Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE: BMY) is no longer offering its $37-a-month Plavix® Co-Pay Discount Card. And some patients are not happy about this. Additionally, according to the company’s web site for “Patient Assistance Programs,” the company is no longer making this life-saving drug available to patients who cannot afford it. This, of course, has something to do with the fact that brand-name Plavix has gone off patent and generic versions have been available since May 2012. (See our Patient Alert: How to Get the Best Price on New Generic Plavix.) But are the generic versions of clopidogrel really the same? Continue reading
Category Archives: Patients
No More Financial Assistance for Plavix from Bristol-Myers But Are Generics Really the Same?
Filed under Antiplatelet Medications, Drug-Eluting Stents, FDA, Patient Alert, Patients
European Society of Cardiology: “Transradial Access Should Be 1st Choice for Angioplasty”
This is very big news.
Today the European Association of Percutaneous Cardiovascular Interventions (EAPCI), the Acute Cardiovascular Care Association (ACCA) and the Working Group (WG) on Thrombosis of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) published their joint consensus document on the radial approach to PCI, online ahead of print in EuroIntervention. Continue reading
Follow-up to Transradial Angioplasty on the Dr. Oz Show
Jennifer Tremmel, MD
Letters…we get letters.
Last month Dr. Oz did a segment on transradial angioplasty and featured Dr. Jennifer Tremmel who is not only the Clinical Director of Women’s Heart Health at Stanford Clinic, but also the Director of Transradial Interventions at Stanford Medical Center. I reported on that show here.
There was much buzz generated in the cardiology community; after all, it’s not every day that many millions of viewers hear about an interventional cardiology procedure that’s practiced in less than 10% of cases. Continue reading
Filed under Interviews, Patient Experience, Patients, Transradial Approach
A New Year’s Non-Resolution for Angioplasty and Stent Patients…and more
Check out the first post of 2013 on our new blog. “The Activated Patient.” It’s titled “Singing On The Table: Be Activated in 2013 with a Non-Resolution” and it’s all about what it means to be “activated” — not just for heart patients, but for the rest of us as well.
As we’ve written in the past couple of months, this whole area of patient empowerment is becoming increasingly important as the issues of shared decision-making, patient preference and patient-centered therapy have been highlighted in recently published guidelines from all the major heart organizations.
As for what “singing on the table” means, you’ll just have to read the post….
Dr. Oz Features Transradial Angioplasty and Stents
Dr. Oz interviews Dr. Jennifer Tremmel about Transradial Angioplasty
Today, Dr. Oz featured cardiac catheterization, angioplasty, and stents from the wrist on his afternoon TV show. Billed as part of his series, “Dr. Oz’s Ultimate Insider’s Guide: The Newest Medical Breakthroughs,” Mehmet Oz interviewed Dr. Jennifer Tremmel, Director of Transradial Interventions at Stanford Medical Center, Clinical Director of Women’s Heart Health at Stanford Clinic and friend of Angioplasty.Org (you can read my interview with Dr. Tremmel in our Transradial Center). Continue reading
Filed under Media Coverage, Patients, Transradial Approach
New Improved ACCF/AHA Guidelines Task Force: Now with Patients!
The ACCF/AHA Clinical Practice Guideline Methodology Summit Report was just released, after more than a year of work. And at the top of the list of recommendations is the inclusion of a patient representative.
You can read all about this in our new patient blog, “The Activated Patient,” including comments from Drs. Deepak L. Bhatt and Ralph G. Brindis, who served on the Workgroups for this report. Continue reading
Filed under ACC, Patient Empowerment, Patients, Shared Decision-Making
Unclogging Blocked Information About Angioplasty From the Wrist
Cleveland Clinic
A new article about transradial angioplasty (the placement of a stent using the radial artery in the wrist) appeared today in the Cleveland Clinic’s Heart & Vascular Health Blog, authored by their “Beating Edge Team.” Titled, “Unclogging Blocked Arteries Via the Wrist: Angioplasty approach may offer clinical benefits for certain patients,” the article’s purpose seems to be to familiarize patients with this new alternative approach to diagnostic angiography and angioplasty, “now being offered” at the Cleveland Clinic.
Unfortunately this short article, while supposedly an “advertisement” for wrist angioplasty, continues to promulgate several widely-held myths about the radial approach. Continue reading
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