A crowdsourcing tournament in Philadelphia County accurately located 1,429 automated external defibrillators (AEDs). The project, detailed in the March issue of Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes, demonstrated the feasibility of mobilizing “citizen scientists” to build a comprehensive map to guide bystanders in a crisis.

The American College of Cardiology’s Council on Clinical Practice is hosting a webinar series to help practices navigate upcoming changes by balancing economics and quality. The series will provide tips for accessing and employing cardiovascular business management tools and resources useful for professionals of all experience levels.

The American College of Physicians is offering physicians evidence-based interventions and videos designed to improve the health outcomes of acute coronary syndrome (ACS) patients.

#cardiology knows where it’s @. According to a research letter published in the April 16 issue of Journal of the American College of Cardiology, Twitter has taken wing with professional cardiology organizations and scientific journals, providing measurable success in outreach and messaging.

eClinicalWorks®, a leader in ambulatory healthcare IT solutions, today announced that Arkansas Heart Hospital, a nationally recognized and award-winning hospital dedicated to the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of cardiovascular disease, has selected eClinicalWorks comprehensive electronic health records (EHR) solution for all of its clinic locations. Tight integration with the organization’s laboratory and cardio diagnostics systems will extend the benefits of this technology. 

Decision trees sometimes overshadow clinical decision making, but physicians and patients can counter that trend with an emphasis on personalized medicine. That is the thesis of the book “When Doctors Don’t Listen: How to Avoid Misdiagnoses and Unnecessary Tests,” which was reviewed in the New York Times. The book is written by two emergency room physicians who offer examples of cookbook medicine, insights and cautionary tales.

In research, sometimes the process deserves as much accolades as the results. Take two recent studies where IT innovators not only built the foundation for the analyses but they also devised much needed solutions for tackling administrative data.

More than 90 percent of patients who stop and restart statin therapy tolerated the drug long term. The results, published in the April 2 issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine, used natural language processing software and an EHR to study patients commonly seen in clinical practice.