CareChex, a division of Comparion Medical Analytics, released a new study which identifies the nation’s highest quality health systems for providing cardiac services. The study analyzed three years of data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) using the company's patent-pending quality rating methodology. The methodology evaluates hospital adherence to clinical processes which represent the best standard of care and outcome performance on rates of mortality, complications and patient safety events.

Researchers announced the results of a study to develop and validate a model, comprised of echocardiographic and clinical data, to predict three-year mortality of patients hospitalized in coronary care units (CCU). The results describe an integrated score for three-year mortality of CCU patients, comprised of fewer variables and better/equal predictive value compared to existing scores.

Researchers announced results of a new study which demonstrated that smartphone-based mHealth devices, coupled with handheld echocardiography, can provide improved assessment and are readily integrated at the point-of-care for evaluation of patients with structural heart diseases. This study was conducted as part of the American Society of Echocardiography (ASE) Foundation's Valvular Assessment Leading to Unexplored Echocardiographic Stratagems (VALUES) program, a four-day teaching and research event held at the Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Medical Sciences in Bangalore, India, August 11-14, 2014. Over the course of several days, researchers assessed patients with multiple forms of rheumatic valvular heart disease with either standard diagnostic equipment or mobile health-based devices.