Although the requirements for Stage 2 payments for meaningful use are not yet final, there is information to understand the challenges that organizations will face. In Stage 1, organizations could defer about half of the optional requirements; organizations were most likely to defer requirements related to patient engagement and coordinating care.

June 20, 2012 — Echocardiography is playing a key role in both the assessment and guidance of transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR). Attendees at the American Society of Echocardiography’s 23^rd Annual Scientific Sessions will have the opportunity to see this in action during a live TAVR procedure transmitted from Washington Hospital Center's hybrid cath lab.