High costs and slow recruitment have hampered many a randomized controlled clinical trial in recent years.

Managing revenue cycles has become increasingly important with healthcare reform’s emphasis on value and efficiency. Analytics help medical systems know where they stand and how they can improve.

Clinicians can now use their phones to aid them in treating patients who experience muscle symptoms while taking statins. On June 24, the American College of Cardiology (ACC) released a statin intolerance app for mobile phones and on its website. The app helps clinicians determine if a patient is intolerant to statins and provides them with steps to follow if patients have muscle symptoms when on statins.

A hospital in France cut the time spent on remote monitoring alerts from implantable cardioverter-defibrillators (ICDs) by more than half after developing and instituting decision trees. The management tool allowed cardiologists and nurses to focus their attention on arrhythmias and other pressing issues.

The American College of Cardiology (ACC) is calling for a speedy issuing a final rule on Meaningful Use, pointing out that there is little time to adjust.

Call it the smart stent. An international group of researchers has designed a multifunctional, bioresorbable, drug-toting stent fitted with sensors and memory storage devices to provide diagnostic feedback and localized therapy.

Clinical decision support (CDS) tools can reduce hospitals’ exposure to malpractice suits, but few hospitals seem to use the functions that would prevent the steepest losses, according to researchers who developed and tested a risk assessment system.

A panel of experts recommended that remote monitoring become the standard of care for patients with cardiovascular implantable electronic devices (CIEDs), according to a consensus statement from the Heart Rhythm Society (HRS). The statement was published online in Heart Rhythm on May 13.