can be associated with hypercalcemia. Use in drug approval studies Since 2005, the FDA and European regulators have required that nearly all new molecular entities be evaluated in a Thorough QT (TQT) or similar study to determine a drug's effect on the QT interval. The TQT study serves to assess the potential arrhythmia liability of a drug. Traditionally, the QT interval had been evaluated by having an individual human reader measure approximately nine cardiac beats per clinical timepoint. However, a substantial portion of drug approvals after 2010 have incorporated a partially automated approach, blending automated software algorithms with expert human readers reviewing a portion of the cardiac beats, to enable the assessment of significantly more beats in order to improve precision and reduce cost. In 2014, an industrywide consortium consisting of the FDA, iCardiac Technologies and other organizations released the results of a seminal study indicating how waivers from TQT studies can be obtained by the assessment of early phase data. As the pharmaceutical industry has gained experience in performing TQT studies, it has also become evident that traditional QT correction formulas such as QTcF, QTcB, and QTcLC may not always be suitable for evaluation of drugs impacting autonomic tone. As a predictor of mortality Electrocardiography is a safe and noninvasive tool that can be used to identify those with a higher risk of mortality. In the general population, there has been no consistent evidence that prolonged QTc interval in isolation is associated with an increase in mortality from cardiovascular disease. However, several studies have examined prolonged QT interval as a predictor of mortality for diseased subsets of the population. Rheumatoid arthritis Rheumatoid arthritis is the most common inflammatory arthritis. Studies have linked rheumatoid arthritis with increased death from cardiovascular disease. In a 2014 study, Panoulas et al. found a 50 ms increase in QTc interval increased the odds of all-cause mortality by 2.17 in patients with rheumatoid arthritis. Patients with the highest QTc interval (> 424 ms) had higher mortality than those with a lower QTc interval. The association was lost when calculations were adjusted for C-reactive protein levels. The researchers proposed that inflammation prolonged the QTc interval and created arrhythmias that were associated with higher mortality rates. However, the mechanism by which C-reactive protein is associated with the QTc interval is still not understood. Type 1 diabetes Compared to the general population, type 1 diabetes may increase the