We have two new questions this month on catheter selection and catheter placement. If you would like to respond, please email us at eplabdigest@hotmail.com or go to www.eplabdigest.com and click on the email discussion group link. Remember, when posting or responding to the discussion group, please let me know if you would like your name, location, and/or email address listed as well — that way you will get more instant results! This month, we are also premiering a new feature in which a guest moderator answers one of the questions under discussion every month. See the inset for more information. In this issue, Dr. L. Bing Liem provides his expertise on a case of right ventricular outflow tract tachycardia. Keep posted for more guest moderators! We hope to hear from you soon!

On April 26, the Heart Rhythm Society announced proposed recommendations on performance policies for pacemakers and implantable cardioverter defibrillators. In this interview, we speak with Dr. Anne Curtis, President of the Heart Rhythm Society, about the need to create these recommendations, as well as when the final guidelines will be available.

In the February 2006 edition of EP Lab Digest, we featured an article that outlined Lancaster General Hospital’s new EP Internship program. In this month’s issue, author Andrea Hostetter, BS, RN shows you how your EP lab can grow and improve by focusing on five main categories. This a summary article from a presentation to the Alliance for Cardiovascular Professionals (ACVP) in Atlanta, Georgia on March 10, 2006. The ACVP is an organization that aims to meet the needs of all cardiovascular and pulmonary providers, declare standards, and promote recognition of the cardiovascular profession.

Remote Magnetic Navigation is a new tool for complex ablations that is rapidly gaining popularity. The system allows precise control over the ablation catheter from a remote location. The Stereotaxis Niobe system has been deployed at several top arrhythmia centers around the world with great success. Many new centers are coming on-line because of the promise of the unprecedented control over the ablation catheter, reproducibility and decrease in x-ray exposure. The primary target of the system is complex ablations. The following case demonstrates a situation of a previously failed difficult ablation that was successfully completed with a remote navigation system.

When it comes to quality assurance, there are always areas for improvement. In the following article, we look at how current EP staff successfully manage quality control and quality assurance practices in their electrophysiology lab. These accounts were taken from “Spotlight Interviews” published in EP Lab Digest over a four-year period. The labs mentioned are located all across the United States, and were interviewed between September 2001 to September 2005. In this article, comments were edited slightly so as to focus solely on the quality control/quality assurance aspects of their labs.

Dr. Michael Harostock and colleague Dr. Bryan McDonnell are the first in Pennsylvania to perform High Intensity Focused Ultrasound (HIFU). The first HIFU procedure performed in the United States took place in 2004 at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago, Illinois. Read on to learn more about this procedure and its benefits for patients with atrial fibrillation (AF).

Carolinas HealthCare System is the largest healthcare system in the Carolinas, and the fourth largest public system in the nation. Carolinas HealthCare System owns, leases, and manages hospitals, nursing homes, physician practices, home health agencies, and other healthcare-related operations comprising of more than 4,300 licensed beds and approximately 25,300 employees. Carolinas Medical Center (CMC) is the flagship facility of Carolinas HealthCare System. As one of the Carolinas’ largest hospitals, it serves as a quaternary referral center for a 29-county multi-state region and portions of the Southeast and beyond. CMC opened in 1940 and has 795 beds.