“A new twist on stents” is how Channel 13 KTRK-TV, the ABC affiliate in Houston, billed Christi Myers’ story today about the transradial approach to angioplasty and stenting. We’ve been writing about the growing adoption of radial access in the U.S. for four years now, so it’s great to see a TV report on this technique…because it means that patients in that locale (Houston, Texas) will be that much more aware that there is an option, a choice to be made, when having to get an angiogram, angioplasty or stent placed. (The piece profiles Dr. Colin Barker of the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston.) Continue reading
Category Archives: Media Coverage
Stent By Wrist in Houston
Filed under Media Coverage, Patient Experience, Transradial Approach
Showdown: Dr. Mark Midei and Stents
Maryland interventional cardiologist Dr. Mark G. Midei, who has been under investigation for “implanting unnecessary stents” in heart patients, has penned a defense of his medical practice, his first comment on the subject since the charges were made. Appearing as a Commentary in tomorrow’s Baltimore Sun, Midei’s article is titled “I acted in the patients’ best interests“.
I’ve covered this particular issue previously (“Stent Accusations: The U.S. Senate Tries to Drum Up COURAGE“). In that article, Angioplasty pioneer, Dr. William O’Neill, who was hired by Midei’s lawyer to review the cases…and found nothing glaringly wrong…posed a question to me, expressing his concern over the situation: Continue reading
Filed under Media Coverage
Transradial Cath in Bakersfield
I’m always keeping an eye on the growing number of news stories about a “revolutionary new way to open the coronary arteries”: the transradial approach, that is, where the radial artery in the wrist is used as the entry point for catheters, angioplasty balloons and stents. This latest TV report was broadcast Friday on KGET-TV, Channel 17 in Bakersfield, California. (Late update on August 5, 2013 – Unfortunately, KGET did not archive the broadcast, but you can read more about Bakersfield’s transradial program here .)
It’s a good report because it not only interviews Dr. Tommy Lee, the interventional cardiologist who has started doing radial caths (about 100 so far) because he feels it is safer, but it has a couple patients talking about their experience. Dr. Lee states in the broadcast that he believes radial is the future of cardiac catheterization: Continue reading
Filed under Media Coverage, Transradial Approach
OCT Wars: St. Jude Versus the Volcano
Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) is an exciting new imaging technique that is being used to assess the interior anatomy of coronary arteries during and after angioplasty and stent placement. (Read our exclusive interview with Dr. Giulio Guagliumi for more information about how OCT can aid in measuring the healing of stents.)
This technology is just now beginning to bridge the divide between research tool and clinical aide — for example, OCT can show high resolution pictures of stent struts and show whether they are covered or not. So the future for OCT imaging is definitely of major interest. Continue reading
Filed under Intravascular Guidance, Media Coverage, OCT
Angioplasty and Stent Use Cut in Half — Sort of…
A lost story this past couple of weeks has been an “admission” by the American Heart Association that the number of angioplasties performed in the United States is actually half of what the AHA has been saying all these years.
In their most recent 193-page Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics 2011 Update, published on December 15, the AHA now states that 622,000 percutaneous coronary interventions (PCI) were performed in 2007 (the most recent period for which stats have been compiled). Previously the AHA reported an annual volume of around 1.3 million — double the number. Continue reading
Filed under COURAGE, Media Coverage, Stent
Emails and Ethos: the Senate Stent Report, a Corporate Culture Wake-up Call?
(The following is a guest commentary from Deborah Shaw, Director of Education at Angioplasty.Org.)
These leaked Abbott emails (in the Senate Finance Committee Report on Cardiac Stents regarding Dr. Midei in Maryland) reveal that healthcare marketing professionals, especially those that aren’t involved directly in patient care, sometimes forget that this is serious stuff. It’s about life and death: the work they do profoundly affects sick, vulnerable people who are afraid they might die, and who could be your dad or your daughter. Continue reading
Filed under Media Coverage
Stent Accusations: The U.S. Senate Tries to Drum Up COURAGE
Monday’s 172-page Senate Finance Committee Staff Report on the overuse of coronary stents by Dr. Mark Midei at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Maryland has been all over the news — over 300 articles to date, claiming fraud, malpractice, pig roasts, threats to reporters — all of which serve to rekindle the “anti-stent” sentiment that followed on the heels of the COURAGE study back in 2007. In fact, Dr. William Boden, principal investigator for COURAGE, was interviewed for the Senate report, which characterized him as follows: Continue reading
Filed under Angiograms, COURAGE, Drug-Eluting Stents, FFR, Interviews, Media Coverage
RSS Feed
