Volume XIV | Issue 7| October 2022 | |
HCI's Monthly Review of the Healthcare Industry | |
Robert J. Stilley
President, CEO
HeartCare Imaging, Inc.
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Dear Colleagues –
Florida was hit by a terrible hurricane earlier this month. I’ve talked with people who have been working in the area and understand some areas are completely destroyed, especially the beach areas. Of course, loss of life is the most horrible outcome of the storm followed by the loss of homes, businesses, and residents’ ability to earn a living. I’m proud of the HeartCare team. As in other disasters, we offered to match our employees’ donations and our employees delivered. Thousands of dollars are now being put to use to help our neighbors get back on their feet. This isn’t the first time HCI has helped those affected by a disaster. Earlier this year, we provided help to tornado victims in Kentucky. In years past, we’ve provided financial assistance for hurricane victims in NC and the Bahamas as well as those that experienced a horrible earthquake in Haiti. Our first core value is ‘Do the right thing’. Combine that with our firm belief that Luke is correct in that
'To whom much is given, much will be required' (Luke 12:48).
We thank all those that donated and our valued partner clients who trust HCI to provide services every day.
Please enjoy this month’s newsletter!
Best regards,
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Poor food environment, food insecurity linked to higher HF mortality in US
Food environment may play a significant role in the county-level rate of HF mortality in the U.S., according to a study published in Circulation: Heart Failure.
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PCOS may lead to early development of type 2 diabetes, hypertension and hyperlipidemia
Women with polycystic ovary syndrome are more likely to develop type 2 diabetes and may develop hypertension, diabetes and hyperlipidemia earlier than those without PCOS, according to a speaker.
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Reduce carbohydrate intake, focus on quality to improve health outcomes in diabetes
Reducing overall carbohydrate intake and eating more non-starchy vegetables and whole foods can help improve health outcomes for people with diabetes, according to a speaker at the Cardiometabolic Health Congress.
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E-cigarettes may disrupt heart rhythm, hike risk of sudden cardiac arrest
Exposure to specific chemicals within e-cigarette liquids may trigger heart arrhythmias and electrical dysfunction -- cardiac effects similar to or worse than what conventional cigarettes may cause, a new study suggests.
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Virtual reality shows promise for transforming TAVR procedures
A virtual reality (VR) headset that uses information from multidetector CT imaging shows promise for helping interventional radiologists tailor transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) procedures, Spanish researchers have found.
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Serum omega-3 from plants may improve prognosis in HF
Increased circulating plant-derived omega-3, known as alpha-linolenic acid, was associated with reduced risk for all-cause death or first HF hospitalization in ambulatory patients with HF, researchers reported.
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Wake-up Call on Sleep and Cardiovascular Health
Cardiovascular health (CVH) scores that include sleep predicted CV disease risk among older US adults, supporting the American Heart Association (AHA)'s recent inclusion of sleep in its own checklist.
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App Quickly Gauges Cardiovascular Risk in Patients With Diabetes
Researchers in Italy have developed a Web-based app called AWARE, whereby clinicians can quickly stratify cardiovascular (CV) risk of patients with type 2 diabetes as moderate, high, or very high based on criteria from the 2019 European Society of Cardiology (ESC)/European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD) guidelines on diabetes, prediabetes, and cardiovascular disease (CVD).
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Lp(a) ‘should be measured at least once’ in adults to target CV risk
There is strong evidence for a casual association between lipoprotein(a) concentration and CV outcomes across ethnicities, and Lp(a) “should be measured at least once” in all adults to identify high CV risk, according to a speaker.
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Leading cardiologists sound the alarm, say polypills could save millions of lives if made widely available
Polypills—single pills that contain a low-cost blood pressure medication, a statin and aspirin—could potentially save millions of lives each year. So why are they not being prescribed more throughout the world? Two leading cardiologists asked that very question in a new editorial, noting that polypills have consistently been associated with reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD).
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Fatty Liver Index May Detect Diabetes Even When Blood Sugar and IR Levels Normal
The incidence of diabetes is on the rise globally. One of the underlying mechanisms of type 2 diabetes is the uncontrolled metabolism of glucose. The liver plays an important role in controlling blood sugar in various pathways, including glycogenesis, glycogenolysis, glycolysis, and gluconeogenesis, and several studies have focused on the relationship between liver dysfunction and Type 2 diabtes.
