Cardiac Imaging and CER: The Search for Efficiency

Regardless of the final shape of health care reform legislation, there is little doubt that the swirling debate around that issue has highlighted an unambiguous need to reduce health system costs, increase efficiency, and improve patient outcomes. This is particularly true for high-cost diagnostics in crucial areas like cardiac care. The focus on fast-rising care costs has ratcheted up the pressure to reduce the number and fine-tune the quality of cardiac imaging procedures. And perhaps nothing signifies change in this area more than the introduction of comparative effectiveness research into the equation in the search for standards of care.