Patients want to play an active role in managing their healthcare — and online access to medical records is an important first step. This concept is also a requirement in Stage 2 Meaningul Use requirements.


The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced a final rule for the Sunshine Act on Feb. 1 that will increase public disclosure of financial relationships between drug and device manufacturers and physicians and teaching hospitals.



A new computed tomography (CT) scanner substantially reduces potentially harmful radiation while still improving overall image quality. National Institutes of Health (NIH) researchers, along with engineers at Toshiba Medical Systems, worked on the scanner. An analysis of data on 107 patients undergoing heart scans found that radiation exposure was reduced by as much as 95 percent compared to the range of current machines, while the resulting images showed less blurriness, reduced graininess and greater visibility of fine details.


 

As a member of the Heart Rhythm Society, Andrea Russo, M.D., had grown accustomed to searching in vain for a cutting-edge solution to solve the traditional business issues associated with electrophysiology (EP) — silos of information; manual, paper-intensive processes; inaccurate and outdated patient data; and lengthy turnaround times for reports to reach referring physicians. 

 

Catheter-based thrombectomy systems are increasingly being used to remove blood clots from vessels inside the body, often as an adjunct therapy to systemic pharmaceutical thrombolytics.  These systems are used in veins, as in the case of deep vein thrombosis (DVT), and in arteries, in the case of pulmonary embolism (PE), ST-elevated myocardial infarction (STEMI) and ischemic stroke.  The systems can also quickly clear dialysis arteriovenous grafts, which are prone to thrombus formation. 



The interventional cardiology market includes, but is not limited to, drug-eluting stents, bare-metal stents, percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA) and cutting balloon catheters. Although this market is growing overall, some segments are experiencing low negative growth and even dropping in value. Currently there are a few top competitors that hope to gain market share by bringing bioabsorbable stents into the U.S market.


My job as editor of DAIC is to help readers keep tabs on the latest in cardiovascular technology and trends. With collaboration from my Editorial Advisory Board, we developed a 2013 editorial calendar based on several predictions on what will be the key game-changing technologies.  These were determined from observations at numerous cardiology meetings we attended and from needs or trends members of the board have seen in their own practices. Here are our top predictions:


My job as editor of DAIC is to help readers keep tabs on the latest in cardiovascular technology and trends. With collaboration from my Editorial Advisory Board, we developed a 2013 editorial calendar based on several predictions on what will be the key game-changing technologies.  These were determined from observations at numerous cardiology meetings we attended and from needs or trends members of the board have seen in their own practices. Here are our top predictions:

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