GE Healthcare has installed Cath Lab Efficiency Manager at Saint Luke’s Mid America Heart Institute in Kansas City, MO , a new analytical tool that analyzes the performance of an interventional lab providing hospitals with important data they can use to identify areas of improvement.  Cath Lab Efficiency Manager provides a near-real-time dashboard which displays measures of inefficiency and identifies the factors impacting performance. The tool visualizes where changes can be made to help increase productivity and help improve patient care.

Abbott announced today the start of the ABSORB IV clinical trial, which will test whether its Absorb Bioresorbable Vascular Scaffold (BVS) is more cost-effective and offers a higher quality of life than a best-in-class, permanent, metallic drug eluting stent. Absorb is the world's first drug eluting BVS and functions like a metallic stent by opening up blocked blood vessels in the heart and restoring blood flow. However, unlike a metallic stent, Absorb completely dissolves over time after doing its job. ABSORB IV is designed to enroll approximately 3,000 people with coronary artery disease, mostly in the United States.

The Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions (SCAI) has named Lisa Olson, PhD, as its new executive director. Olson brings deep experience and expertise in the cardiovascular field and a vision for continuing to advance SCAI’s mission.

Amaranth Medical, a privately held medical device company, announced the initiation of patient enrollment in multiple centers in Colombia, South America in MEND-II, a clinical trial to assess safety and feasibility of the Company's FORTITUDE(R) Sirolimus-Eluting Bioresorbable Scaffold in patients with symptomatic coronary artery disease. As seen with the first generation scaffold, preliminary patient results using optical coherence tomography (OCT) following implantation show that the scaffolds were fully apposed to the vessel wall achieving optimal acute lumen gain.

Boston Scientific Corporation and ASAHI INTECC have formalized plans to develop a new, differentiated fractional flow reserve (FFR) wire.  The joint project focuses on creating a device intended to improve handling compared to existing FFR wires.

The exceptions committee from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania has announced its approval of the UPMC East application to perform elective PCI without onsite open heart surgery for their cardiac catheterization lab. The decision by the Commonwealth to provide the exception was based, in part, on UPMC East's successful application for accreditation by ACE.

InspireMD, Inc., a leader in embolic protection systems, today announced that Professor Joachim Schofer, MD, at the Hamburg University Cardiovascular Center, will present the results of the CARENET (CARotid Embolic protection using microNET) trial at the Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics (TCT) conference, in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday September 16, 2014.

Boston Scientific Corporation has initiated full commercial launch of the new POLARIS Imaging System.  This system will support the Boston Scientific family of intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) catheters, including coronary, peripheral and intra-cardiac echo products.  The POLARIS System offers enhanced ease-of-use and more powerful processing capabilities.  Its modular design would also support the planned release of new Boston Scientific imaging products including a fractional flow reserve (FFR) wire, a new family of IVUS catheters, enhanced software features and better system control tools.