September 1, 2011 – The HIMSS Electronic Health Record Association (EHR Association), a collaboration of 42 EHR supplier companies, in responding to the Center for Medicare and Medicare Services (CMS) proposed rules for the Medicare physician fee schedule (MPFS) and the hospital outpatient prospective payment system for 2012, asked CMS administrator Donald M. Berwick, M.D., to reconsider its proposal to require the submission of patient-level data as it pilots electronic submissions of clinical quality measures (CQMs) based on the burden it would impose on provider organizations and other considerations.

August 31, 2011 — Results of a recent randomized controlled study show the drug-eluting stent Xience V performs well in patients having primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) for ST elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI). It also has a better safety profile than that of bare metal stents.

August 30, 2011 – Compared with patients who had persistently high platelet reactivity, those who achieved low platelet reactivity, according to the VerifyNow P2Y12 Test, had a reduced incidence of cardiovascular death, heart attack and stent thrombosis, as indicated by a clinical trial presented today at the ESC Congress 2011.

August 29, 2011 — An observational study demonstrates the percutaneous catheter-based MitraClip treatment improves symptoms and promotes reverse left ventricular (LV) remodeling in patients with mitral regurgitation (MR) who do not respond to cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT). The results were presented at the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) meeting in Paris.

August 29, 2011— The echocardiographic response (reduction of left ventricular end-systolic volume), evaluated at six months follow-up, proved a better predictor of long-term mortality than clinical status improvement in a large population of cardiac resychronization therapy (CRT) patients. Therefore, assessment of occurrence of left ventricular reverse remodeling at mid-term follow-up may be an adequate surrogate endpoint in heart failure patients treated with CRT.

August 29, 2011 — Recent data suggest post-operative outcomes of severe heart failure patients bridged short-term ventricular assist devices (VADs) to urgent heart transplantation are significantly worse than in patients bridged with conventional support. The data comes from the Spanish National Heart Transplant Registry.