A Diagnostics & Imaging Week

HealthGate Data (Burlington, Massachusetts) reported that it has partnered with Duke University School of Medicine (Durham, North Carolina) to develop order sets and other point-of-care (POC) tools for its Quality Architect solution customized for a number of heart-related conditions.

The Quality Architect solution is a platform enabling health groups to create and manage evidence-based POC forms and tools, facilitate cross-functional team communication, benchmark quality initiatives and provide evidence-based guidelines, in both clinical and patient versions.

The new cardiac POC tools will be developed by cardiologists affiliated with the medical center.

"Doctors don't always know how to translate the latest evidence into specific orders for individual patients," said James Tcheng, MD, cardiologist and associate professor of medicine at Duke. "What they need is a practical approach that is customizable."

The order sets are designed to provide instructions and recommendations on how to interpret and implement evidence-based guidelines for a number of conditions such as coronary artery disease, acute myocardial infarction, hyperlipidemia and congestive heart failure.

HealthGate Data develops evidence-based applications for improving patient care.

Toshiba America Medical Systems (Tustin, California), together with Cardiovascular Institute of the South (CIS; Houma, Louisiana), reported the new Cardiovascular CT Basics Program, designed to educate cardiologists, radiologists, vascular surgeons and administrators about the latest 64-slice CT technology, including Toshiba's Aquilion 64 CFX system.

The program meets American College of Cardiology (Bethesda, Maryland) and peripheral artery disease guidelines for cardiac imaging.

Course topics include regulatory requirements, space and construction issues, coding and billing requirements, appropriate utilization of the technology and a general overview of interpretation challenges. The courses will feature discussion sessions with CIS cardiologists, surgeons, administrators and technical staff team members.