Hot, hot, hot! I™m talking not only about this month™s issue, but also the actual temperatures in Washington, D.C., and Miami Beach, Florida. Nevertheless, Cath Lab Digest will be front and center for thousands of attendees streaming to these cities to attend two major invasive cardiology meetings this month: TCT in D.C. and New Cardiovascular Horizons in Miami Beach. Keep your eyes peeled, as we will be featuring a TCT news roundup in our November issue.

We™ve received some calls from readers who are wondering what has happened to the frequency of CEUs in the pages of Cath Lab Digest. In response, we™re proud to feature a CEU activity this month, courtesy of the North American Center for Continuing Education (NACCME), and supported by Boston Scientific Corporation. If you™re wondering where you can pick up some extra CEUs as the year-end approaches, we invite you to visit the NACCME website, where you can find cardiology-related educational activities that you may have missed (www.naccme.com).

This month, we™re pleased to feature an interview with the legendary Dr. J. Willis Hurst, author of the famous textbook The Heart and cardiologist to President Lyndon Johnson, among other accomplishments. Dr. Hurst was chairman of the Emory University Department of Medicine (1957“1987) and created the first cardiac catheterization laboratory at Emory. (This facility also provided the setting for research by Dr. Andreas Gruentzig, who worked there for the five years before his untimely death.) Dr. Hurst remains an active consultant and author, and has much to say about the current U.S. healthcare system.

Also in the October issue, Laura Minarsch, RT, CVT, CRA, of Columbus Hospital in Milan, Italy, brings an update on a fascinating new technology, a percutaneous, catheter-based bypass between the left ventricle and the coronary vein for no-option patients with refractory angina where previous therapies have failed. This technology, called the VPASS, is currently under study by Dr. Alex Abizaid and Dr. Antonio Colombo.
A final note: don™t forget to fill out our salary survey, if you haven™t already sent in your info. Results will be published in the December issue. Enjoy!

The most essential part of a student™s instruction is obtained...not in the lecture-room, but at the bedside. Nothing seen there is lost; the rhythms of disease are learned by frequent repetition; its unforeseen occurences stamp themselves indelibly in the memory.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, MD

Rebecca Kapur, Managing Editor,
RKapur@hmpcommunications.com