Hospitals’ exchange of electronic health information to providers outside their organizations increased by 41 percent between 2008 and 2012, federal researchers report in the August issue of Health Affairs. But the sharing of clinical care summaries and medication lists is lagging.

The new American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (ACS NSQIP®) Surgical Risk Calculator is a revolutionary new tool that quickly and easily estimates patient-specific postoperative complication risks for almost all operations, according to research findings appearing online in the Journal of the American College of Surgeons. The study will be published in a print edition of the Journal later this year.

Can physicians be among the billion-plus social media users and still maintain their intact personal and professional boundaries?

An algorithm capable of diagnosing heart rhythm with just 3 seconds' worth of signal, and the demonstration that it is possible to come up with the diagnosis without stopping cardiac massage, constitute the types of solutions and proposals being developed by researchers in the Signal and Communications Group of the Faculty of Engineering in Bilbao (UPV/EHU-University of the Basque Country).

Medtronic will pay $200 million to acquire a telehealth company whose products will be applied in the heart failure setting.

As randomized controlled trials and systematic reviews in healthcare have grown in their number and influence, there is an increasing need to identify those studies which should change how physicians treat their patients – and those which should not. F1000Trials extends the widely-recognized system of peer-nominated experts identifying great research in biology and medicine pioneered by F1000Prime. In F1000Trials, the F1000 Faculty Members provide expert assessment of newly published trial articles and write short reviews, recommending the most noteworthy by assigning star ratings and highlighting those which change clinical practice.

Nicolas Chronos, MD has been named Chief Medical Officer for Endotronix.  Dr. Chronos is an interventional cardiologist who is well known for his pioneering research in the treatment of heart disease. 

Worried about keeping track of gifts large and small under the Sunshine rule that kicks in Aug. 1? The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services now offers an app, one for physicians and one for industry, to help tally the score.