In Global News: Raising Money for Children’s Hearts, Lung Cancer Risk in Former Smokers, and Pacemakers After TAVR

Patient Care and General Interest

A charity bazaar raised money for a Shanghai Chest Hospital project that offers free heart surgery to children with congenital heart disease in China.

Trillium Health Partners and Saint Elizabeth Health Care in Ontario, Canada, have been recognized with the Canadian College of Health Care Leader’s 3M Health Care Quality Team Award for their Putting Patients at the Heart Program, which focuses on postoperative care for cardiac patients.

Drugs and Devices

AtriCure and Baheal Pharmaceutical Group have agreed to a partnership for the latter to distribute AtriCure’s surgical ablation devices in China.

Research, Trials, and Funding

Survival after congenital heart surgery is improving; however, researchers from Minnesota, USA, find that mortality for this group of patients remains higher than in the general population, even for relatively mild structural defects.

Researchers from Ontario, Canada, find lower survival and higher likelihood of readmission for heart failure in patients who required a permanent pacemaker after transcatheter aortic valve replacement compared to patients who did not need a pacemaker.

Analysis of the Framingham Heart Study cohorts suggests that quitting smoking substantially lowers lung cancer risk, even within five years of quitting, although the risk for former smokers remains higher than for never-smokers.