Letters to the Editor

Since publishing "EP Lab Digest Speaks With Dr. Michael Venturini, Chief Medical Officer of Indiana Heart Hospital" (IHH) in our January/February 2003 issue, we have received a large response from readers regarding other all-digital hospitals that have also opened. In our January/February article, we showcased a new all-digital, paperless and filmless facility. IHH paired with GE to provide for patients a comprehensive offering of the most advanced cardiology equipment available today. Hospitals such as these are the trend of the future, and patients will benefit greatly from this new use of information. Read about 2 other such hospitals that have opened:

"Dear Editor, I wish to point out that the Oklahoma Heart Hospital opened in August of 2002.   It too is an all-digital, paperless and filmless cardiac care facility. It also uses Siemens and Witt equipment. In addition, in the EP Lab, we use EP Medical and Biosense Webster Carto systems. Of course, I do not know  the criteria for your report but I wanted to address the existence of Oklahoma Heart Hospital. This is a link to the front door of the OHH website: https://www.ocaheart.com/hearthospital.html." Sincerely, Ronald Kidd

"Dear Editor, I read with interest your recent cover story on Indiana Heart Hospital (IHH). I wanted to share with you information that you may not be aware of, about The Heart Center of Indiana (THCI). In fact, the THCI is the first dedicated heart hospital in Indiana. THCI opened its doors in December and to date has seen dozens of patients. Built from the bottom up by Siemens, it is equipped with Siemens Medical Solutions technologies ranging from the state-of-the-art 16-slice CT, to high-end catheterization lab equipment, to information technology systems, which links it all together. As further evidence of their technology leadership, THCI also has an MRI scanner. This scanner gives their facility unique cardiac and vascular imaging capabilities not available in other cardiac care centers. Immediate access to patient information is achievable through the location of 220 personal computers in each of the 88 patient rooms and at workstations, allowing physicians and staff to call up a patient's record, add new information, or view images." Sincerely, Robert Dewey, Director, Siemens Cardiology Initiative

This month, we also feature an email question received from a reader who ran into an interesting situation in her hospital's MRI suite. Lately, despite safety checks, patients with heart devices and other implants had been repeatly admitted to the MRI; this was causing problems, because their devices and implants were not MRI-compatible. It seems that before their MRIs, the patients were not mentioning in their hospital forms that they had such devices. Though none of these patients have yet had an MRI, the situation remains, despite the MRI technologists best efforts, and is an area of high-risk concern. Has your EP lab dealt with this situation? How would you respond to this? We look forward to hearing from you!