Pack QR, Priya A, Lagu T, et al. – Researchers performed a cohort study of the link between risk-standardized hospital rates of transthoracic echocardiography and outcomes. They included 98,999 admissions from 397 hospitals across the United States. In patients with acute myocardial infarction, hospitals in the quartile with the greatest rates of echocardiography demonstrated greater hospital costs and length of stay but few variations in clinical outcomes vs hospitals in the quartile with the lowest rates of echocardiography. These findings suggested that, especially in hospitals with high rates of echocardiography use, more selective use of echocardiography might be used without negatively impacting clinical outcomes.