This week, our quality-focused cardiology news brief examines clinical management strategies for patients with heart failure or atrial fibrillation, and also demonstrates the value of precision medicine in cardiology.
As we approach the new year, now’s the time to think about your quality-focused New Years’ Resolutions and how you can improve outcomes in 2019—Accreditation for Cardiovascular Excellence can help.
Precision Medicine Approach Reduces Heart Failure Mortality by 50% – Health IT Analytics
Recent research from the Intermountain Medical Center Heart Institute demonstrated that an individualized, percision medicine approach for high-risk heart failure patients cut mortality by 48 percent as opposed to standard treatment protocols. “The study is helping us provide the necessary expanded level of care for patients who are at higher risk for hospital readmissions or death,” says Benjamin Horne, PhD, lead author of the study. Read more »
10 Ways to Reduce Heart Failure and COPD Readmissions – MedPageToday
Recent research published in CHEST Journal outlined ten approaches to improve clinical management of patients with heart failure or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and ultimately lower the cost of care. Study authors explain that because of the overlapping symptoms and similar clinical courses for HF and COPD patients, strategies to reduce readmissions for both conditions “share synergies.” Ensuring specialist management in the hospital stands out as a strategy with intrinsic and knock-on effects promoting quality management. Read more »
Current or Prior Cancers Affect PCI Outcomes Different, Large Analysis Shows – TCTMD
New data from the Nationwide Inpatient Sample support individualized approaches for PCI patients with current or historical cancer, as different cancers are associated with different risks. “Previous to this work, we used to treat patients with a one-size-fits-all approach, whereas now we can understand that the type of complications and outcomes associated with different cancers are very different,” says senior author Mamas A. Mamas, MD to TCTMD. Read more »
DOAC Pause Yields Favorable Outcomes for AF Patients – MDEdge
New research presented at the American Society of Hematology 2018 Annual Meeting found a simple and standardized management strategy to yield low rates of bleeding and thromboembolism for patients with AFib who had direct oral anticogulent interruption for an elective surgery—forgoing heparin bridging and preoperative coagulation testing. “This study will almost instantaneously establish a treatment practice and a treatment standard for the vast number of patients in North America and around the world who take these drugs,” said Mark Crowther, MD of McMaster University. Read more »
