Cath/EP and interventional lab professionals wondering if their pay is competitive are being offered an objective measuring stick from a new research poll, Phoenix-based Springboard Healthcare announced.

OrbusNeich today announced that data from the REMEDEE (Randomized Evaluation of an abluMinal sirolimus coatED bio-Engineered stEnt) study published online in JACC: Cardiovascular Interventions demonstrated that the COMBO Dual Therapy Stent met the study’s primary endpoint and was found to be effective in controlling neointimal proliferation.

The New York Times revisited the controversy over chelation therapy, allowing the TACT (Trial to Assess Chelation Therapy) lead investigator Gervasio A. Lamas, MD, to share his observations: “If you had asked any cardiologist, to a man or to a woman, they would have said this study would be negative, and that included me and my associates. But it wasn’t, and that’s the one thing we should be focusing on.” Cardiology guru Eric Topol, MD, also weighs in.

The first patient in the United States has been implanted with the Boston Scientific Corporation (NYSE: BSX) next generation ImageReady™ MR Conditional pacing system in the SAMURAI clinical trial.

Carolinas HealthCare System’s Sanger Heart & Vascular Institute became the first in the world to implant a branched stent graft specifically designed for branch vessel repair of thoracic aortic aneurysms on Thursday. This is the first arch graft available in a clinical trial and both the device and surgical approach are novel.

Endologix, Inc. (Nasdaq:ELGX), developer and marketer of innovative treatments for aortic disorders, announced today that Roderick de Greef will retire from the Board of Directors at the end of his current term, which ends on May 23, 2013, the date of the Company's annual shareholder meeting. Thomas F. Zenty, III will stand for election as a Class III director to fill the resulting vacant position at the upcoming annual shareholder meeting.

AtheroNova Inc. (OTCBB:AHRO), a biotech company focused on the research and development of compounds to safely regress atherosclerotic plaque and improve lipid profiles in humans, today announced that John Kastelein, MD, Ph.D., Chairman of the department of vascular medicine and Strategic Chair of Genetics in Cardiovascular Disease at the Academic Medicine Center of the University of Amsterdam, has joined the Company as a member of the Medical Advisory Board and will be a Co-Principal Investigator in the Company's upcoming clinical trials. 

Darwin Labarthe, MD, MPH, PhD, former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Division of Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention, proposes that an emphasis on cardiovascular health rather than cardiovascular disease heralds a “positive health” revolution. In a blog post on the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s website, he discusses the idea of health assets.