American College of Cardiology

Recovery Act Moving Through Congress

WThe economic stimulus package received a vote on the House floor on Wednesday. The bill includes $20 billion in health information technology (IT) spending for infrastructure and adoption incentives for physicians and hospitals. Specifically, the health IT portion would establish standards, payment incentives and privacy protections. Meanwhile, the Senate Appropriations and Finance Committee marked up their version of the Recovery Act this week. It also includes health IT provisions totaling includes about $23 billion in funding. Both the House and Senate packages also included increased funding for comparative effectiveness research, Medicaid, biomedical research and health insurance for the unemployed. More coverage is available from Government Health IT.

Administration Names Acting CDC Director

The Obama administration has named Richard Besser, M.D., acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) until Congress formally approves former Sen. Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) as secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services. Daschle will then appoint a permanent director. Besser, a pediatrician, is the director of the CDC’s Coordinating Office for Terrorism Preparedness and Emergency Response. He replaces Julie Gerberding, M.D., who resigned after six years in the position. More coverage is available from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

HHS Recognizes Three Health IT Standards
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on Jan. 21 formally recognized three new interoperability specifications for electronic health records, personal health records and electronic quality monitoring, effective Jan. 16. This is the second step of a two-step process where the HHS secretary accepts specifications and then one year later recognizes the specifications. The Healthcare Information Technology Standards Panel now recognizes as standards: IS04 Emergency Responder Electronic Health Record Version 1; IS05 Consumer Empowerment and Access to Clinical Information via Portable Media Version 1; and IS06 Quality Version 1. HHS called the recognition process “critical to advancing both federal and private sector use of health IT standards.” More coverage is available from Government Health IT.

FDA News Updates

Plavix manufacturers sanofi-aventis and Bristol-Myers Squibb have agreed to work with the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) to conduct studies that will allow a better understanding of the effects of genetic factors and other drugs on the effectiveness of clopidogrel, the agency said recently. The drug manufacturers have agreed to a timeline for completing the studies, which could take several months. FDA recommends that health care providers continue to prescribe clopidogrel because of its demonstrated benefits, but should re-evaluate the need for starting or continuing treatment with a proton pump inhibitor in patients taking clopidogrel. More information is available from the FDA.

The FDA has granted marketing approval to three of Avalon Laboratories new catheter devices intended for use in medical life support systems. The devices – Avalon Elite Bi-Caval Dual Lumen Catheter, Avalon Elite Multi-Port Venous Femoral Catheter and Avalon Elite Vascular Access Kit – use a wire-layering technology that is more resistant to collapsing. More information is available from Cardiovascular Business magazine.

Out of the Shadows, Into the Sunshine

In this week’s online Lewin Report: ACC CEO Jack Lewin, M.D., F.A.C.C., discusses the Physician Payments Sunshine Act as introduced in the Senate last Thursday. Dr. Lewin writes,

Sens. Grassley and Kohl have just introduced the Physician Payments Sunshine Act as promised. As not promised, a lot of our proposed amendments aren’t in there. ... We should still support these Sunshine efforts. They will offset public distrust of those exceptions among professionals and companies who exercise bad judgment in their relationships with industry.

Do you agree? Comment now at ACC’s online forum, The Lewin Report.

ACC to Hold Health System Reform Summit

The ACC will hold its 2008 Health System Reform Summit on Feb. 1-2 in Washington, D.C. The event will bring together more than 100 health care professionals and individuals with a passionate interest in reforming the current systems of care for two days of discussion on the roles and responsibilities of health care providers in health care reform. The Summit provides an opportunity for members to hear from leaders in the health care reform field on the role of the medical community and also on issues surrounding patient access to care and the financing of reform. Learn more about the Summit here.