stents news from FierceHealthcare

Generally speaking, states ban hospitals performing angioplasties in non-emergency situations unless there's a heart surgeon available to step in if things don't go well. However, smaller hospitals... Read more...

Here's something you don't see every day. A heart stent manufacturer, Johnson & Johnson subsidiary Cordis Corp., is mounting a national marketing campaign aimed directly at consumers--an unusual... Read more...

In recent times, research has raised serious questions about safety of drug-coated stents, which are used to protect patients against complications from some forms heart disease. Since then,... Read more...

It looks like high-profile cardiologist Dr. Martin Leon has been booted from the New England Journal of Medicine peer review panel for five years. His offense? He allegedly leaked results from COURAGE, a high-profile study comparing stents with drug therapy in treating stable heart disease. Article

A new study suggesting that stents don't help non-emergency cardiac patients more than drugs could soon change how insurers reimburse for such treatments, observers say. The recent New England Journal of Medicine study, which looked at 2,287 non-emergency patients, found that angioplasty and stenting didn't save lives or prevent heart attacks, though it did reduce chest pain. Right now, roughly 50 to 80 percent of angioplasties are performed on non-emergency patients, with …

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> The American Medical Group Association, which represents large practices like the Cleveland Clinic, wants to see the government help to pay for their growing investments in cutting edge technologies like EMRs. Report

> For the past decade, surgeons have been performing fewer heart bypasses, opting to treat patients using stents instead. But in light of recent stent safety …

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As the use of stents has grown and the number of cardiac bypass procedures has fallen in turn, jobs for cardiac surgeons have taken a hit. These days, cardiac surgeons who keep up active practices are often picking up a lot more heart valve or lung surgeries rather than focusing on bypass procedures. The dip in job opportunity is so pronounced that the specialty is falling out of favor in medical school. According to an article published in the Annals of Thoracic Surgery last …

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The HHS Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality has apparently gotten the iPod memo. The agency is now publishing a "Healthcare 411" podcast series, offering a mix of self-promotional and serious clinical content. The current broadcast focuses on the apparently decreased risk of death or heart attack from drug-coated stents when anti-clotting treatments are used for a longer period. Podcasts

When treatments don't work, whose problem is it?
At an FDA hearing last week, panel members soberly discussed the evidence as to whether drug-coated stents were responsible for an increased risk of future blood clots. Such safety reviews are obviously a good thing, but sometimes they sidestep other issues, says writer David Leonhardt. In this case, the FDA didn't even take on the issue of whether the stents--and preceding angioplasties--should be done in the first …

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Evidence-based medicine--it sounds good, but how often is it really practiced? Not as often as it could be, it seems. The most recent evidence of these came this week, when researchers concluded that angioplasties and stents are used far more often than they should be. The problem is, doctors are understandably reluctant to deny patients treatments they think will work, even if …

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