Category Archives: Medical Education

AimRADIAL Masterclass V + FFR Workshop in Budapest

budapest_palaceOn September 22-23, 2016, the 5th Advanced International Masterclass on the Transradial Approach will be held in Budapest, Hungary. And this year, AimRADIAL will be preceded on September 21 by a one-day comprehensive workshop covering all aspects of Fractional Flow Reserve (FFR) from the basic principles and set-up in the cath lab, to the differences between FFR, iFR, and CFR, a comprehensive review of the clinical study data so far, and finally a look at future modalities, like FFR-CT (although the title of that talk by Dr. Nick Curzen is “FFR-CT: the future is now“). Continue reading

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Filed under Angiograms, Cardiac CT, FAME I / FAME II, FFR, Global Trends, iFR, Medical Education, Meetings & Conferences, Patient Experience, Transradial Approach

InterZENtion: Transradial PCI as an Art

Transradial Coronary Interzentions by Dr. Ferdinand Kiemeneij

Transradial is one of the big buzzwords in interventional cardiology these days. In the United States practitioners recently have been discovering its advantages and have been learning how to perform it successfully. Utilization of transradial in the U.S. has jumped from 2% to almost 25% in less than a decade. In Europe, Japan, India, and China, transradial has been used for years and in most of those regions adoption runs from 50-90% of all catheter-based procedures. In Japan, and now in Europe, a specialized group of physicians has been pushing the limit of what can be done via the wrist artery, using “slender” procedures and equipment, with systems using 3, 4 and 5F sized catheters.

But the heart (pun intended) of this revolution in catheter-based access goes back over two decades to the pioneering work done by Dr. Ferdinand Kiemeneij, rightly dubbed “the father of transradial intervention.” You can read my interview with Dr. Kiemeneij here, but more importantly, you can and should and must read his brand-new hot-off-the-press book, “Transradial Coronary Interzentions,” available on Amazon. Continue reading

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Filed under Europe, France, Global Trends, Innovators, Japan, Medical Education, Patient Experience, Patients, Transradial Approach

AimRADIAL Masterclass IV in Liverpool

Next week, on September 17-18, 2015, the 4th Advanced International Masterclass on the Transradial Approach will be held in Liverpool, England and, if you already perform or want to start using the wrist approach to diagnostic or interventional procedures, you need to attend. Where else will you be able to spend two-days with the most expert and experienced radial practitioners in the world?

I went to the last two AimRADIAL courses in New York City and Chicago and witnessed something I hadn’t really seen since the early days of angioplasty: a relatively small meeting (i.e. less than 300) attended by the pioneers of the procedure, cardiologists who have the largest experience in the radial approach, talking among themselves and trading their latest findings and techniques with each other, and sharing this information with the newer generation of physicians in attendance.It felt like an actual community! Continue reading

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Filed under Global Trends, Medical Education, Meetings & Conferences, Transradial Approach

Frontiers in Cardiology – One Day Course in New Jersey

MMC_Course_2015_140sq If you’re a cardiologist, Fellow, or in the allied health fields, and you weren’t able to make it to London for the five-day-long European Congress of Cardiology meeting, you can get a quick dose of the latest and greatest in a single day on Saturday, September 19, in Short Hills, New Jersey.

Titled “Frontiers in Cardiology,” this symposium is presented by the Morristown Medical Center, part of the Atlantic Health System, and features a stellar international faculty, including Maurice Buchbinder, Roxana Mehran, James Udelson, Nanette Wenger, and more. A range of contemporary topics are on the agenda, from atrial fibrilation to coronary artery disease, imaging and heart disease in women. Continue reading

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Filed under ACC, Medical Education, Meetings & Conferences

iFR and iFR Scout to be Featured in Live Case from Hammersmith

Dr. Justin Davies discusses value of using physiology-guided PCI

Dr. Justin Davies discusses value of using physiology-guided PCI

If you’ve been wondering what iFR (Instant wave-Free Ratio) is, how it works, how it compares to FFR (Fractional Flow Reserve) and, most importantly, how it affects clinical outcomes, then click here to register for a free, online, interactive live case being done on Monday, April 13, 2:30pm-3:30pm London Time, 9:30am-10:30am New York Time).

Interactive: that means you can ask questions!

Dr. Justin E Davies, interventional cardiologist at Imperial College NHS Trust, and developer of iFR, will be performing and guiding the worldwide audience through a live complex PCI multivessel case, using physiology to guide his procedure. Continue reading

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Filed under FAME I / FAME II, FFR, Global Trends, iFR, Imaging, Intravascular Guidance, Medical Education, Meetings & Conferences, Stent

Who’s Sorry Now? The ABIM, That’s Who

sorry_140sqThe lyrics of the 1923 song go like this: “Who’s sorry now, who’s sorry now? / Whose heart is achin’ for breakin’ each vow?”

And today, it was the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) who said they were sorry for breaking the hearts of all the cardiologists in the U.S. of A.

They wrote specifically: “We got it wrong and sincerely apologize. We are sorry.Continue reading

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Filed under ACC, Media Coverage, Medical Education, SCAI

NBPAS Launches Alternative to MOC

   Today’s the day that The National Board of Physicians and Surgeons (NBPAS) officially launches. Briefly stated, it’s an alternative certification organization, set up by Dr. Paul Teirstein and a group of physicians, mostly cardiologists, who strongly objected to the Maintenance of Certification assessment track established by the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM).

You can read more about it in my post from last week, “Scalpel…Suture…Suction…Pencil?” and in Dr. Teirstein’s New England Journal of Medicine article, titled “Boarded to Death — Why Maintenance of Certification Is Bad for Doctors and Patients.

I’ll be following the progress of this initiative, but a few recent articles and developments bring up some interesting points. Continue reading

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Filed under ACC, Medical Education, Meetings & Conferences