Hospitals need to gain physician trust by building relationships based on transparency.

Due primarily to sharp reimbursement cuts, independent cardiovascular practices are increasingly integrating with hospitals and health systems for stablization and security. In fact, 60 percent of cardiovascular practices reported that they participated in merger talks with hospitals and other practices, based on the American College of Cardiologys (ACC) Cardiovascular Practice Census, issued in October. Sponsored by an educational grant from Verto Education.

Introduced in 1967 by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), the patient-centered medical home (PCMH) described the concept of designating a central location for archiving a childs medical record. In the mid 1990s, the PCMH concept re-emerged as a way to re-invigorate the role of primary care in the U.S. Currently, there are hopes it will reduce costs, improve access to care, enhance quality and re-establish the focus on patient-centered care.

Strictly controlling the heart rate of patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) provides no advantage over more lenient heart rate control, experts reported in a focused update of the 2006 guidelines for the management of patients with AF, that also lists several other changes.  The new recommendations were published online Dec. 20 in Circulation, the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, and HeartRhythm Journal.

From 1997 to 2007, mortality rates linked to heart diseases declined by 27.8 percent and death from stroke decreased 44.8 percent, according to yearly statistics put forth by the American Heart Association outlining heart disease and stroke statistics, which was published Dec. 15 in Circulation.

The enthusiastic reliance on "less-than-perfect" guidelines to create performance measures by which payors reimburse and facilities promote for competitive advantage must be tempered, according to a commentary in the in the Dec. 14/21 Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

To best meet the goals of optimized, coordinated patient care and also help curb healthcare costs, physicians should be the heart of accountable care organizations (ACOs), an evolving model of patient care, according to a letter sent Dec. 2 by the American Medical Association (AMA) to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) that serves as a blueprint to make ACOs competitive.

A study looking at deaths from any cause found that a body mass index (BMI) between 20 and 24.9 is associated with the lowest risk of death in healthy non-smoking adults, according to research in the Dec. 2 New England Journal of Medicine.