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AI Reduced False Positives in Myocardial Perfusion Imaging Study
Artificial intelligence (AI) software substantially reduced false positives on myocardial perfusion imaging (MPI) for the diagnosis of coronary artery disease in high-risk patients, show data presented at the European Association of Nuclear Medicine (EANM) 2022 meeting.
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FAPI PET/CT findings linked with risk of sudden cardiac death
Fibroblast activation protein inhibitor (FAPI) uptake on PET/CT imaging was recently found to be associated with increased risks of sudden cardiac death in patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.
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SCAD Heart Attacks: Outcomes Not as Bad as Previously Feared
Getting at the natural history of nonatherosclerotic spontaneous coronary artery dissection (SCAD), a prospective cohort study found the risk of longer-term recurrent dissections and other cardiovascular events to be lower than expected.
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Ioflupane I 123 Injection (a generic for DaTscan™) will enable more patients to access the scans they need so they can get a timely diagnosis
Ioflupane I 123 Injection is a radiopharmaceutical indicated for striatal dopamine transporter visualization using single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) brain imaging to assist in the evaluation of adult patients with suspected parkinsonian syndromes (PSs). In these patients, Ioflupane I 123 Injection may be used to help differentiate essential tremor from tremor due to PS (idiopathic Parkinson’s disease [PD], multiple system atrophy [MSA], and progressive supranuclear palsy [PSP]). Ioflupane I 123 Injection is an adjunct to other diagnostic evaluations.
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WHO: 500M at risk without more physical activity
Nearly 500 million people worldwide will develop diseases due to physical inactivity between 2020 and 2030, according to a new report from the World Health Organization (WHO).
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Sleeping five hours or less increases risk of chronic illnesses, study warns
Older people who get five hours of sleep a night or less may face a far greater risk of developing two or more chronic illnesses, such as heart disease, cancer or diabetes, compared to people who sleep longer, a new study suggests.
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Interim FDG-PET/CT May Have Positive Prognostic Value for Hodgkin’s Lymphoma
Research suggests that positron emission tomography scans are effective at detecting early and late Hodgkin’s lymphoma, and the results could help manage and reduce toxicity from current chemotherapies.
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MRI shows structural, functional brain abnormalities in Lyme disease long-haulers
Lyme disease long-haulers have structural and functional brain abnormalities, both of which were found to have surprising associations with cognition, according to new research.
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10 percent of Americans over 65 in 2016 had dementia: study
One in 10 Americans aged 65 and older had dementia in 2016, according to a study aimed at gauging how prevalent the neurological problem is among Americans.
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ASTRO: PSA screening rates drop, prostate cancer incidence rises
Prostate-specific antigen (PSA) screening rates declined between 2008 and 2019 at the U.S. Veterans Healthcare Administration (VHA), according to a study at the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) 2022 annual meeting in San Antonio.
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How Early Can Imaging Assess Response in End-Stage Prostate Cancer?
Using 177Lu-PSMA (prostate-specific membrane antigen) SPECT to monitor tumor response at week 12 after the third dose of the targeted radioligand 177Lu-PSMA-617 (Pluctivo, Novartis) has potential as an early predictive biomarker for men with end-stage metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC), according to data reported at the European Association of Nuclear Medicine (EANM) 2022 meeting.
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PET/CT predicts malignancy of bone lesions in prostate cancer patients
PET/CT imaging can predict whether prostate cancer lesions that appear to have spread to patients' bones are malignant or benign, according to a group of researchers at the National Cancer Institute (NCI).
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Researchers Report Decoding Thoughts from fMRI Data
For the first time, scientists report they have devised a method that uses functional magnetic resonance imaging brain recordings to reconstruct continuous language. The findings are the next step in the quest for better brain-computer interfaces, which are being developed as an assistive technology for those who can’t speak or type.
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ASTRO: Radiation to prevent pain may also prolong life
Radiation oncologists could play a key role in treating widespread bone metastases even in the absence of symptoms, according to research presented at the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) annual meeting in San Antonio.
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Radiolabeled Stem Cells Track to Spinal Cord Injury Site
Transplanted radiolabeled mesenchymal stem cells rapidly reached the site of traumatic spinal cord injury with no serious adverse events in people, say researchers who are studying the therapeutic potential of the unproven modality.
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New Platform Matches Patients to Precision Oncology Trials
A new open-source platform speeds matching of patients to precision medicine (PM) oncology trials, according to a study published online Oct. 6 in npj Precision Oncology.
