A team of cardiovascular researchers from Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute (Sanford-Burnham), the Cardiovascular Research Center at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, and the University of California, San Diego, have identified a small but powerful new player in the onset and progression of heart failure. Their findings, published in the journal Nature on March 12, also show how they successfully blocked the newly discovered culprit to halt the debilitating and chronic life-threatening condition in its tracks.

Christiana Care Health System is one of 15 hospitals selected out of 132 eligible hospitals nationwide by the American College of Cardiology to participate in a new program designed to keep patients healthy at home after discharge from the hospital.

BioControl Medical, a medical device company headquartered in Yehud, Israel, has received approval from the Israel Ministry of Health to conduct clinical trial of its CardioFit(r) system in patients with chronic heart failure (HF) as part of INOVATE-HF. With the approval, Israel will join European countries and the United States to participate in the company's third phase of INOVATE-HF (INcrease Of VAgal TonE in Heart Failure), a U.S. Food and Drug Administration-approved investigational device exemption (IDE) study of CardioFit being conducted in 80 centers worldwide.

Texas Children's Hospital is proud to be named the first Accredited Pediatric Heart Failure Institute in Texas by The Healthcare Accreditation Colloquium.

A San Diego medical group's disease management program increased patient engagement rates from 28% to 67%, leading to a decline in both hospitalizations and 30-day readmissions for program participants. In recognition of its innovative chronic care program, Sharp Rees-Stealy Medical Centers received the 2013 Doyle Award from MCG (formerly Milliman Care Guidelines), a leading provider of clinical guidelines to payor and provider markets.

Senior nurse for speciality medicine Audrey Kirby was named Nurse Leader of the Year and the heart failure team came home with the Cardiovascular Service Award.

The Healthcare Accreditation Colloquium announced today that Mayo Clinic Children's Center became the first Accredited Pediatric Heart Failure Institute in Minnesota and fourth in the nation after successfully completing a rigorous one year effort focused on the diagnosis and treatment of childhood heart failure within the community, hospital, clinician education and science.

More than 14 million Europeans suffer from heart failure, roughly half of which is caused by diastolic heart failure, known by doctors as HFPEF. OptimEx, a new 3.5-year study funded by the European Union and coordinated by the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), will look at whether exercise could be used both to prevent and treat HFPEF.