St. Jude Medical Inc. announced plans for a new landmark study that will evaluate whether renal denervation and medication can provide health benefits to patients beyond lowering high blood pressure. The EnligHTNment trial is the first large-scale study that will examine the long-term effects of renal denervation in patients who have uncontrolled hypertension to see if renal denervation also reduces the risk of major cardiovascular events such as heart attack, stroke and death.

To address the rising costs of healthcare, we must improve the way that health care is delivered, including coordinating care better and improving the safety of care, stated the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) in its assessment of healthcare reform, released Feb. 28.

Specialists at Stony Brook Medicine’s Cerebrovascular and Stroke Center (CVC) are treating patients with a new generation of blood clot removal devices that show promise in successfully revascularizing stroke patients, including those with large vessel blockages. The Solitaire Flow Restoration Device and the Trevo device, approved by Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2012 to treat stroke caused by the sudden obstruction of a brain blood vessel (acute ischemic stroke) showed improved results over a previous standard and first generation clot-removal device in clinical trials.

The Healthcare Supply Chain Association (HSCA) today launched Medical Device Tax Watch, a website dedicated to raising awareness of efforts of some medical device manufacturers to pass the costs of the medical device excise tax (MDET) to American hospitals, healthcare providers and patients. The new site will be a resource for hospitals and a tool for monitoring the device marketplace, and can be found at www.devicetaxwatch.com.