Quality

The focus of quality improvement in healthcare is to bolster performance and processes related to diagnostic and therapeutic procedures. Leaders in this space also ensure the proper selection of imaging exams and procedures, and monitor the safety of services, among other duties. Reimbursement programs such as the Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) utilize financial incentives to improve quality. This also includes setting and maintaining care quality initiatives, such as the requirements set by the Joint Commission.

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2024 has been a banner year for structural heart treatments, especially those focused on the tricuspid valve. In February, for example, Edwards Lifesciences made history when its Evoque transcatheter tricuspid valve replacement (TTVR) system became the first device of its kind to gain U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval for treating tricuspid regurgitation (TR). Two months later, Abbott’s TriClip transcatheter edge-to-edge repair (TEER) system also gained FDA approval for the treatment of TR.

Cardiac imaging use is skyrocketing, and radiologists are rising to the challenge

Over the course of a decade, the number of CT exams leapt 353% by 2022, while MRI climbed nearly 283%, researchers detailed Wednesday. 

February 29, 2024
Examples of the messages the Nanox AI algorithms display for incidental findings of spinal compression fractures and detection of coronary calcium. Both can help physicians better understand risk factors or need for therapy in patients through these types of opportunistic screenings on scans being performed for other reasons.

Routine chest CT often reveals patients at risk for cardiovascular disease, presenting radiology with ‘untapped’ potential

Rads only reported this incidental finding in about 31% to 44% of cases, experts detailed in the Journal of the American College of Radiology. 

February 20, 2024
With advances and increased experience in the percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), same-day discharge (SDD) has become increasingly commonplace, but patient selection is key. Antithrombotic therapy may not be necessary for certain transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) patients, according to a new analysis published in JACC: Cardiovascular Interventions.

Implementing a same-day PCI discharge pathway boils down to correct patient selection

Safety is key to which individuals are selected for SDD, and there can be benefits to both patients and health systems as this becomes the predominant model of care in elective PCI.

February 20, 2024
Staff at the new Fetal Cardiac Clinic at the Heart Institute at Children's Hospital Los Angeles. From left, Director of the Heart Institute David Romberger, RN, MSN, CCRN; attending physician Shuo Wang, MD; Executive Director of the Heart Institute Jennifer Klunder, MHA; Director of the Fetal Cardiac Clinic Jodie Votava-Smith, MD; Chief of the Division of Cardiology and Co-director of the Heart Institute Paul F. Kantor, MBBCh, MSc, FRCPC; and congenital cardiac surgeon Luke Wiggins, MD.

Children’s Hospital Los Angeles unveils new fetal cardiac clinic

Clinic for expectant mothers designed to better diagnose and treat congenital heart defects and heart diseases before birth. 

February 20, 2024
Video of Patricia Keegan, NP, Emory, explains value of the ACC TVT NCDR registry for TAVR and why it is important from both a quality monitoring standpoint and for attracting patients to your program.

Data registries have been a huge success for U.S. structural heart programs

ACC/STS National Cardiovascular Data Registry metrics reporting for TAVR is important for marketing and care quality, explains Patricia Keegan, NP, with the Emory Heart and Vascular Center.

February 16, 2024
oximeter

FDA issues first-ever clearance for OTC oximeter

Masimo's MightySat Medical is the first FDA-cleared pulse oximeter available to consumers without a prescription, which could disrupt the market for the notoriously inaccurate at-home devices.

February 15, 2024
Doctors have increasingly been seeing breast exams with swollen lymph nodes imitating cancer in patients who have received a vaccine, prompting Penn Medicine providers to offer up guidance. mammography mammogram breast cancer

Access isn’t enough; other unmet needs keeping patients from using screening mammography

Patients with such impediments also are more likely to present to practices with late-stage disease, experts detailed in JAMA Network Open.  

February 14, 2024
Video of Mahadevappa Mahesh, PhD, incoming-AAPM president, professor of radiology and a medical physicist, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, explains key trends in imaging physics presented at the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) 2023 meeting.

6 key trends in medical imaging physics

Mahadevappa Mahesh, PhD, incoming American Association of Physicists in Medicine president, discusses key developments in the specialty. 

February 14, 2024
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