More than 98,000 deaths annually are attributed to medical errors and some say medical staff fatigue and nighttime hours may affect outcomes. However, as far as thoracic organ transplants go, a new study has found that operative time of day had no significant impact on one-year survival, according to results published in the June 1 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

The costs associated with congenital heart diseases soak up $6 billion per year. And while data surrounding the costs of these congenital conditions are sparse, a new study has shown that resource utilization for congenital heart surgeries differs among hospitals despite patient and center characteristics and length of stay. The study was published in the May issue of Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes.

The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit granted an en banc re-hearing to McKesson Technologies v. Epic Systems to further address whether joint parties can act in concert to infringe upon multi-step patented methods. The case involves McKesson's Electronic Provider-Patient Interface technology and Epics MyChart software, both of which allow for electronic communication between patients and providers.

Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin May 26 signed into law a bill that will begin a plan for a single-payor universal healthcare system in the state, the first of its kind in the U.S.

During the 32nd annual meeting of Heart Rhythm Society (HRS), HRS Chair of Health Policy Richard I. Fogel, MD, echoed the thoughts of many other specialists in the audience. This is a very dynamic healthcare environment with a lot of unknowns. While I am not sure what the picture will look like in the next five years, one thing is for certain, healthcare in the U.S. will be forever different.

Christopher Herzog, MD, PhD, can pinpoint the precise moment he got it about cloud computing vis a vis advanced visualization for cardiovascular imaging. The Munich-based radiologist was preparing for an advanced visualization workstation face-off when his IT preparation partner suggested they try something a little different. The IT partner would log him into a thin-client workstation and, looking at the same images, guide him through the steps hed need to perform at the face-off. Nothing unusual thereexcept that Herzog was at his companys satellite facility in Garmisch, Germany, while the IT partner was somewhere in Portugal.

Healthcare organizations of all sizes are enlisting clinical decision support (CDS) systems to assist providers with decision making. However, to ensure proper utilization and improve the practice of evidence-based medicine, workflow integration at the point of care needs to improve.

Swedens second largest region, Vstra Gtaland region (VGR), has selected GE Healthcares eHealth Image Exchange platform and Centricity Enterprise Archive to facilitate the exchange of images and reports between physicians and specialists at 17 hospitals.