“That Was The Year That Was” was a 1965 album by Tom Lehrer, on which he sang songs about events taking place in the early 1960s. This included many geopolitical songs such as “National Brotherhood Week,” “Send the Marines,” “Who’s Next,” “Wernher von Braun,” and “The Vatican Rag.” In a similar vein, my review of 2006 and the events that took place in electrophysiology also includes an important political decision — namely, the Center for Medicare Services’ (CMS) decision to reverse proposed cuts to hospitals for reimbursement of stents and implantable devices (including pacemakers and defibrillators).

St. Francis Hospital and Health Center in Blue Island, Illinois, recently opened a new $2 million electrophysiology laboratory. EP Lab Digest spoke with Sean Tierney, MD, who is the Director of the Electrophysiology Lab and a Heart Rhythm Specialist, about the recent addition.

Two years ago, pacemaker patient Dawn Huberty began a support group specifically for women with pacemakers and heart disease. Her website “http://wired4life.net/” provides a monthly newsletter, scheduled chats, articles, and friendship to other patients in need. This is her story.

Our Spotlight Interviews have been a popular monthly feature since EP Lab Digest started in 2001. In this special feature, we check back with some of our previously highlighted EP labs to see how they have changed since first being profiled.

Continued reductions in reimbursement levels, physician shortages, and increased patient demands due to the aging population pressure clinical practices to find opportunities to increase practice efficiencies without compromising patient care. Outsourcing of selected routine follow-up services may provide an opportunity to effectively manage implanted device follow-up and free up practice resources to focus on more acute patient needs.

George F. Van Hare, MD is Professor of Pediatrics at Stanford University, Clinical Professor of Pediatrics at the University of California San Francisco, and Director of the Pediatric Arrhythmia Center at UCSF and Stanford.