The results of the first-ever, multinational attitudinal survey concerning the performance of CPR by healthcare professionals showed that a mere 25 percent of healthcare professionals actually perform CPR in accordance with the American Heart Association (AHA) guidelines. Following the results' presentation, an expert panel discussed the ramifications of the survey, as well as potential solutions to improve the overall delivery of CPR.

Two blood-thinning drugs, enoxaparin and eptifibatide, commonly administered to dialysis patients undergoing PCI, have been found to increase patients' risk of in-hospital bleeding, a study published Dec. 9 in the Journal of the American Medical Association found. Lead author Thomas T. Tsai, MD, told Cardiovascular Business News that the study reflects a larger problem of medical administration errors in the U.S., and called for better IT tools to warn physicians about contraindicated medications.

McKesson has introduced the PROmanager-Rx pharmacy automation system, which allows hospitals to automate the dispensing of tablets, capsules and other oral solid medications that come pre-packaged from drug manufacturers in unit-dose, bar-coded form.

Medical technology provider Medtronic has selected Michael Coyle as executive vice president to head its cardiology business sector, which encompasses its cardiac rhythm disease management, cardiovascular and physio-control businesses.

Biopharmaceutical company Phenomix and Italy-based Chiesi Farmaceutici will partner to advance and market dutogliptin (PHX1149), an inhibitor used to treat patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus in Europe, Brazil, Russia, Turkey and Northern Africa as well as the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).

A survey has revealed several perceptions of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) performance that are at odds with reality: that the overall quality of CPR is excellent; that training is vital where little exists; and that CPR technology improves outcome but is little used. Survey results were presented during the American Heart Associations (AHA) conference in Orlando, Fla.

Patients with an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest who received IV drug administration during treatment, recommended in life support guidelines, had higher rates of short-term survival but no statistically significant improvement in survival to hospital discharge or long-term survival, compared to patients who did not receive IV drug administration, according to a study in the Nov. 25 issue of Journal of the American Medical Association.

Evidence of cardiovascular risks associated with taking Vioxx, the popular, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (rofecoxib), could have been identified nearly four years before its manufacturer, Merck, voluntarily pulled the drug from the market, based on data made available through litigation and published in the Nov. 23 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine.