hospitalized for heart failure (HF), such as pneumonia,
irregular heart beats, and obstructed blood flow to the heart, is
important in optimizing HF management, according to a study published
in the April 28 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine.
| | |
| High-dose lipid-lowering therapy with atorvastatin (Lipitor) not only
prevents a first cardiovascular (CV) event from occurring compared with
simvastatin (Zocor), but it also continues to prevent repeat events in
high-risk patients, according to a trial presented at the 2008 Congress
of the European Atherosclerosis Society (EAS).
| Wealth and income are independent predictors of stroke from ages 50 to
64 but do not predict stroke among the U.S. elderly, which reflects a
buffering of the negative effect of low socioeconomic status by
improved access to social and healthcare programs at old ages,
according to a study in the May issue of Stroke.
| | |
| Antihypertensive treatment with indapamide (Lozol) (sustained release),
with or without perindopril (Aceon), in persons 80 years of age or
older is beneficial, according to a study published May 1 in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM).
| Lantheus Medical Imaging, formerly Bristol-Myers Squibb Medical
Imaging, has initiated a multicenter Phase IV observational study to
evaluate the safety profile of Definity Vial for injectable suspension
in patients with suboptimal echocardiograms and provide safety
information on the use of ultrasound contrast agents in routine
clinical practice.
| | |
| AstraZeneca-sponsored SATURN clinical trial will use the Volcano
Revolution 45 MHz intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) imaging catheter from
Volcano, as part of its imaging protocol.
| InspireMD has reported positive six-month results from the MGuard
coronary stent, first-in-man, multi-center ongoing trial in Germany.
| | |
|
|
|
|
