BG Medicine, Inc. announced that company representatives and independent researchers will highlight the clinical utility of galectin-3 blood testing in assessing the prognosis of patients with chronic heart failure through an extensive series of data presentations and company-sponsored events at the American College of Cardiology's (ACC) 62nd Annual Scientific Session & Expo in San Francisco, California. As part of BG Medicine's presence at the ACC meeting, the company will host an educational symposium chaired by Alan Maisel, MD, Professor of Medicine, UCSD, Director of Coronary Care Unit and Heart Failure Program at the San Diego VA Medical Center, focused on how galectin-3 testing can help hospitals reduce readmissions. Representatives from BG Medicine will also be sponsoring booth N5519 which showcases how galectin-3 can impact the treatment of patients with chronic heart failure through a series of real-life case studies.

Reducing unplanned readmissions for patients continues to be one of the most urgent and pressing issues facing US-based hospitals today, particularly since October 2012, when the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) enacted new rules that impose significant financial penalties on hospitals with excessive 30-day hospital readmission rates. Because heart failure patients with elevated galectin-3 are two-to-three times more likely to be readmitted to the hospital within 30 days of discharge, believe that identifying these high-risk patients through galectin-3 testing is an efficient, simple and cost-effective tool in a hospital's strategy to reduce unplanned 30-day readmissions, enabling hospitals to better direct their intervention strategies and resources to those who need them most.