St. Jude Medical ($STJ) touted a study in the journal The Lancet, which found that the company's CardioMEMS Heart Failure System for monitoring heart failure led to a 48% decrease in hospitalizations. All patients were implanted with the device during the 31-month study. Patients in the control group did not benefit from the device for the first 18 months of the study. After that, the doctors gained access to the data produced by the CardioMEMS implant. "This rigorous analysis showed a dramatic long-term impact for high-risk patients who were managed with the CardioMEMS HF System," said Dr. Philip Adamson, St. Jude medical director and vice president of medical affairs. "During the first 18 months, the control group hospitalization rates remained high but once patient management using pressure data from the CardioMEMS HF system was introduced for the first time, we saw a hospitalization reduction of almost 50 percent, a clinically and highly statistically significant result." Release