In the next installment of EP Lab Digest’s EP 101 series, we look into the topic of tilt table testing.

“Teamwork” is a term with many connotations and is often used in today’s corporate world. The healthcare setting specifically has been very progressive in terms of team creation and recognition. Overall, teamwork seeks to improve organizational productivity and motivation, employee morale, creativity and innovation, and efficiency in processes and procedures. Teamwork can also be effective in helping to meet strategic objectives and goals for a hospital, service line, or department.

In this month’s installment, we reveal the answer to December’s pacemaker/ICD puzzle. Let us know if you answered correctly!

Legislation is being introduced to Congress that would propose an AED for every school in the United States, replicating a similar program already in place in the state of Ohio. Dr. Terry Gordon, who created the Ohio AED program, discusses the nationwide proposal.

Dr. Bengt Herweg relocated to Tampa in July 2002 from New York City to develop the electrophysiology program for the University of South Florida and to start an atrial fibrillation (AF) ablation program at Tampa General Hospital. The first case was done in January of 2003, and since that time, a total of 280 AF ablations have been performed (57% for paroxysmal and 43% for persistent and permanent AF). In this brief article, Dr. Herweg describes a hybrid cryo-RF ablation approach that is being used at Tampa General Hospital for all lesions delivered in close proximity to the esophagus.

Traditionally, the three R’s of education have been “Reading, ‘Riting, and ‘Rrithmetic.” But for the field of electrophysiology in the year 2007, the three R’s should be renamed “Robotics, Recalls, and Reimbursement.”

Drs. Mondal and al-Ahdab from Cypress Heart in Wichita, Kansas were recently nominated by a colleague for EP Lab Digest’s 10-Minute Interview. The person that nominated them said both Drs. Mondal and al-Ahdab “have taken Wichita by storm,” adding that “their perspective is new and fresh.” Seeing this person’s comments made me want to find out more information about these two special EPs! Keep reading to learn their stories.

In a recent abstract presented at this year’s American College of Gastroenterology meeting, researchers evaluated the utility of esophageal capsule endoscopy for early identification of post radiofrequency ablation (RFA) related esophageal injury. Their abstract, entitled “Use of PillCam ESO^® Endoscopy for Early Detection of Esophageal Injury after Radiofrequency Ablation Therapy for Atrial Fibrilation,” determined that capsule endoscopy can be a helpful tool in the early diagnosis of esophageal injury after radiofrequency ablation. In this article we speak with lead author Milan Dodig, MD, from the Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation.

The University Hospital Hamburg-Eppendorf was originally founded in 1884. It later became a university hospital in 1934. With 14 centers today, and 80 clinics, the hospital provides medical treatment to patients throughout Germany and worldwide, and the large staff of physicians and scientists carry out extensive medical research. As a result, the hospital’s medical treatment, science and research have an excellent worldwide reputation. Patients from around the world come to the hospital to undergo medical treatment where they will receive state-of-the-art medical care by a staff utilizing the latest developments in medicine.