Next week the FDA will oversee a joint meeting of two advisory committees to take another look at RECORD, a clinical trial that involved the diabetes drug rosiglitazone. Motivations and political maneuverings aside, the event highlights the difficult balancing act facing physicians today. 

Annually, one in every 10 patients taking antithrombotic therapy will undergo surgery or some other procedure that puts them at risk of bleeding. In a review published May 30 in the New England Journal of Medicine, physicians offer advice on managing these patients, with communication topping the list.

Transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) in Western Europe appears to have traveled a bumpy road since its approval in 2007, based on an analysis of its uptake in 11 countries. TAVR is underutilized and adoption varied by country, possibly due to economic and reimbursement constraints.

In a world-first study, researchers from The University of Queensland are using innovative pulse-reading technology to measure blood pressure to reduce cardiovascular disease.

Cardiologists continue to explore the interplay between the heart, other organs and treatments to identify opportunities to improve patient care.

Medication nonadherence remains a pesky impediment to quality care. In a viewpoint in the May 22 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, researchers encouraged physicians to approach nonadherence not as a problem but rather as a medical condition that they can diagnose and treat.

The Wall Street Journal and its broadcast arm, the News Hub, explored emerging technologies designed to improve medication adherence. The approaches include “digital pills” that include digestible sensors and pill bottles that can alert patients when it is time to take their meds or indicate when a medication has expired.

Mechanical engineering students at Rice University in Houston developed the PediPower, a shoe-mounted generator that converts motion into energy as a power source for cardiac devices. Their initial goal was to make a generator that provided a reliable and constant source of power. The next step is to make PediPower smaller and lighter. Houston-based Cameron, which is collaborating with the Texas Heart Institute to design pumps for an artificial heart, approached the students with the project.