Only about one-third of abstracts presented at the major cardiovascular meetings get published as papers within two years, according to an analysis published online Nov. 2 in Circulation. “The whole peer-review and publication system is getting outdated,” lead author Emil L. Fosbol, MD, PhD, told Cardiovascular Business. “It is too slow for how we share knowledge now.”

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has approved and released the valuation of the three new Category I CPT codes for Impella percutaneous technologies, to be effective January 2013.

In February 2012, the 117-bed TriStar Centennial Heart & Vascular Center in Nashville, Tenn., started considering ways to expand its success as a STEMI-referral site. The center turned to AirStrip Cardiology to put access to real-time EKG data in the palm of the physicians’ hands. Physicians can now view EKG data via iPad or iPhone before the patient even reaches the hospital. Sponsored by an educational grant from AirStrip.

Bleeps, chirps and a cacophony of warning alarms assault nurses and physicians in today’s hospital units. But it doesn’t have to be that way. Several hospitals have taken steps to reduce this auditory overload in an effort to help caregivers discern between important notifications and mere noise.

In this issue, we highlight a critical problem in the care of patients with cardiovascular diseases and an approach for managing these patients or possibly even preventing diseases in the first place.

While there are no guidelines to recommend how long healthcare professionals should perform resuscitation following in-hospital cardiac arrest, a recent large study indicates that longer efforts may produce better outcomes—in some cases. But, a personalized strategy is always preferred.

It’s become fashionable to describe the healthcare system as hopelessly broken, and to indirectly blame providers as a key reason for the situation. For instance, a new report from the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) sums up what it terms as a “fundamental paradox” in U.S. healthcare. It warns that American healthcare “is falling short on basic dimensions of quality, outcomes, costs and equity.” It compares the current delivery system to other industries, and concludes that the U.S. system falls significantly short.

What does the best care look like? How do we give cardiovascular professionals the ability to incorporate the “best care” into their practices or hospitals? This is the question that the American College of Cardiology (ACC) is attempting to answer.