Cardiology

UTHealth Houston established a department of cardiology at McGovern Medical School, effective May 1.  The department is led by founding chair Biswajit Kar, MD, and becomes the school’s 24th academic department. Faculty, including more than 70 physicians and scientists, will…

Medical City Denton (Texas) has expanded services through the opening of an $8 million cardiovascular ICU. The eight-bed unit is dedicated to advanced cardiovascular and vascular critical care services, according to a health system news release shared with Becker’s.  The…

CMS and the FDA have proposed a new coverage policy to change Medicare beneficiaries access to certain FDA-designated Class II and Class III breakthrough devices.  According to an April 23 FDA news release, the Regulatory Alignment for Predictable and Immediate…

A team at Miami-based Nicklaus Children’s Hospital’s Heart Institute successfully performed the first traveling bedside transcatheter patent ductus arteriosus closure on a 22-week-old premature infant. PDA is a small blood vessel that typically closes soon after birth, but if it…

At York, Pa.-based WellSpan’s heart failure clinic, about 70% of patients were on three of the four pillar medications over the course of a year. By implementing a virtual clinic model, the system managed to get over 98% of patients…

Johnson & Johnson is introducing an AI-enabled cardiac mapping.  The new Cartosound Sonatamodule integrates with the company’s CARTO System to convert intracardiac echocardiography images into detailed maps and automatically label cardiac structures. The tool is designed to help physicians build…

Nashville, Tenn.-based Ascension St. Thomas became one of the first in the world to perform a cardiac surgery using the da Vinci 5 robotic platform. Around 35% of all coronary bypass surgeries are done robotically at the hospital. Robotic surgeries…

GLP-1s have solidified their place in healthcare as a tool in weight management and, subsequently, the treatment of cardiovascular diseases. The rapidly evolving class of drugs is having a significant impact on cardiovascular service lines, outpatient facilities and other stakeholders…

Harvey Snyder, MD, a pioneering cardiologist, has died at age 75, according to an obituary published in The Philadelphia Inquirer April 21.  Dr. Snyder died on April 8, according to the obituary. He served most recently as a longtime trustee…

Whether a surgeon’s sex aligns with that of their patient was ruled out as a driver of gender disparities in cardiac surgery outcomes, according to a new study published in the Journal of the American Heart Association April 9.  The…