Heart health outcomes need a boost from data analytics, according to a new report published in Circulation by the American Heart Association (AHA), which raises concerns about the slower decline in cardiovascular mortality rates that began in 2011.

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The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has pushed back the implementation date for its bundled payments for cardiac care from July 1 until Oct. 1, according to Cardiovascular Business. It also suggested it could further delay the model until Jan. 1, 2018.

CMS announced the delay of the program, titled the Cardiac Rehabilitation Incentive Payment Model, this week in the Federal Register.

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Here are some of this week's top stories in cardiology and health IT. Big names in healthcare pledge to facilitate interoperability, EHR accessibility The Obama administration has announced an agreement to increase interoperability by top U.S. health information technology developers and many of their larger customers. Signing on to the pledge--which requires signees to ease patient access to electronic health records--were Allscripts, Athenahealth, and Cerner Corp., among others. About 90 percent of U.S. hospitals use at least one of the vendors who signed on. Top 100 Hospital List released by Truven Truven Health Analytics has released its list of the 100 top hospitals in the United States. In researching the hospitals, Truven discovered a trend toward reduced expense per patient among the majority of top-performing hospitals. This year's trend appeared for the first time in the awards' 23-year history. More patients survive when hospitals adhere to cardiac arrest... read more

Did you have a chance to check out the latest news from the cardiology and healthIT communities? Let us help keep you up to date on the stories you won't want to miss. Heart attack outcomes may improve when treatment sought earlier Restoring blood flow quickly after heart attack symptoms begin is key to less heart damage, according to a new study published in JACC: Cardiovascular Interventions. The study found that failure to recognize and seek treatment for early heart attack symptoms can cause increased damage to the heart. Heart failure cell therapy trial gets FDA approval The FDA has authorized Celyad’s Investigational New Drug (IND) application for a CHART-2 trial in the United States. The phase III heart failure trial will initiate clinical testing of Celyad’s C-Cure cardiopoietic cells delivered via the C-Cath proprietary catheter. CHART-2 is designed to test the efficacy of C-Cure as a treatment for heart failure of ischemic origin. Coronary stenting often... read more

Did you have a chance to check out the latest news from the cardiology community? Let us help keep you up to date on the stories you won't want to miss. Mount Sinai heart director predicts cardio care will focus more on prevention In the future, healthcare providers will put more emphasis on prevention, and (it is hoped) less on treating disease, Valentin Fuster, M.D., Ph.D., said during a Dec. 17 panel discussion at the United Nations. Fuster, director of Mount Sinai Heart and physician-in-chief of The Mount Sinai Hospital, added that the transition “will require that cardiovascular specialists and healthcare workers are trained in ambulatory and home-based care.” Heart disease still top cause of deaths, but rate is decreasing in U.S. Heart disease-related deaths are down, but still account for nearly one-third of all deaths in the United States, according to the American Heart Association's (AHA's) annual Heart Disease and Stroke Statistical Update. Cardiovascular... read more

Did you have a chance to check out the latest news from the cardiology community? Let us help keep you up to date on the stories you won't want to miss. The good news: High total cholesterol rates declining among U.S. adults Rates of total high cholesterol and low high-density protein (HDL) in U.S. adults decreased between 2011 and 2014, according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). From 2009 to 2010, 13.4 percent of adults had high cholesterol and 21.3 percent had low HDL cholesterol. From 2011 to 2014, those percentages dropped to 12.1 percent and 18.5 percent, respectively. The bad news: Most patients not making changes to reduce cardio risk Fewer than half of patients considered candidates for cholesterol-lowering treatments are actually implementing the treatments, which include exercising more, taking statin medication and losing weight. “Cholesterol treatment gaps” are greater among non-white ethnic groups in the United States than they are for Americans... read more

Did you have a chance to check out the latest healthcare IT news stories around the Web? We’ve captured the top industry news stories from this week that you won’t want to miss. An Ideal Transition: Multi-Campus Rollout of Echo CVIS at Orlando Health Read the latest case study from Diagnostic & Interventional Cardiology to learn how Orlando Health has successfully implemented LUMEDX's physician structured reporting and image management solution across five of its campuses. Read how the hospitals use standardized reports for echo in order to improve efficiency and streamline workflow. Million Hearts Model Rewards Physicians for Prevention According to Medscape, the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation (CMMI) recently announced a 5-year, randomized controlled trial to test the idea of paying physicians for reducing the long-term cardiovascular risk of their high-risk patients. CMMI will enroll 720 practices in the clinical trial between June and September, and ... read more

Watch the latest Million Hearts whiteboard animation video, which shows how you can leverage your healthcare IT investments to prevent heart disease and stroke. Million Hearts is a national initiative partnering with other federal organizations, healthcare providers, and private-sector groups with the goal of preventing 1 million heart attacks and strokes by 2017. The video explains how healthcare providers can use the PDSA cycle as a way to plan interventions and drive improved patient outcomes. For more on how your heart hospital can use the PDSA cycle to support quality improvement initiatives, request your complimentary webinar CD: Driving Change in Readmissions and Length of Stay: Proven Performance Improvement Methods. In this webinar, you will learn how to use the PDSA cycle to understand your hospital's data in order to manage readmissions and length of stay. read more

Now that spring is in full bloom, what are you doing to stay heart healthy?

During Heart Failure Awareness Week (Feb. 9-15), the LUMEDX blog will post on topics related to heart failure program management. In this case study, we will examine how a hospital system utilized performance improvement processes and data analysis to lower heart failure readmissions rates. Background: A hospital system found that its largest expense category over several years was in heart failure (HF) patients due to high readmissions rates. Hospital administrators determined that reducing readmissions rates would enable cost reduction and improve patient care. The Model for Improvement: With guidance from the LUMEDX Healthcare Consultants, the hospital employed the Model for Improvement as a foundation for change. The model asks three questions: What are we trying to accomplish? How will we know that a change has resulted in improvement? What changes can we make that will lead to improvement? By working with LUMEDX to answer the questions above, the ... read more