Physician Certification and Implantable Cardioverter-Defibrillators
- Jeff Whittle, MD, MPH jeffrey.whittle@va.govClement J. Zablocki VA Medical CenterMilwaukee, Wisconsin
Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text.
- KEYWORDS:
- CARDIAC ELECTROPHYSIOLOGY
- CERTIFICATION
- DATA INTERPRETATION, STATISTICAL
- DEFIBRILLATORS, IMPLANTABLE
- ELECTROPHYSIOLOGIC TECHNIQUES, CARDIAC
- ELECTROPHYSIOLOGY
- INTRAOPERATIVE COMPLICATIONS
- OUTCOME ASSESSMENT (HEALTH CARE)
- QUALITY OF HEALTH CARE
To the Editor: In reading the study by Dr Curtis and colleagues1 and the associated Editorial by Dr Coromilas,2 I was particularly interested in the observation that electrophysiologists were more likely than nonelectrophysiologist cardiologists, thoracic surgeons, or other specialists to implant an ICD capable of providing cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT-D) when the patient was eligible for this therapy. However, I wondered whether electrophysiologists were also more likely than these specialists to implant a CRT-D device when the patient was not eligible for this therapy.
Therefore, for each clinician group, I subtracted the number of patients eligible for a CRT-D device from the total to get the number of patients not eligible for CRT-D device. Similarly, I subtracted the number of CRT-D devices placed in eligible patients from the total CRT-D devices to get the number of CRT-D devices placed in patients not eligible for this therapy. The proportion …
