It appears that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) may compromise on reimbursement for MitraClip implantations. If so, you probably have your colleagues and societies to thank for it.

A programming strategy for implantable cardioverter-defibrillators (ICDs) reduced hospitalizations, length of stay and costs compared with standard care, according to a research letter published in the Aug. 6 issue of JAMA.

Cardiologists at the Cleveland Clinic reduced radiation doses by 22 percent for diagnostic catheterizations and by 32 percent for PCI by leveraging new imaging technology, according to results published online Aug. 5 in Circulation: Cardiovascular Interventions. 

British stroke patients are seeing improvements in areas where full centralization of stroke care has occurred, according to an article published online Aug. 5 in BMJ.

Lombard Medical, Inc., a medical device company focused on Endovascular Aneurysm Repair (EVAR) of abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAA), today announced that its lead product, Aorfix, an endovascular stent graft to treat AAA, has received approval from the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare. Commercial sales will follow reimbursement approval, which the Company anticipates receiving in September. Aorfix will be exclusively distributed by Medico's Hirata Inc., one of Japan’s leading suppliers of vascular products with proven expertise in building significant market share for AAA stent grafts. Japan is the world’s second largest, standalone EVAR market.

St. Jude Medical, Inc., a global medical device company, today announced that the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has approved a New Technology Add-on Payment (NTAP) for the CardioMEMS HF System. The CardioMEMS HF System is the first and only U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved heart failure (HF) monitoring device that has been proven to significantly reduce hospital admissions when used by physicians to manage heart failure. The NTAP program, which recognizes new technologies that provide substantial clinical improvement over already available therapies, is designed to support timely access to innovative technologies for Medicare beneficiaries.

In spite of increased bleeding risks, resumption of anticoagulant therapy was beneficial to patients following a traumatic brain injury, according to an article published in the August issue of JAMA: Internal Medicine.

Torrance Memorial Medical Center and USC's Keck School of Medicine have announced an affiliation to expand heart surgery services at the medical center in Torrance.