CardioExchange Archive

Healthcare Reform: American Heart Association CEO Nancy Brown issued a statement on Obama’s State of the Union Address. Brown emphasized the AHA’s “strong commitment to comprehensive reform,” noting that “nearly seven million heart disease and stroke patients do not have health insurance coverage and in many cases forgo necessary medical care to pay bills and support their families.” “Failure cannot be an option,” she said.

The American College of Cardiology has also been busy. The ACC Advocate summarizes the college’s various activities relating to healthcare reform and the college’s fierce opposition to the Medicare cuts in cardiology fees. ACC CEO Jack Lewin blogs frequently about healthcare reform, the Medicare cuts, and other activities, including a recent “fascinating meeting with Newt Gingrich.”

ACC and AHRQ Study ICDs: Separately, the ACC and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) announced that they were supporting, in conjunction with the NHLBI, a $3.5 million research project to “study the long-term benefits and risks of implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs) in patients at risk of death from ventricular fibrillation.”