To quote Henry Ford: "Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success." This applies to the relationship between nurse and physician leaders, especially in today's cath labs. The days of nurses and physicians staying in their own silos can no longer be sustained. By Beth Oliver, RN

Due to the current economic recession and decreasing reimbursement to cardiology, cath labs across the U.S. are being pressured to implement cost-control strategies to remain solvent.  Five cath lab practitioners and administrators came together to discuss their institutions tactics for maintaining economic viability, including competitive bidding and reducing the number of vendor products, while providing superior patient care.

Todays cath labs are repositories of much information that will determine hospital standings in terms of quality, physician performance, and profits and losses. All of this informationfrom images to inventory to hemodynamic datamust be available in real time withinand outsidethe  enterprise. Cardiovascular Business asked two health systemsone best-of-breed, one single-sourceto discuss their cath lab IT strategy.

While a plethora of research has reinforced the clinical benefits of performing catheter-based proceduresdiagnostic and PCIvia the radial artery compared with the femoral artery, some hospital executives question whether the fiscal and workflow benefits of employing this technique will be equally beneficial. Four providers speak to their reasons for adopting a transradial program, along with the economic and practice management considerations.

From hybrid suites that include teams of multidisciplinary specialists working in a single room to tools and imaging techniques that improve outcomes, cath labs are increasingly equipped to handle the most complex patient populations.

Healthcare reform has focused much attention on measuring quality in clinical settings, and as a result, providers must improve procedural outcomes and justify the cost and necessity of procedures. For PCI procedures, intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) provides interventional cardiologists with a tool to assess the lesions and extent of coronary artery disease (CAD) for improved clinical decisions.

Medtronics Resolute zotarolimus-eluting stent was found to be as safe and effective as Abbott Vasculars Xience V everolimus-eluting stent in a predominantly off-label population, based on the results of the RESOLUTE all-comers trial, presented Tuesday by Patrick W. Serruys MD, PhD, at EuroPCR in Paris. Slides

San Diego -- An on-site, seven-day, 24-hour interventional cardiologist eliminates longer door-to-balloon times associated with off-hours presentation and reduces mortality in patients who present off hours, according to a study presented today at the Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions (SCAI) 33rd annual scientific sessions.