HWN Suggests

Experts' Perspectives: Top Issue Facing Cardiology...

Despite being unable to dethrone cardiovascular disease as the leading cause of mortality, the cardiology community has welcomed an innumerable number of practice-changing breakthroughs, particularly in recent decades as an improved understanding of disease pathophysiology, pharmacotherapy, and technology have contributed to multiple discoveries and advances, including TAVR, SGLT2 inhibitors, wearables, and gene therapies.

read full article

Articles of Interest

A History of the Development of Cardiology as a Medical Specialty

The solidity of cardiology as a recognized specialty is by 1978 well established all over the world, and to a large extent due to the dream of Louis Bishop, Sr., and of Franz Groedel. The small group that was at the beginning was industrious and sincere; the men who followed them were imaginative in many ways. The basic aim was never departed from, and many of the methods that were devised to accomplish the basic aim were copied by many organizations in many places.

Cardiology: A Century of Progress

Our predecessors, despite a lack of data and experience, clearly established cardiology as an important medical specialty; we stand on the shoulders of giants. Although cardiology has progressed dramatically, cardiovascular disease remains the most common cause of death worldwide, and much remains to be accomplished. In addition, the achievements made are not available to large segments of the worldwide population. The next major steps must include more vigorous and widespread prevention of ASCVD, including primordial prevention begun early in life, as well as application of the more recent remarkable advances in genomics and artificial intelligence.

Gre8t Debates: Eight Current Controversies in Interventional Cardiology

See a patient with a non-ST elevation MI and you act—but is your invasive strategy better early or later? What about single; no, dual; no, triple antiplatelet/antithrombotic therapy—and for how long and when? What about PCI: thienopyridines and/or GPIs and/or antithrombotics and/or what? Use a circulatory support device, but which one in which patient? And what about CTCA in patients presenting with stable chest pain?

How Cardiology Specialties Can Increase Efficiency to Keep Up with Patient Influx

From diagnostic cardiology to interventional and surgical cardiology, doctors keep busy trying to accommodate the many patients they see and operate on daily. With risk factors on the rise, such as diabetes and obesity, cardiology specialties are busier than ever — putting all the more focus on efficiency as the key factor to managing patient influx.

It’s Time: Building a New Board of Cardiovascular Medicine

This evolution and growth of cardiovascular medicine from a subspecialty within internal medicine to a distinct medical specialty, with its own set of subspecialties and training pathways, requires a new approach that will replace the current approach with a pathway to continuous certification and competence.

More Isn’t Always Better in Coronary Care

“Interventional cardiology is doing cosmetic surgery on the coronary arteries, making them look pretty, but it’s not treating the underlying biology of these arteries,” said Dr. Ozner, who received the 2008 American Heart Association Humanitarian Award. “If some of the billions spent on intervention were put into prevention, we’d have a much healthier America at a lower cost.”

So Many Cardiac Specialties – Unraveling the Heart Physicians

“The heart and blood vessels comprise an extraordinarily complex system,” says McLeod Cardiologist Alan Blaker, MD. “As a result, a large team of very focused specialists stands ready to diagnosis and treat cardiovascular issues. There are so many specialties, a patient can be confused.” Here’s a quick overview of some of the specialists you may see and a description of their role:

This 1950s Heart-Lung Machine Revolutionized Cardiac Surgery

Open-heart procedures evolved rapidly once Mayo Clinic surgeon John Kirklin made his improvements to an earlier invention.

What Should You Know About Controversies in Cardiology?

Every year, more than half a million people in North America and Europe get a stent in a coronary artery. Most of these patients expect that a stent will significantly improve their quality of life. But a recent study, called ORBITA (for Objective Randomised Blinded Investigation with optimal medical Therapy of Angioplasty), calls this assumption into question.