Cardiac Rhythm Management Market Faces Continued Challenges Ahead

Article preview from Medtech Insight - August 1, 2011

The CRM market is facing continued growth challenges as manufacturers struggle to jumpstart lagging sales and broaden adoption of implantable cardioverter defibrillators and cardiac resynchronization therapy devices while facing a brewing storm in the US over appropriate device use.

Cardiac Rhythm Management Market Faces Continued Challenges Ahead

Article preview from Medtech Insight - August 1, 2011

The cardiac rhythm management (CRM) market, which includes implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs), cardiac resynchronization therapy devices (CRTs), and conventional cardiac pacemakers, is facing continued growth challenges as manufacturers struggle to jump-start lagging CRM sales and broaden adoption of ICDs and CRTs while facing a brewing storm in the US over appropriate device use.

At this year's Heart Rhythm Society (HRS) meeting, held in San Francisco in May, device manufacturers showcased their latest technological advances in the CRM arena while physicians debated the appropriate use issue.

The latter came to the forefront in January, when researchers, led by Sana M. Al-Khatib, MD, of Duke University School of Medicine and the Duke Clinical Research Institute, published a study in the Journal of the American Medical Association suggesting that a substantial percentage of US physicians may not be following evidence-based guidelines for ICD implantation. Findings from this widely publicized study, along with an ongoing US Department of Justice (DOJ) investigation to determine if providers improperly billed Medicare for nonqualified ICD implants, have electrophysiologists (EPs) and others in the CRM community on the defensive.

Continued...

To read this article in its entirety, Purchase now as a PDF and receive it immediately via email. Or get it FREE when you subscribe to Medtech Insight Newsletter.

About Medtech Insight

Medtech Insight newsletter provides insights into the technology and market developments (devices, instrumentation, biomaterials, gene therapy, tissue engineering, etc.) impacting a wide range of surgical and non-surgical clinical practices.