Topic

Heart Failure


Philips upgrades cardiac ultrasound

New Products | Monday, August 30 2010
Royal Philips Electronics has released its upgraded cardiac ultrasound, the iE33 xMATRIX cardiac ultrasound system, which now offers a X5-1 transducer for adult echocardiograms, at the European Society of Cardiology Congress (ESC) this week in Stockholm.
 

AHRQ: Diabetes accounts for one-fifth of U.S hospitalizations, costs $83B

Top Stories | Monday, August 16 2010
In 2008, nearly one in five hospitalizations were diabetes-related, totaling more than 7.7 million stays and $83 billion in hospitalization costs--or 23 percent of total hospital costs in the U.S., according to a statistical brief released this month from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality's Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project.
 

Health Affairs: Public hospital reporting needs to bulk up on data

Top Stories | Monday, July 26 2010
Publicly reporting key process indicators may be clinically linked to improving hospital performance, lowering mortality and reducing length of stay, but alone they may provide too little information to be used as an indicator for healthcare quality, according to a study published in this month's Health Affairs.
 

HHS updates comparison data on imaging measures, heart readmissions

Top Stories | Friday, July 09 2010
New information about the quality of care available in U.S. outpatient and emergency departments, including how well hospitals care for patients with heart attacks and protect outpatients from surgical infections, was added to the Department of the Health and Human Services’ website.
 

Biotronik puts MR-compatible pacing systems on EU market

New Products | Tuesday, June 15 2010
Biotronik has released its ProMRI pacing systems—Evia pacemaker and Safio pacing leads—to the European market.
 

SNM: Phase 1 data presented on PET heart failure imaging agent

Conference News | Monday, June 14 2010
Written by Mary Tierney
Lantheus Medical Imaging last week at the SNM Annual Meeting in Salt Lake City reported Phase 1 data for its PET imaging agent, LMI 1195, which is in development for the evaluation of patients at risk of heart failure or sudden cardiac death. 
 

GE invests $5M for cardiovascular genomic diagnostics

Partnerships & Alliances | Sunday, May 16 2010
GE Healthcare and CardioDx, a cardiovascular genomic diagnostics company, have entered into a strategic alliance to co-develop diagnostic technologies to improve the care and management of patients with cardiovascular disease.
 

HealthAffairs: Hospitals could play waiting game for ROI on health IT

Top Stories | Thursday, April 08 2010
Although health IT, such as computerized physician order entry (CPOE) and EHRs, has the potential to improve the quality of healthcare in the U.S., achieving substantive benefits from implementing health IT may be a lengthy process, according to a study in the April edition of Health Affairs.
 

JNM Feature: FDG PET guided management reduces cardiac events

Top Stories | Tuesday, April 06 2010
Written by Manjula Puthenedam
A significant reduction in cardiac events was observed in patients with 18F-FDG PET–assisted management, compared with patients who received standard care in an experienced center with ready access to 18F-FDG and integration with imaging, heart failure and revascularization teams, according to research published in the April issue of the Journal of Nuclear Medicine.
 

Thomson Reuters issues top 100 U.S. hospitals list; New England omitted

Top Stories | Tuesday, March 30 2010
Thomson Reuters has released its annual study identifying the top 100 U.S. hospitals based on their overall organizational performance, based on 10 specific benchmarks. Of note, the list does not include any facilities from New England, the Northwest region nor the state of New York.
 

ACC Feature: New F18 tracer for heart failure shows preclinical promise

Conference News | Tuesday, March 16 2010
ATLANTA—A novel cardiac PET tracer that images the sympathetic nervous system for heart failure prognosis has been shown in preclinical studies to provide improved image quality compared with a SPECT heart failure tracer, according to a poster presentation on display Monday at the American College of Cardiology conference.
 

ACC: Myocardial viability: What imaging modality is right answer?

Conference News | Monday, March 15 2010
Written by Gina Narcisi
ATLANTA--In choosing the appropriate test, keeping clinical context in mind and understanding what the test indicates and what it does not indicate are key elements a physician must remember in selecting the correct imaging modality for the testing of myocardial viability, said Christopher Hanson, MD, professor of medicine and radiology at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia, during an imaging symposium at the American College of Cardiology (ACC) annual conference on Monday.
 

