Medtronic plc announced initial clinical outcomes for its next-generation CoreValve Evolut R System at the 64th annual scientific session of the American College of Cardiology, March 14-16 in San Diego. At 30-days, the recapturable, self-expanding valve showed no incidents of all-cause mortality or stroke in a high and extreme risk patient population. The Evolut R Study enrolled 60 patients from six centers in the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand.

At Health Datapalooza, the Acting Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator Andy Slavitt announced a new policy that will allow innovators and entrepreneurs to access CMS data, such as Medicare claims. Under the policy, those interested may conduct approved research that will ultimately improve care and provide better tools that should benefit healthcare consumers through a greater understanding of what the data says works best in healthcare. The data will not allow the patient's identity to be determined, but will provide the identity of the providers of care. CMS will begin accepting innovator research requests in September 2015.