Riding the storms--approaching cardiac intervention: combining an information-based managerial perspective with a knowledge-based expert view.

Abstract

To contribute to an improvement of efficiency within the health care system, it is important for each medical professional involved in a specific value chain of cure to have some basic understanding of the related and updated treatment methods. In a relatively short time, the field of interventional cardiology has evolved into an independent clinical discipline with a wide variety of therapeutic modalities. At present, it is possible to safely treat lesions in the main stem of the left coronary artery with percutaneous transluminal angioplasty. The risk of thrombosis and restenosis following stent delivery has been significantly reduced by the introduction of several new pharmacological agents and improvement in the design of the stents. In addition, it has been confirmed that primary angioplasty in acute myocardial infarction has a superior outcome compared with thrombolysis. The aforementioned historical overview is highlighted from an integrated managerial and clinical perspective.