A Jan. 4 Wall Street Journal article discussed a study by CHP/PCOR researchers Alan Garber and Paul Heidenreich, which found that racial disparities between blacks and whites in the use of implantable cardioverter-defibrillators (ICDs) decreased during the 1990s, although persistent disparities remain. The study, "Trends in implantable cardioverter-defibrillator racial disparity: the importance of geography," was published in the Jan. 4 issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. The study findings suggest that geographic factors significantly contributed to racial disparity in defibrillator utilization.