Darwin Labarthe, MD, MPH, PhD, former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Division of Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention, proposes that an emphasis on cardiovascular health rather than cardiovascular disease heralds a “positive health” revolution. In a blog post on the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s website, he discusses the idea of health assets. 

The FDA took aim at DMAA again, warning that the amphetamine derivative poses cardiovascular risks, including the potential for arrhythmias and MI. “Dietary supplements containing DMAA are illegal and FDA is doing everything within its authority to remove these products from the market,” according to the agency.

The Canadian Diabetes Association recommends statin therapy for patients with diabetes mellitus who are 40 years old or older in its 2013 Clinical Practice Guidelines.

James Chen-tson Fang, M.D., has been named chief of cardiovascular medicine at the University of Utah School of Medicine and director of the cardiovascular service line at University of Utah Health Care.

Have you looked in the rearview mirror lately? Complications may be closer than they once looked. Considering risks and alternatives now may improve outcomes later.   

A Q&A posted on CNN’s website featured John P. Reilly, MD, editor-in-chief of the Society of Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions’ secondscount.org and a vice chairman and cardiology fellowship program director at Ochsner Medical Center in New Orleans.

Have you ever wondered about the financial consequences of losing your cath lab director? Michael G. Vanderlans, relationship manager in the permanent placement division of Springboard Healthcare, crunched the numbers, including the cost of potential lost revenue, staff turnover and an interim director for six months.

Medtronic, Inc. (NYSE:MDT) today announced market release of the CardioGuide™ Implant System, a novel real-time navigation system for cardiac resynchronization therapy pacemakers and defibrillators (CRT-P and CRT-D), in the United States and Canada. The system helps physicians determine the most appropriate location for left-ventricular lead placement by generating 3-D images of the cardiac veins; enhanced software for the system will be commercially available later this year that also analyzes the motion of select cardiac vessels on the left side of the heart. Clinical studies have shown that appropriate left-ventricular lead placement may improve CRT response in heart failure patients (1,2,3).