Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) Kathleen Sebelius has appointed personnel for the newly created Office of Health Reform, which will spearhead the department's efforts to pass health reform this year and coordinate closely with the White House Office of Health Reform.

BOSTON--A call to action for more research into catheter ablation in the field of ventricular arrhythmia (VA) has been released in a joint consensus document from the European Heart Rhythm Association (EHRA) and the Heart Rhythm Society (HRS) issued today at the 30th annual scientific sessions of the HRS held in Boston.

Death that results from catheter ablation of atrial fibrillation occurs in one in1,000 patients, according to a study in the May 12 issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

Electrophysiology (EP), as a subspecialty, is coming into its own. Electrophysiologists have access to more capital than in the past, and with a 10 to 15 percent annual market growth, it is one of the fastest growing sectors within cardiology. Vendors have taken notice and are focusing on technology and designs that cater specifically to EP docs.

CardioNet, a developer of wireless cardiac arrhythmia monitoring devices, saw an increase in both revenue and losses for its fiscal 2009 first quarter, which ended March 31.

As the products of radiologydiagnostic imaging data and reportsbecome more widely distributed across the healthcare enterprise, debate has arisen within the medical community over which group is best able to administer and maintain radiology IT systems: the radiology department or a centralized IT group.

Atritech's Watchman, a percutaneously implanted left atrial appendage occlusion device, won the recommendation of a FDA advisory panel on April 23, for its ability to protect against stroke in patients with non-valvular atrial fibrillation.

Data acquired in over 4,500 STEMI patients treated with primary PCI, provide novel and compelling evidence about the importance of a Q-wave on the baseline ECG as an independent prognostic marker of clinical outcome, according to a study in the April 28 issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.