Author Interviews, Heart Disease / 23.03.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Christopher L.F. Sun MIE PhD candidate Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering University of Toronto, ON, Canada MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: Strategic automated external defibrillator (AED) placement is critical for reducing the time to treatment and improving survival outcomes of public out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA). Many previous studies have focused on examining broad location categories without considering temporal availability (i.e. hours of operation). These broad location categories are often composed of many individual businesses, each with their own unique properties including varying accessibility. Examining specific businesses and locations while incorporating hours of operations and time of OHCA occurrence can improve AED placements in respect to where and when they are needed. Our goal was to examine individual businesses and municipal locations that maximize spatiotemporal OHCA coverage, the number of OHCAs that occurred within 100 m of each location when it was open. We identified a total of 41 businesses and municipal locations with 20 or more locations in Toronto to include the study. We proceeded to rank these businesses and municipal locations by spatiotemporal coverage. We found that coffee shops and bank automated teller machines (ATMs) were the best places to put public AEDs, corresponding to 8 of the "Top 10" ranking stop in Toronto. Specifically, the Canadian coffee shop chain Tim Hortons ranked first of all 41 businesses considered. (more…)
Author Interviews, Heart Disease, JACC / 20.08.2014

Gregg C. Fonarow, MD, FACC, FAHA Eliot Corday Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine and Science Director, Ahmanson-UCLA Cardiomyopathy Center Co-Chief of Clinical Cardiology, UCLA Division of Cardiology Co-Director, UCLA Preventative Cardiology Program David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA Los Angeles, CA, 90095-1679MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Gregg C. Fonarow, MD, FACC, FAHA Eliot Corday Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine and Science Director, Ahmanson-UCLA Cardiomyopathy Center Co-Chief of Clinical Cardiology, UCLA Division of Cardiology Co-Director, UCLA Preventative Cardiology Program David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA Los Angeles, CA, 90095-1679 Medical Research: What are the main findings of the study? Dr. Fonarow: Drawing on data from the Registry to Improve the Use of Evidence-Based Heart Failure Therapies in the Outpatient Setting (IMPROVE HF), 15,177 heart failure patients were followed over two years to measure the benefits of implantable device therapy on survival in community practice settings. The study demonstrated that ICD device therapy reduced the likelihood of death during the two-year period by 36 percent, with no significant differences by race or ethnicity. The study also demonstrated a 45 percent reduction in mortality during the two-year period with CRT therapy, again without any significant differences device benefit by race or ethnicity. (more…)
AHA Journals, Author Interviews, Heart Disease / 16.08.2014

Ryan T. Borne MD University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus Division of Cardiology Aurora, CO 80045MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Ryan T. Borne MD University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus Division of Cardiology Aurora, CO 80045 Medical Research: What are the main findings of the study? Dr. Borne: Using the NCDR ICD Registry, we identified Medicare beneficiaries aged 65 years and older with low left ventricular ejection fraction (≤ 35%) who underwent primary prevention implantable cardioverter defibrillator implantation, including those receiving cardiac resynchronization therapy with defibrillator, between 2006 and 2010 who could be matched to Medicare claims. We found that while there were modest changes in the patient characteristics undergoing ICD implantation, there were significant improvements over time in mid-term outcomes including 6-month mortality, re-hospitalization, and device-related complications. (more…)
Author Interviews, General Medicine, Heart Disease, JAMA / 06.08.2014

Maurizio Gasparini, MDMedicalResearch Interview with: Maurizio Gasparini MD Humanitas Research Hospital Rozzano, Italy Medical Research: What are the main findings of the study? Dr. Gasparini: We found that a strategic programming of implantable cardioverter defibrillators which allows the non-sustained arrhythmias to self-terminate is associated with reductions in hospitalizations, length of hospital stay and cost per patient-year and an increase in the time to first hospitalization. These results were mainly driven by reduction in cardiovascular-related events. (more…)
Author Interviews, Heart Disease, JAMA / 03.06.2014

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Sana Al-Khatib, M.D. MHS Duke Clinical Research Institute Duke University School of Medicine Durham, NC,MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Sana Al-Khatib, M.D. MHS Duke Clinical Research Institute Duke University School of Medicine Durham, NC, MedicalResearch: What are the main findings of the study? Dr. Al-Khatib: Patients with an ejection fraction (measure of the pumping ability of the heart) of 30% to 35% who receive a prophylactic implantable cardioverter defibrillator have better survival than similar patients with no implantable defibrillator. (more…)