Cardiovascular Business - January/February 2008 - (Page 5)

THe TICKeR eDitoRial C.P. Kaiser, editor ckaiser@CardiovascularBusiness.com Mary C. Tierney, editorial Director mtierney@trimedmedia.com Beth Walsh, senior editor bwalsh@trimedmedia.com lisa fratt, features Writer lfratt@trimedmedia.com Jonathan Batchelor, Web editor jbatchelor@trimedmedia.com Justine Cadet, news editor jcadet@trimedmedia.com sarah lamberti, assistant news editor slamberti@trimedmedia.com Contributors: amy Buttell Crane iNteRaCtive MeDia amy lizotte, Interactive Media Manager alizotte@trimedmedia.com Jeff Hill, Interactive Media Developer jhill@trimedmedia.com aRt & DesigN Michele Rivera, art Director mrivera@trimedmedia.com Jason litchfield, Production editor jlitchfield@trimedmedia.com sales & MaRketiNg Pete deTreville, Publisher pdetreville@CardiovascularBusiness.com Michael Rahme, account Manager mrahme@CardiovascularBusiness.com nina Botelho, Marketing Director nbotilho@trimedmedia.com subsCRiPtioNs & ClieNt seRviCes Katy Tibbits, Circulation Manager ktibbits@trimedmedia.com aDMiNistRatioN Kristen Bouthillier, Business Manager kbouthillier@trimedmedia.com PubliCatioN seRviCes editorial submissions & Information editor@CardiovascularBusiness.com advertising, Media Kits & Reprints sales@CardiovascularBusiness.com subscriptions & Back Issues subs@CardiovascularBusiness.com Creative services & Information art@CardiovascularBusiness.com CoRPoRate oFFiCe 235 Promenade street, suite 455 Providence, Rhode Island 02908 tel. 401 383 5660 fax 401 383 3896 Quality Pays in several ways C.P. Kaiser, Editor ckaiser@CardiovascularBusiness.com Quality initiatives abound in healthcare today. One way to provide consistently better care to patients and to keep a healthy bottom line is through evidence-based medicine. This issue, we’re taking a look at how two leading cardiac care facilities have streamlined and standardized care and costs by initiating evidence-based protocols. The medical directors of those facilities emphasize team work when deploying broad quality reforms. It’s a cultural shift that transcends technology and, by its nature, must include everyone. We’re also exploring how the use of electronic medical records delivers across-the-board benefits to officebased practices. The incremental cost savings, improved quality of patient care, and better quality of life for physicians add up to a successful practice. An EMR, for example, saves money with each patient phone call when staff doesn’t have to hunt for a chart. Patient information doesn’t fall through the cracks when physicians can access their records remotely. And cardiologists in EMR-equipped practices can end the work day sooner (provided they turn off their PDAs!). As a follow-up to our focus last issue on the economics of cardiac CTA, this month we offer marketing strategies to help you gain market presence in this increasingly competitive slot. These tips are especially important as the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services threatens to restrict reimbursement for coronary CTA (see also News & Views, page 35). There’s no need to be shy about marketing your practice, you’ll learn, especially when many tactics can be developed in-house on a shoestring budget. In this—our second—issue of Cardiovascular Business, we continue to examine a host of subjects that are important to a successful practice. Be sure to check out our focus on medical displays, which indicates a trend to merge color and grayscale monitors. And we highlight a niche for cardiac PET/CT, which in no way sounds the death knell for SPECT imaging, which we also show will continue to be the functional workhorse it has always been. So, welcome and enjoy! And please send me your comments. CardiovascularBusiness.com Cardiovascular Business http://CardiovascularBusiness.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Cardiovascular Business - January/February 2008

Cardiovascular Business - January/February 2008 Contents The Ticker: Quality Pays in Several Ways Cover Story: The Proof: Why Evidence-based Medicine Improves Cardiac Care Clinical Study Digest: Co-payments and Cath Labs Cardiac PET/CT Fills in Gaps Left by SPECT Tapping into IT to Improve the Office-Based Practice SPECT–Proving Its Value Cardiac Images in the EMR: Just a Click Away The Top 20 Ways to Market Your Cardiac CTA Practice The Big Picture: Medical Displays for Cardiac Images Statins Work But Pharmacoeconomic Caveats Abound Driving Data Protection: Opting for Storage On- or Offsite News & Views Calendar Reader’s Resource

Cardiovascular Business - January/February 2008

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