Boston Scientific Corp. announces the first implants of a Teligen implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) in China. The implants were performed by Farong Shen, M.D., in Zhejiang Hospital, Hangzhou and Wei Hua, M.D., in Fuwai Hospital, Beijing. The Teligen family of ICDs, designed to treat sudden cardiac death, are the smallest and thinnest high-energy devices available in China.

Subject to its devices receiving necessary U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approvals, Boston Scientific Corp. will have the capability to transmit implantable cardiac device data to physicians and other healthcare providers in North America across the AT&T wireless network in the future, AT&T announced.

February 24, 2012 — Hospital readmissions continue to be a challenge nationwide. It has been estimated that chronic diseases such as asthma, congestive heart failure (CHF) and diabetes account for over 80 percent of hospital inpatient stays. CHF alone is the leading cause of hospital admissions for Americans over the age of 65.

February 24, 2012 — A new imaging efficiency measure developed by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to reduce computed tomography (CT) scans in emergency departments does not accurately determine which hospitals are performing CT scans inappropriately, according to a new study published online Annals of Emergency Medicine (“Assessment of Medicare's Imaging Efficiency Measure for Emergency Department Patients with Atraumatic Headache”).

February 24, 2012 — CardioInsight Technologies Inc. announced that it has successfully completed the European commercial introduction of its ECVUE system to aid in the diagnosis of cardiac arrhythmias.

February 24, 2012 — Positron Corp., through its wholly owned subsidiary, Manhattan Isotope Technology LLC (MIT), announced it had received its first shipment of strontium-82 (Sr-82) from the ARRONAX Cyclotron Facility in Nantes, France.

February 24, 2012 — CardioFocus Inc., developer of the HeartLight Endoscopic Ablation System (EAS) for the treatment of atrial fibrillation (AF), announced the first patient has been enrolled and treated in the HeartLight EAS U.S. pivotal trial, designed to evaluate the safety and efficacy of the technology in treating symptomatic AF.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted the first coronary stent indication for use in patients experiencing an acute myocardial infarction (AMI), or heart attack. The Boston Scientific Ion paclitaxel-eluting stent system and Taxus Liberte paclitaxel-eluting stent system are now the only drug-eluting stents (DES) in the United States with an approved indication to treat patients with AMI.