MASSDEVICE ON CALL — To treat aortoiliac occlusive disease, a narrowing of the aorta or iliac arteries, cardiologists typically must choose between open bypass surgery or a less-invasive endovascular treatment.
A new meta-analysis shed some light on the pros and cons of each procedure, concluding open bypass is the more durable option but that it comes along with a longer hospital stay and increased risk of complications and death.
The analysis looked at medical outcomes for 5358 patients with aortoiliac occlusive disease, also called Leriche syndrome, which affects about 10% of Americans.
The meta-analysis was conducted in a collaboration between Yale and McMaster University, and published in The Journal of Endovascular Therapy.
Government sequestration "trickles down" to the device industry
If allowed to take effect, national sequestration measures – a potential gutting of federal agencies if Congress and President Obama can’t come to a compromise – may cause the FDA’s resources to shrink significantly.
If the FDA slims down it will likely result in serious delays to the medical device approval process, hindering new products from reaching the market. That could mean an impending economic slow down for the medical device industry.
Read more
CEOs still don’t tweet
With the exception of LinkedIn, corporate executives are still not using social networks, and a lion’s share of CEOs – nearly 70% – don’t have any social media accounts at all. Among the Fortune 500 CEOs, less than 10% have either Twitter, Facebook or Google+ accounts, and only about 26% have LinkedIn accounts.
Read more
CMS might have to unveil doctor compensation
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is gearing up for the legal fallout of a new court ruling, which may compel the agency to reveal all compensation it doled out to private practice physicians.
However, before CMS unveils the payments it plans to investigate whether revealing payment records could violate any privacy concerns. The new precedent comes from a May court ruling in Florida, which unwound a long-held injunction on this kind of information.
Read more
Obama says stopping HC reform is the GOP’s ‘holy grail’
In a press conference Friday President Obama decried Republican efforts to squash the Affordable Care Act, calling healthcare reform repeal their "holy grail," and "number 1 priority."
Several GOP legislators have threatened to crush Obama’s healthcare plan by blocking any piece of legislation that sets aside funding for the reform. When asked if he would allow the government to go defunded to protect the Affordable Care Act, Obama replied that he would not "engage in hypotheticals."
Read more
