Sooner or later, we’ll all know someone who has lost his or her life to heart disease, and today, Sept. 10, 2012, is the 20th anniversary of my father’s passing. George Edward McCarty had undergone a triple bypass several years earlier, but restenosis of the coronary arteries and an otherwise failing heart would be his undoing. The world of medical technology has changed enormously since Dad died, so much so that what we now take for granted might have seemed miraculous in 1992. Would Dad have lived another 20 years had his predicament arisen 20 years later in medical history?...

The world of cardiology still holds a spot front and center in the realm of medical technology, so it only seems fitting to celebrate the birth of Michael Ellis DeBakey, MD, whose birth on Sept. 7, 1908 was followed by his passing very nearly 100 years later to the day, July 11, 2008. In the ten decades between those two dates, the physician was published more than a thousand times in medical journals and in bound books. DeBakey’s name would become synonymous with pioneering efforts in circulatory system surgery, but the man who was born Michael Dabaghi in Lake Charles,...

Jeff Shuren, MD, has brought a lot of changes to FDA’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health, but there are those who think Shuren has not gone far enough while others think he’s gone too far. None of this would matter so much but for the potential for a GOP take-over of the White House. It’s no secret that Shuren’s administration of CDRH has not lacked for controversy, but what some might not realize is the enormous pressure Shuren is under. So what you say? There are several members of Congress who are quite critical of CDRH, but maybe none...

The U.S. Department of Justice sent an Aug. 30 memo to hospitals with a rubric for determining whether an implantable cardioverter defibrillator was justifiably implanted, bringing to a close a nettlesome saga in the annals of cardiology. The memo gives hospitals some leeway in previous use of ICDs outside of Medicare's guidelines, an outcome that was predicted earlier this year by a physician involved in the discussions with DoJ. The news is not expected to take a large bite out of ICD sales according to an Aug. 31 statement by Wells Fargo (WF; New York), however.