July 2012

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Volume 12 Issue 7

Editorial Staff

Clinical Editor
Bradley Knight, MD
Executive Editor
Laurie Gustafson
Managing Editor
Jodie Elrod
Production Manager
Alexa Flinn

Editorial Correspondence

Jodie Elrod, Managing Editor, EP Lab Digest
HMP Communications, 70 E. Swedesford Rd
Suite 100, Malvern PA 19355
Telephone: (800) 371-0791

Fax: (866) 488-8273
Email: jelrod@hmpglobal.com
EP News
Boston Scientific Closes Cameron Health AcquisitionBoston Scientific Corporation has closed its acquisition of Cameron Health, Inc. of San Clemente, California, and, as a result, added to its product portfolio the world’s first and only commercially…
How Privacy Policies Impair Patient Care and Medical Progress
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) has had a positive impact on the day-to-day practice of medicine — it has also had a major negative impact. Although designed to protect patient privacy and confidentiality in a digital…
Key Factors for a Successful Arrhythmia Program: Experience at Memorial Hermann The Woodlands Hospital
The ObjectiveIn the spring of 2011, I began discussions with Memorial Hermann The Woodlands Hospital with the goal of instituting a complex cardiac arrhythmia program that would allow me to treat my patients with the same world-class level of care ac…
The Valley Hospital Enters into a Historic International Collaboration
Over the past two decades, The Valley Hospital, a 451-bed tertiary-care hospital located in Ridgewood, has gradually evolved into the leading provider of electrophysiology services in the state of New Jersey. Today, care is delivered in three electro…
Building the New TriStar Centennial Heart & Vascular Center EP Lab
In February 2012, Centennial Medical Center opened its new heart and vascular center. This article provides an overview of the 200,000 square foot center.TriStar Centennial Medical Center is the flagship hospital of Hospital Corporation of America (H…
Ablation of Ischemic Ventricular Tachycardia Using a New Irrigated Tip Catheter
Case ReportA 79-year-old male with an ischemic cardiomyopathy presented with recurrent ventricular tachycardia (VT). He had a history of a prior posterior wall myocardial infarction, and had undergone two prior coronary artery bypass grafting surgeri…
Clinical Case Report: Recurrent Twiddler’s Syndrome
Bayliss et al were the first to describe Twiddler’s syndrome.1 In the paper, the authors presented the main characteristics of Twiddler’s syndrome — namely, the twisting or coiling of the lead around the pacing device, followed by lead retraction or…
Spotlight Interview: Penrose-St. Francis Cardiovascular Center
The EP laboratories are a significant part of the Penrose-St. Francis Cardiovascular Center. Overall, the Vascular Center of Colorado (VCC) is approximately 20,000 square feet in size, and has five invasive procedure rooms, two of which are dedicated…
What to Do With the Left Atrial Appendage?
Atrial fibrillation (AF) affects 2.2 million Americans currently, and it is projected that 16 million will have the disorder by 2050.1 The incidence of embolic stroke increases with the diagnosis of AF, and the embolic source is many times the left a…
Perspectives From Both Sides of the EP Table
One week after my ablation, I pushed a Toyota sports car more than two blocks when its battery went kaput.Sure, I was a little pooped, but that is to be expected when a 60-year-old man decides to push a car rather than call a tow truck.