The Healthcare Accreditation Colloquium announced today that Mayo Clinic Children's Center became the first Accredited Pediatric Heart Failure Institute in Minnesota and fourth in the nation after successfully completing a rigorous one year effort focused on the diagnosis and treatment of childhood heart failure within the community, hospital, clinician education and science.

More than 14 million Europeans suffer from heart failure, roughly half of which is caused by diastolic heart failure, known by doctors as HFPEF. OptimEx, a new 3.5-year study funded by the European Union and coordinated by the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), will look at whether exercise could be used both to prevent and treat HFPEF. 

Abiomed, Inc. (Nasdaq:ABMD), a leading provider of breakthrough heart support technologies, today reported its donation of an unrestricted grant in the amount of $375,000 to Boston Children's Hospital Heart Center, a newly dedicated cardiovascular care center founded within Boston Children's Hospital.

Fewer hospitals now use nesiritide for heart failure due to safety concerns highlighted in 2005, and a study published in the August issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology: Heart Failure found that hospitals changed the way they use the drug in three distinct patterns. They categorized facilities as “low users,” “fast de-adopters” and “slow de-adopters,” but there were no significant differences between the groups in terms of hospital characteristics.

When it comes to improving outcomes after hospitalization for heart failure (HF), early and regular physician follow-up could be a critical factor. Canadian researchers found that mortality risk and the chances for urgent readmission were lower among HF patients who saw a physician within 30 days of discharge, especially if they saw a physician who cared for them at least twice in the year before their initial admission.

Patients with heart failure may have a lower risk of dying if they are treated by high-volume physicians, according to findings published online Aug. 7 in Circulation: Heart Failure. The study found an association between high physician volume and lower mortality among heart failure patients, which was especially strong in lower-volume hospitals and for physicians who are not cardiologists.

Patients hospitalized with acute heart failure receive variable and often substandard care, even when they are part of a randomized clinical trial, researchers reported in the July 30 edition of Circulation.

Case managers are proving to be allies in efforts to curb potentially costly withholding of reimbursement for heart failure readmissions.