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Meningioma Risk After Cranial Radiotherapy for Childhood Cancer
Children who received cranial radiotherapy to treat their cancer faced an increased risk of developing meningioma — the most common type of benign brain tumor — decades after being exposed, according to a recent analysis.
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Brain scans reveal single doses of nicotine inhibiting estrogen production in women
One dose of nicotine from a single cigarette was recently revealed to impact the production of estrogen in females, according to new imaging data discussed at the 35th Congress of the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology currently being held in Vienna.
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One-fourth of disadvantaged patients don't undergo follow-up imaging
A quarter of socioeconomically disadvantaged patients don't receive the follow-up imaging recommended for them, a study published October 26 in the American Journal of Roentgenology has found.
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Amazon inks pharmacy deal with Blue Cross plan
Florida Blue will rely solely on Amazon Pharmacy to deliver medications to its more than 2 million commercial and self-insured customers next year.
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Energy secretary shines a light on two local innovations
U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm visited Oak Ridge National Laboratory on Monday to help ceremonially break ground on the new U.S. Stable Isotope Production and Research Center, which will enrich isotopes for industrial, medical and research needs.
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Toxic Workplaces Could Damage Mental Health, Surgeon General Warns
Long hours and cutthroat work conditions are harmful to workers’ mental and physical health, Surgeon General Vivek Murthy warned in a groundbreaking report on Thursday, the first time the surgeon general’s office has weighed in on potentially destructive effects of a toxic workplace as Americans reconsider their positions in mass numbers amid the so-called great resignation and phenomenon of quiet quitting.
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US government agencies warned that the Daixin Team cybercrime group is actively targeting the U.S. Healthcare and Public Health sector with ransomware.
CISA, the FBI, and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) warned that the Daixin Team cybercrime group is actively targeting U.S. businesses, mainly in the Healthcare and Public Health (HPH) Sector, with ransomware operations.
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Why Doctors Joined the Great Resignation and How Hospitals Can Bring Them Back
According to research highlighted by the American Medical Association, doctors are leaving or planning to leave their jobs at alarming rates. As a result, many hospitals are cutting services, draining them of needed revenue and leaving communities without medical care.
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ITM begins Lu-177 production
ITM Isotope Technologies Munich has begun commercial production of the therapeutic radioisotope lutetium-177 (Lu-177) in collaboration with partners Bruce Power and Isogen.
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FULL 2023 CPT CODE SET RELEASED, UPDATES AIMED AT REDUCING ADMINISTRATIVE BURDENS
Based on the 2021 revisions made to the E/M office visit CPT codes, the AMA says the new modifications make coding and documentation easier and more flexible, freeing physicians and other staff from time-wasting administrative tasks that are irrelevant to providing high-quality care to patients.
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GE HealthCare revenue rose 6% in Q3 as supply chain woes ease
GE HealthCare CEO Peter Arduini said the results reflect the company’s work to address supply chain constraints and improve product fulfillment, including the recent agreement with a Chilean mining firm to secure a regular supply of iodine to manufacture contrast media for imaging.
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Specialists seek a reprieve for 2023 Medicare payment cuts
Radiologists, nuclear medicine specialists and vascular surgeons are bracing to see if they'll take the worst of Medicare physician payment cuts next year.
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White House touts 2023 ACA marketplace options as 'most competitive in history'
Ahead of the beginning of open enrollment on the ACA marketplace, the Biden administration is touting 2023 as the most "competitive marketplace in history" for exchange plans.
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FDA proposes breakthrough status for devices that address health disparities
The US Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Center for Devices and Radiological Health (CDRH) has proposed that devices that aim to eliminate disparities in health care be designated breakthrough products. The agency is also considering expanding its criteria for breakthrough devices to include products that treat rare diseases, as well as non-addictive products to treat pain or addiction.
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For over 25 years, HRSI has provided Authorized User (AU) classroom and laboratory training to physicians. HRSI's training is recognized by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and fulfills the didactic training required by law. | | |
Capsid Consulting's mission is to enhance the Infection Prevention (IP) and Antibiotic Stewardship Program (ASP) in long term care facilities around the United States via teleconsulting. Through our sister company, PraxisID, we support rural hospitals and clinics by providing full-time Infectious Disease staff to participate in patient care via telehealth as well as any other critical Infectious Disease needs. | | |
HeartCare Imaging, Inc. | Phone: 561-746-6125 | Fax: 561-741-2036 | info@heartcareimaging.com | | | | | |