Cleveland Clinic, Microsoft project: Home health tracks chronic conditions better

Industry News | Wednesday, March 03 2010
The use of at-home medical devices to connect doctors and patients via the internet can help patients and their physicians work more efficiently together to manage chronic conditions, according to research at Cleveland Clinic.
 

ACC.10: Clinical Path to Quality Improvement

Features | Tuesday, March 02 2010
Written by Justine Cadet
With the plethora of clinical data emerging at this month’s American College of Cardiology annual meeting, the sessions are seeking to provide clinicians and administrators with methods to improve the quality of evidence-based care.
 

Report: Physicians' efforts to reduce racial, ethnic inequalities modest

Industry News | Thursday, February 11 2010
While many U.S. physicians identify language or cultural barriers as obstacles to providing high-quality patient care, physicians' efforts to overcome communication barriers are modest and uneven, according to a report released by the Center for Studying Health System Change.
 

Joint Commission: More hospitals achieving evidence-based care

Industry News | Friday, January 15 2010
The Joint Commission, in its fourth annual report, found continual improvement on 12 quality measures reflecting the best evidence-based treatments and practices leading to the best outcomes in American hospitals.
 

GE, Intel deal crosses the pond

Partnerships & Alliances | Tuesday, January 05 2010
GE Healthcare and Intel have expanded their sales and marketing agreement for the Intel Health Guide to include the U.K. GE already markets the Intel Health Guide in the U.S.
 

NEJM: Publicly reporting data doesn’t change readmission rates

Clinical Studies | Sunday, January 03 2010
Current efforts to collect and publicly report data on discharge planning are unlikely to yield large reductions in unnecessary readmissions, according to study authors in the Dec. 31 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.
 

AHA: New imaging agent may shed light on cardiac sympathetic nerves

Clinical Studies | Tuesday, November 24 2009
Research presented at the 2009 American Heart Association (AHA) scientific sessions in Orlando based on the subanalysis from the ADMIRE-HF phase III clinical trial suggested that imaging of the cardiac sympathetic nerves using the molecular imaging agent 123I-meta-iodobenzylguanidine (123I-MIBG, AdreView; GE Healthcare) may be useful in the assessment of risk for cardiac arrhythmias and cardiac death.
 

JAMA: Public hospital report cards don’t improve CV patient care

Top Stories | Monday, November 23 2009
Publicly released report cards that rely heavily on the evaluation of hospitals do not significantly improve patient care, according to a study published Nov. 18 in the Journal of American Medical Association.
 
Web Exclusives

Feature: U.S. needs national strategy to curb imaging overutilization

Medical imaging overutilization--a growing concern in the U.S.--exposes patients to unnecessary radiation, while also adding to rising healthcare costs, according to a study published online Aug. 24 in Radiology. In an interview, William R. Hendee, PhD, lead author, reviewed various methods by which medical imaging could be curtailed.

Radiology: Prelim study shows CE breast CT outperforms CT, mammo

Dedicated contrast-enhanced (CE) breast CT delivered significantly improved conspicuity of malignant breast lesions, including ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS), compared with unenhanced breast CT and mammography, according to a study published in the September issue of Radiology.

Radiology: Rad role may evolve as image-guided biopsies trend up

CT, ultrasound and MRI have helped shift biopsy techniques away from more invasive approaches toward image-guided percutaneous techniques, according to a study published in the September issue of Radiology. The trend toward less-invasive approaches translates into enhanced safety and efficiency and could lead to more interaction between patients and radiologists.

CMS Webinar: Incentive payments to offset EHR adoption, not reimburse

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS) EHR incentive payments are not considered reimbursement for money expended on EHR technology, but are intended to offset the cost associated with adoption and ongoing meaningful use, according to CMS during an Aug. 12 webinar.

CMS webinar: Eligible professionals can expect EHR incentives in 2011

Funding incentives for EHR use is the main goal of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services' (CMS) meaningful use initiative, and there are incentive programs for both hospitals and eligible professionals, according to Elizabeth Holland, health insurance specialist at the Department of Health and Human Services, who spoke during a CMS-sponsored webinar Aug. 8.

Webinar: Stage 1 of meaningful use is for quality reporting acclimation

Stage 1 requirements for meaningful use incentives aim to strike a balance between the overall goal of EHR use and widespread adoption, while avoiding added work, said Jonathan Teich, MD, PhD, chief medical informatics officer at Elsevier Health Services, during a HIMSS webinar titled “Meaningful Use: Safety and Quality of Care.”

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