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.

Emphasizing the importance of establishing routine objective, external reviews of cardiac cath lab (CCL) processes, Ralph G. Brindis, MD, MPH, MACC, FSCAI, Clinical Professor of Medicine, Department of Medicine & the Philip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies, University of California, San Francisco, Senior Medical Officer, External Affairs, ACC National Cardiovascular Data Registry, Past President, American College of Cardiology, challenged participants during the 2013 Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions (SCAI) Scientific Sessions in Orlando, FL by asking: "How do you know that your CCL practices are okay?"

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.

I have consulted Consumer Reports before buying a car for decades, with satisfactory results. Does that mean I would use their rating on hospitals if I were a patient planning a scheduled surgery? I don’t think so.

A team who showed that a quality initiative could cut coronary CT angiography (CCTA) radiation dose by half has continued to chip away at dose, this time through the adoption of newer technologies. Overall, they reported a 77 percent reduction in dose over a four-year period.

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

The September issue of Consumer Reports includes ratings for 2,463 hospitals in the U.S. that perform 27 types of surgeries, including two cardiovascular procedures. The analysis looked at quality and outcome measures such as mortality rates and length of stay for Medicare patients.

The American Society of Nuclear Cardiology (ASNC) has recently released an online education program for physicians and technologists involved in the practice of nuclear cardiology. This program offers continuing education credits and provides valuable quality control procedures and radiation safety information.