Press Releases

WomenHeart: The National Coalition for Women with Heart Disease today announces Mary McGowan as Chief Executive Officer. McGowan is the third CEO for the nation’s first and still only national organization solely devoted to women’s heart health and supporting the 43 million American women living with or at risk for heart disease. She had served as the organization’s Chief Operating Officer since 2010, immediately prior to assuming the role of CEO.

Today the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Million Hearts initiative recognized 30 public and private health care practices and systems across the country as Hypertension Control Champions for their success in helping patients control high blood pressure.

Merck (NYSE:MRK), known as MSD outside the United States and Canada, announced today that new data from two trials of the company’s cardiovascular medicines will be presented at the 2015 American College of Cardiology Annual Scientific Sessions (ACC.15), March 14-16 in San Diego.

Today the Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions (SCAI) announced the selection of 12 early-career interventional cardiologists to participate in the 2015-17 Emerging Leader Mentorship (ELM) Program, a collaborative program developed in 2010 by SCAI in partnership with the American College of Cardiology (ACC) and Cardiovascular Research Foundation (CRF). These promising young physicians will participate in an intense, hands-on, two-year mentorship program to improve and refine their skills as leaders in medicine, ambassadors for their specialty and advocates for their patients.

The Prairie Heart Institute at St. John's Hospital in Springfield, Illinois, has become the first cardiac catheterization laboratory in Illinois to achieve ACE accreditation. It is also one of the highest volume facilities to achieve this notable accomplishment.

A multi-disciplinary writing panel led by the American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association has begun work on a new guideline for the management of hypertension to update 12-year-old recommendations.  Nine additional medical societies have signed on as partners in the effort.

Increasingly, physicians and scientists are discovering the complex connections among genes in the body that influence disease. These discoveries will enable personalized treatments in an emerging area of science known as network medicine.

With new LHC group service agreement, Medtronic now serves four of the five largest home health care companies in the United States.

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo., Jan. 27, 2015 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Spectranetics Corporation (Nasdaq:SPNC) today announced it has completed the acquisition of Covidien's Stellarex(TM) drug coated balloon angioplasty (DCB) platform. The transaction closed after the acquisition of Covidien by Medtronic.

QUEBEC CITY, Jan. 12, 2015 /CNW Telbec/ - Opsens Inc. ("Opsens") (TSXV:OPS) is pleased to announce the first use of its Fractional Flow Reserve ("FFR") products in Europe by the "founding fathers" of FFR, namely Dr. Bernard De Bruyne at the Cardiovascular Center Aalst, Belgium and, shortly, by Professor Nico Pijls, at the Catharina Hospital, Eindhoven the Netherlands. The OptoWire and OptoMonitor are Opsens' products for FFR measurements to optimize the diagnosis and guide the therapy in patients with coronary heart disease.

Validated in 5,000-patient study, Stanford University Science behind MIRISK Predicts Possibility of Heart Attack 5 Years before Event

CHICAGO, Jan. 7, 2015 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Merge Healthcare Incorporated (Nasdaq:MRGE), a leading provider of clinical systems and innovations that seek to transform healthcare, entered into an agreement with Rush University Medical Center, one of the largest private academic medical centers in Illinois, to provide Cardiology PACS.

TUCSON, Ariz. – Jan. 6, 2015 – SynCardia Systems, Inc. has received FDA approval to conduct a clinical study of the effectiveness of the SynCardia temporary Total Artificial Heart for permanent use, also called destination therapy. 

ST. LOUIS, Jan. 6, 2015 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Stereotaxis, Inc. (Nasdaq:STXS), a leading provider of innovative technologies for the treatment of cardiac arrhythmias, announced today that more than 75,000 patient cases have been completed with its remote magnetic navigation technology. The Company also announced that it will present the latest enhancements and clinical data for its industry leading robotic platform at the upcoming International AF Symposium, January 8-10, 2015 in Orlando, FL (Booth #816). Now in its 20th year, the annual three-day symposium brings together the world's leading medical scientists and providers to discuss the most recent advances in the field of atrial fibrillation.

New clinical research is essential to the development of hospital quality measurement, public reporting and pay-for-performance programs, according to Robert Harrington, MD, FSCAI, chair of the Department of Medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine, who will present the Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions (SCAI) 2015 Scientific Sessions Hildner Lecture, "The Future of Clinical Research in Interventional Cardiology: Challenges and Opportunities," on Friday, May 8, in San Diego.

December 22, 2014—Chelmsford, Mass.—ZOLL® Medical Corporation, a manufacturer of medical devices and related software solutions, today announced that it has reached a definitive agreement to acquire Advanced Circulatory Systems, Inc., based in Roseville, Minn., which develops technologies to non-invasively increase circulation.

BURLINGTON, Mass. – December 16, 2014 – Infraredx, Inc., a cardiovascular imaging company pioneering the personalized diagnosis of coronary artery disease, today announced a collaboration with Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and leading coronary imaging researcher, Gary Tearney, M.D., Ph.D., professor of pathology at Harvard Medical School, Mike and Sue Hazard Family MGH Research Scholar, and founder of the Tearney Lab at the Wellman Center for Photomedicine at MGH. 

Study results released today in The New England Journal of Medicine gave the world of stroke care more evidence that physicians are winning the battle against this debilitating disease, which affects as many as one in six people. 

A renowned Henry Ford Hospital cardiologist helped perform the first successful transcaval valve replacement in Europe on Dec. 1, sharing his expertise on a pioneering way to access the heart.

Informatics and innovations sessions at ACR 2015™ can help radiology professionals overcome information technology (IT) challenges and support enterprise imaging initiatives as medicine moves from volume to value-based care. Early bird registration and abstract submission deadlines are approaching for ACR 2015™, the all-new American College of Radiology (ACR) annual meeting, May 17–21, 2015, at the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel in Washington, DC. 

Approximately 600,000 global cases of abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAA) are diagnosed annually1. Left untreated, these aneurysms can rupture, causing profound internal bleeding often leading to death within minutes2.