Research from the University of Iowa supports the claim that tele-emergency services can extend emergency care in rural hospitals. The study was published in the February edition of Health Affairs. Tele-emergency is the urgent care component of telehealth, services consisting of diagnosis, treatment, assessment, monitoring, communications and education of medical conditions via digital technologies like videoconferencing. Telehealth can deliver important medical services where they are needed most, and remove barriers of time, distance and limited health care providers. This includes remote, rural areas and medically underserved urban communities.
Fluke Biomedical, a manufacturer of biomedical test instruments, acquired Unfors RaySafe. Unfors RaySafe produces quality assurance devices for diagnostic x-ray including real time dose monitoring systems for medical personnel and patient dose tracking software solutions.
radiation dose management, monitoring

Better management of X-ray radiation doses starts with recording and tracking each exposure patients receive. Dose tracking has come to the forefront of medicine in recent years with the realization that medical imaging has doubled the public’s exposure to ionizing radiation since the 1980s, largely due to the rapid expansion of computed tomography (CT) and minimally invasive procedures guided by angiography.

A contrast MRI can predict which heart patients with atrial fibrillation are most likely to benefit from catheter ablation, according to a multi-center study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Massachusetts General Hospital conducted a biomarker-guided therapy study of chronic heart failure patients with left ventricular systolic dysfunction over a 10-month period. Results of “Head-to-Head Comparison of Serial Soluble ST2, Growth Differentiation Factor-15 and Highly Sensitive Troponin T Measurement in Patients with Chronic Heart Failure” were published in JACC: Heart Failure. The report demonstrated that of all biomarkers evaluated, only serial testing of ST2 enhanced prognostic information over baseline concentrations and predicted change in left ventricular function.

Traditional fingerstick screening for glucose and lipids is proving inadequate when identifying near-term cardiovascular risk in employed populations, according to Jake Orville, CEO of Cleveland HeartLab (CHL). This position is supported by data from the American Heart Association. AHA reported 50 percent of all heart attacks and strokes occur in individuals with normal cholesterol and – for approximately 30 percent of patients with cardiovascular disease – their first sign of disease is death.

Achieving real quality improvement and reducing costs means re-evaluating what constitutes value, according to a new paper e-published in the journal Catheterization and Cardiovascular Interventions (CCI). A new formula to define value, as presented in the paper, equates “real value” with appropriateness together with clinically defined outcomes and patient-expected outcomes relative to costs.

On-X Life Technologies Inc.  received CE marking for an expanded labeling claim of its On-X Prosthetic Heart Valve. The company may market its mechanical heart valve in Europe with areduced requirement for the use of blood-thinning drugs such as warfarin. The On-X Plus 1.5 Aortic Heart Valve allows patients to be managed at INR (international normalized ratio) levels as low as 1.5.

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