August 21, 2015 — Loyola University Medical Center is the first and only hospital in Illinois to offer a new ...

WomenHeart: The National Coalition for Women with Heart Disease announced that it will host the first National Policy & Science Summit on Women's Cardiovascular Health, Oct. 26-27, 2015 in Washington, D.C.

Lombard Medical Inc. a medical device company focused on endovascular aneurysm repair (EVAR) of abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAAs), announced the acquisition of Silicon Valley-based Altura Medical.

Loyola University Medical Center is the first center in Illinois to implant the CoreValve Evolut R percutaneous aortic heart valve that does not require open heart surgery.

Sunshine Heart Inc. announced an update in late July on its COUNTER HF U.S. pivotal study for the C-Pulse Heart Assist System. COUNTER HF is a prospective, randomized, multi-center, controlled study evaluating the safety and efficacy of the C-Pulse system for the treatment of New York Heart Association (NYHA) Class III and ambulatory Class IV heart failure. The study was temporarily paused this past March after the company notified the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) of four deaths in the treatment arm of the study. The deaths were adjudicated as not device- or therapy-related, and as previously announced on May 26th, the FDA approved resumption of patient enrollment in the study.

Biotronik announced that the first patient has been enrolled in the BioCONTINUE clinical trial (BIOtronik study to assess the CONTINUation of Existing risk of ventricular arrhythmias after CRT-D replacement). BioCONTINUE is the first study to investigate the relevance of defibrillator back-up following first device replacement in a heart failure (HF) patient population with a primary indication for a cardiac resynchronization therapy defibrillator (CRT-D).

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Service (CMS) announced that over 2,100 healthcare facilities have agreed to participate in the Bundled Payments for Care initiative to improve care and reduce costs for Medicare. Participants — which include acute care hospitals, skilled nursing facilities, physician group practices, long-term care hospitals, inpatient rehabilitation facilities and home health agencies — have transitioned from a preparatory period to a risk-bearing implementation period in which they assumed financial risk for episodes of care.