On Nov. 17, the FDA approved the MyCareLink Smart Monitor, the first app-based remote monitoring system in the U.S. for patients with implantable pacemakers.

From 2011 to 2014, the prevalence of hypertension among adults in the U.S. was 29 percent, including 30 percent among men and 28.1 percent among women. However, only 53 percent of adults with hypertension had their high blood pressure under control.

For adults with cardiovascular disease risk factors, a peer-group intervention strategy helped them reduce their blood pressure, improve their exercise, lose weight and quit smoking, according to a randomized, multicenter study in Spain.

After the full results of the SPRINT study were presented on Nov. 9 at the American Heart Association Scientific Sessions and simultaneously published online in the New England Journal of Medicine, the question remains whether they will change practice.

Patients and primary care physicians who had shared financial incentives achieved significant reductions in low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, according to a cluster randomized trial. However, the initiative to lower LDL cholesterol did not work if patients or physicians could not share the money.

The release of the full results of the SPRINT (Systolic Blood Pressure Intervention Trial) study on Nov. 9 may lead cardiologists to re-consider the ideal blood pressure goals for some patients.

For adults who were at least 50, had an increased risk of cardiovascular events and did not have diabetes, reducing the systolic blood pressure target to less than 120 mm Hg led to lower rates of fatal and nonfatal major cardiovascular events and death from any cause compared with the standard target of less than 140 mm Hg.

Female cardiologists earned $31,749 less than expected in 2013, according to researchers who analyzed salary data and used a Peters-Belson technique and multivariate regression analysis.