The Piedmont Heart Institute, part of Atlanta-based Piedmont Healthcare, hired nine cardiovascular specialists this year, the health system said Dec. 13. 

A round-up of the nation's best hospitals for heart care was Becker's most-read cardiology story in 2021. 

Surgeons at California-based Stanford Children's Health recently performed the organization's 500th pediatric heart transplant.

Gender, race and ethnicity should not be factors for cardiologists deciding whether invasive heart procedures should be performed on patients, according to a new guideline issued Dec. 9  from the American Heart Association and American College of Cardiology. 

Austin, Texas-based St. David’s Medical Center physicians were among the first in the U.S. to implant the Barostim System, a new neurostimulator technology used to help treat advanced heart failure, the hospital said Dec. 9.

Since the start of 2021, hospitals and health systems across the U.S. have performed many novel cardiology procedures.

Penn State Health St. Joseph Medical Center in Berks County, Pa., announced a new electrophysiology laboratory opened Dec. 7 to treat patients with cardiac rhythm disturbances. 

The American College of Cardiology named Ami Bhatt, MD, as chief innovation officer, the organization said Dec. 7. 

Cases of post-COVID-19 vaccine myocarditis, swelling of the heart muscle, in people under 21 are rare and usually mild, a study published Dec. 6 in Circulation confirmed. 

Significant increases in blood pressure readings were observed during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in both men and women across the U.S., a study published Dec. 6 in Circulation found. 

Cleveland Clinic doctors were the first in the world to successfully implant leadless pacemaker defibrillator systems in two patients as part of a global clinical trial sponsored by Boston Scientific, according to a Dec. 2 news release.

News linking the optimal bedtime to lower heart disease risk was Becker's most-read cardiology story in November.

Physicians at Washington, D.C.-based MedStar Washington Hospital Center have completed the 300th implant of the HeartMate 3 left ventricular assist device, which treats patients with advanced heart failure, making it one of the first four LVAD programs nationwide to do so, MedStar said Nov. 30.

An artificial intelligence algorithm that can identify cardiac dysfunction from a single-lead EKG also can predict long-term survival for patients following cardiac surgery, a new study published Dec. 1 in Mayo Clinical Proceedings found. 

Below are four cardiologists who recently joined new practices or stepped into new roles. 

Fountain Valley, Calif.-based MemorialCare Orange Coast Medical Center announced Nov. 29 that its Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement Program’s cardiac team recently performed its 100th TAVR procedure.

Camden, N.J.-based Virtua Health named Chun (Dan) Choi, MD, as vice president of clinical operations for cardiovascular services, according to a Nov. 29 press release.

University of Chicago Medicine physicians have completed 55 heart transplants in 2021, with two back-to-back procedures on Thanksgiving setting an Illinois state record for the year, the Chicago Sun-Times reported Nov. 26. 

Recent cardiology studies have focused on the risk of transcatheter aortic valve replacement for chronic kidney patients, Cleveland-Clinic protocol for heart attacks and more. 

New Brunswick, N.J.-based Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital is the first cardiovascular center of excellence in the state to use a drug-coated balloon angioplasty therapy for patients whose arteries have narrowed again following initial treatment, according to a Nov. 17 release.