October 1, 2014 — St. Johns Hospital and Medical Center in Detroit recently became the first U.S. healthcare facility to install the Artis one angiography system from Siemens Healthcare. The Artis one is designed to address a broad range of angiographic procedures, from diagnosing and treating coronary artery disease and peripheral vessel occlusions to performing electrophysiology procedures.

Although most accountable care organizations have the health information technology to improve clinical quality, poor interoperability across systems and providers remains a barrier, according to an ACO survey conducted by Premier Inc. and the eHealth Initiative. 

September 30, 2014 — The American College of Cardiology (ACC), along with eight partnering societies, released the first appropriate use criteria (AUC) for suspected heart disease in pediatric patients.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has allowed marketing of the NephroCheck test, a first-of-a-kind laboratory test to help determine if certain critically ill hospitalized patients are at risk of developing moderate to severe acute kidney injury (AKI) in the 12 hours following the administration of the test.