Organization

University Of Ottawa Heart Institute


AHA: Aspirin alone good enough to prevent vein graft disease

Conference News | Tuesday, November 17 2009
Orlando, Fla.—The addition of clopidogrel to aspirin did not lead to a significant reduction in vein graft intimal hyperplasia during the first year after CABG, according to the CASCADE trial presented Monday during the late-breaking clinical trials session at the 2009 American Heart Association conference.
 

Telehealth monitoring cuts heart failure readmissions by 54%, $20K per patient

Top Stories | Tuesday, July 14 2009
A home telehealth monitoring program developed by the University of Ottawa Heart Institute has cut hospital readmission by 54 percent for heart failure patients. The program also has been shown to save up to $20,000 for each patient safely diverted from an emergency department visit, readmission and hospital stay.
 

JACC: Incidental findings on CCT are common, costly and clinically unhelpful

Clinical Studies | Friday, October 09 2009
Although noncardiac incidental findings are common on cardiac CT (CCT) scans, clinically significant or indeterminate incidental findings are less prevalent; however, investigation of incidental findings is not without cost or risk, according to study results published in the Oct. 13 issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
 


Web Exclusives

Commentary: Atrial fibrillation strikes an electrophysiologist

Middle age introduces itself in many ways; one is atrial fibrillation (AF). My onset of AF seems to have coincided with a mountain bike accident in the woods of North Carolina that resulted in some cracked ribs.

AHRQ: Health IT could be disruptive while reducing rehospitalization rates, costs

The use of health IT to reduce rehospitalizations will be welcome but also disruptive, said Stephen Jencks, an independent consultant in healthcare safety during a Feb. 24 webinar on the potential use of health IT to mitigate rehospitalizations, sponsored by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ).

New patient monitoring model draws scrutiny

A new hospital breaking ground usually isn’t breaking news. But the vision of patient care at one new facility, tentatively named Palomar Medical Center West (PMC West), is currently illegal under California state law.

Commentary: Overcoming challenges with drug-eluting stents

There are cases presented to all physicians when we have to balance benefits of a particular treatment with concerns around safety for certain patients. In interventional cardiology, we see this dilemma with drug-eluting stents (DES). While this technology provides effective therapy for many patients with ischemia-inducing coronary lesions, there are certain patient groups that encounter problems for different reasons.

Media-driven quality rankings leave out top-performing hospitals

U.S. News & World Report and HealthGrades surveys that rank “Best Hospitals” according to their high-quality cardiovascular care do not create the most comprehensive list and may create confusion by excluding hospitals that provide the same quality of care, according to a study published in the January issue of the Journal of the American College of Surgeons.