UCSF Medical Center ranks No. 1 nationwide for the speed with which heart attack patients are treated using balloon angioplasty, according to the National Cardiovascular Data Registry (NCDR). Cardiac balloon angioplasty and stenting are the procedures used to open narrowed or blocked blood vessels and must be performed quickly after a heart attack to minimize heart muscle loss.

Julie Gerberding, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, will talk about health care and the economic crisis when she visits UCSF on December 9.

In recent years, researchers have learned that beta cells of the pancreas die in patients with type 2 diabetes...