March 2004

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Volume 12 Issue 3

Editorial Staff

Clinical Editor
Morton Kern, MD
Executive Editor
Laurie Gustafson
Managing Editor
Rebecca Kapur
Production Manager
Elizabeth Vasil

Editorial Correspondence

Rebecca Kapur, Managing Editor, Cath Lab Digest
HMP Communications, 70 E. Swedesford Rd
Suite 100, Malvern PA 19355
Telephone: (440) 717-0418

Fax: (866) 896-8762
Email: rkapur@hmpglobal.com
The Ten-Minute Interview with...Monica Simpson, RN, MSN, CCRN, CCNS
I have been a nurse for 20 years, with 18 years in coronary critical care. I have had many roles in these years, including staff, manager, director, and CNS. Out of all the places I have worked, I have most enjoyed the cath lab. Why did you choose…
Correction
Correction: The following abstract is from page 13 of the Cath Lab Digest February 2003 Supplement A, Opening New Channels: The Revascularization of Vessels with Chronic Total Occlusions. The conclusion was inadvertently omitted from the abstract. Ca…
Mar-04
Guildford Pharmaceuticals Launches U.S. Marketing Program for Aggrastat® Injection Guilford Pharmaceuticals Inc. announced that it has launched marketing efforts for Aggrastat® Injection (tirofiban hydrochloride) in the United States. Guilford acqui…
So You Want to be a Medical Mercenary?
The call of the road is whispering to you. Visions of adventure and riches flash before you while you stare at the same old monitor you have now been looking at for years. The life you dream of does exist, but, my friends, the road is as fraught with…
Streamlining Processes and Improving Healthcare Services in the Cardiology Section of MetroHealth Medical Center with Medcon's
Over the past several years, MetroHealth Heart & Vascular Center has undertaken numerous steps to streamline its operations. Today, the facility prides itself on being a leader in adopting new technologies. The following article describes the Cen…
Detecting Unstable Lesions in High-risk Patients: The Single-use, IntraVascular MRI (IVMRI) Catheter
What is the IntraVascular MRI (IVMRI) catheter? We have all heard about the wonderful things that can be done with MRIs in cardiology. The problem is that these scanners are bulky and expensive, and it is very hard to imagine cath labs transforming…
The small print: Sometimes taken for granted, but still important
In order to decide how best to interpret presented information, we need to be able to place it within a context. Cath Lab Digest works hard to provide readers with the facts, and part of that effort includes publishing author disclosure data when aut…
Quicker Results, Improved Communication, Better Care: The Impact of Cath Lab Integration at the University of Washington Medi
Examining how the use of integrated information management technology has improved reporting timeliness, information accessibility and workflow at the University of Washington Medical Center’s Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory The UW Medicine Regi…
Improved Efficiency in Acute Myocardial Infarction Care Through Commitment to Emergency Department Initiated Primary PCI
This article is reprinted with permission from the Journal of Invasive Cardiology: J INVAS CARDIOL 2003;15:693-698 From the Primary Angioplasty versus Thrombolysis in a Community Hospital (PATCH) Study, Acute Myocardial Infarction Care Improvement…
Managing High-Volume Inventory: Increasing Efficiency, Decreasing Costs at Florida Hospital
Florida Hospital is the largest heart program in Florida, with 7 campuses and a total of 12 cath labs and 4 EPS labs. In 2003, their 133 cardiologists performed a total of 16,514 cath lab/EPS events, and used 748,969 inventory items. To manage thes…