Current interventions to improve patient safety have emphasized a  systems perspective when one is analyzing mishaps and re-engineering the medication-use system. Some of the more popular system-based interventions include (1) improving facility design and workflow, (2) using technology and robotics, (3) adding forcing functions to procedures and equipment, and (4) improving product labels. Despite such [...]

Speaker: F. Xavier Pi-Sunyer, MD, MPH, Professor of Medicine, Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, and Chief, Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Nutrition, Obesity Research Center, St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital, New York, New York Data from the second year of a two-year phase 3 study have confirmed the long-term benefits of rimonabant (Acomplia™, Sanofi-Aventis), the [...]

Speaker: Ann L. Taylor, MD, Professor of Medicine and Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs, University of Minnesota Medical School, Minneapolis, Minnesota The addition of a nitric oxide-enhancing, fixed-dose combination of isosorbide dinitrate plus hydralazine (ISDN/HYD) (BiDil®, NitroMed) to standard therapy for heart failure increases survival significantly compared with standard therapy alone.

Speaker: Shamir R. Mehta, MD, MSc, Associate Professor of Medicine, McMaster University and Hamilton Health Sciences, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada High-dose glucose insulin-potassium (GIK) infusion, a promising low-cost intervention developed in Mexico in the 1950s, maintains its reputed beneficial effects in patients with ST-seg-ment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI). It was found to improve myocardial energetics, decrease [...]

Extended-Release Niacin/Statin Combination for Atherosclerotic Patients with Coronary Heart Disease Speaker: Allen J. Taylor, MD, Director of Cardiovascular Research, Cardiology Service, Walter Reed Medical Center, Washington, DC Results from the ARBITER-2 (Arterial Biology for the Investigation of the Treatment Effects of Reducing Cholesterol) trial indicate that the combination of prescription extended-release (ER) niacin (Niaspan®, Kos) [...]