This morning I had the honor of kicking off the College’s 62nd Annual Scientific Session in San Francisco. The meeting marks the first time in 40 years that the College has held its annual meeting in this iconic city. In fact, the last time we were here was in 1973 when Dr. Jeremy Swann was President. At that time, we had a total 9,500 in attendance at the conference.

Today, as I looked out over the standing-room-only Showcase session, it was clear we have grown a lot since then. We have also seen countless exciting changes in medicine. However, despite these changes, our guiding mission remains the same as it was four decades ago – to transform cardiovascular care and improve heart health.

I can’t think of a better person to talk about some of the transformations and improvements in cardiovascular care than Dr. Valentine Fuster. A true legend in the cardiovascular field, it was truly a privilege to introduce him as this year’s Simon Dack Lecturer. He took us on a “journey of the high risk plaque” and the path from cardiovascular disease to health, and was definitely a tough act to follow.

I chose to focus my presidential address on some of the exciting efforts the College has taken on over the past year, as well as a look ahead at some of the challenges we face as a global cardiovascular community. Among our top achievements, an expanding role for data registries like NCDR, both in the U.S. and internationally, and an increasing focus on appropriate use of diagnostic modalities and interventions. The power of data reporting is impressive and can change clinical practice, and improve quality of care.

The College’s CardioSmart initiative, is another exciting effort that is very dear to my heart and key to my presidential theme of patient-centered care.  We have made great strides this past year in expanding and enhancing the CardioSmart ecosystem to include a newly revamped web portal; mobile applications aimed at facilitating greater physician/patient interaction at the point of care; and partnerships with other medical specialty societies, public-facing public and private campaigns, and industry on local community events designed to educate patients and consumers about heart-healthy lifestyle choices. Beyond facilitating the engagement of patients in the clinic and in between visits, CardioSmart is helping us get our message to the population at large. This is where we truly need to be, spreading the word about healthy living and healthy choices in the community.

Our first-ever CardioSmart Patient Advocate Award winner Larry King, whom we also honored during the Showcase Session, understands the power behind spreading the message. His voice and efforts have had a profound and positive impact on awareness about heart disease and the importance of patient-centered cardiovascular care. As a person with cardiovascular disease and a long history of exemplary personal advocacy for cardiovascular patients, I can’t think of a better first-time recipient of this award.

Meanwhile, when it comes to challenges, arguably the biggest one in my mind is the growing rate of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and (until recently) limited global efforts to tackle this problem. As I mentioned in my presidential address, NCDs currently account for 60 percent of global death, and yet receive less than 3 percent global funding.  That being said, we have made amazing strides over the last year and a half, working with international agencies, our new international chapters, and other international cardiovascular societies to rectify this – and these efforts continue.  I have no doubt that we can protect population health by taking a global perspective and strengthening international collaborations – but the time is now.

I very much enjoy the first hours of the Annual Scientific Session because I’m reminded each time that this is our meeting! Being surrounded by thousands of physicians, nurses, practice administrators and other vital members of the cardiovascular care team at varying stages in careers and from hundreds of countries is invigorating. This is our time to share ideas, hear from the best minds of our time, and get caught up on the latest and greatest clinical research. Seize this opportunity! Learn from the legends, thank our heroes, and become a leader. Together, united, we can take down the #1 global cause of death!

It’s hard to believe that in just a few days, a year of planning for ACC.13 will come to fruition. I have the pleasure of kicking-off the ACC’s 62nd Annual Scientific Session & Expo during the opening showcase session held Saturday, March 9 from 8 – 10 a.m. PT in the Esplanade Ballroom.

It is a session you won’t want to miss, as I will be introducing the speaker of the 2013 Simon Dack lecture, one of the ACC’s Legends of Cardiovascular Medicine: Valentin Fuster, MD, PhD, MACC.  I’ll also be giving out the first CardioSmart Patient Advocate Award to Larry King. His foundation – the Larry King Cardiac Foundation – is celebrating 25 years of providing funding for life-saving cardiac procedures for individuals who, because of limited means and no insurance, would be otherwise unable to receive treatment.

I’ll also announce the official launch of the College’s innovative Lifelong Learning Portfolio for the cardiovascular professional, in addition to the redesigned CardioSmart.org for patients and their care team.

We’ll then hear from the investigators of the first Late Breaking Clinical Trials of ACC.13.  From there, ACC.13 will be in full-swing with three full days of the latest science, oral sessions, LBCTs, MOC sessions, and more.

As you are preparing for your trip here are a few last minute reminders:

• If you haven’t already, be sure to download the ACC.13 eMeeting Planner App. The mobile app really is the best way to navigate through the meeting. Here are two tutorials for a detailed look at using the app:  "How to Create and Export Your Schedule" and "How to Use Filters".
• If you are a social media user, be sure to follow @ACC_2013 on Twitter and use the hashtag #ACC13. My opening session will be live-tweeted from the @ACC_2013 Twitter account, and you’ll get the latest news throughout the meeting. Check out the other ways to stay connected through social media here.  

I hope you all have safe travels to San Francisco and I look forward to seeing you all in the City by the Bay!

With the increase in use of technologies such as Smartphones, tablets and e-readers, mobile devices are now a part of our everyday lives. These technologies have become increasingly popular over the past few years and have the ability to be truly transformative in our work flow as well as the way we communicate with one another other globally. To that end, the ACC has developed several mobile resources for you and your patients that hopefully you will find helpful.

The CardioSmart Explorer App is the first medical app by the ACC, was previously available exclusively to members of the ACC for free, but is now also available to the general public for a nominal fee (to download the App click here). The app is available for the iPad 2 and is designed to help you explain medical conditions and procedures to patients and thus enhance the clinician/patient relationship at the point of care. (Watch the demo video below or click here). Physicians and health care professionals can review and discuss common heart problems and treatment options by utilizing the app’s high-resolution cardiac graphics and animation, as well as walk step-by-step through the structure of an animated 3-D beating heart by swiping up or down through seven basic layers of normal cardiac anatomy.

In the works is the AnticoagEvaluator App, an ACC risk assessment tool that will launch at ACC.13. This tool is an easy and fast way for clinicians to assess stroke and bleeding risk and the benefits and risks of antithrombotic therapy in patients with chronic atrial fibrillation. The app will be free for ACC members and will be available for use on iPhone, iPad, and Android devices starting in early March.

In addition, the ACC has created a new ACC Connect App for members. The App is available for both iOS (iPhone, iPad, and iTouch) and Android devices, and allows cardiovascular professionals to stay connected through their electronic devices. Features include a searchable member and ACC staff directory, the ability to update individual contact information, news feeds from the ACC, and access to important ACC phone numbers. As a member, I encourage you to check your own profile for accuracy. To download on an iOS device, click here. For Android devices, click here.

For those attending ACC.13 in San Francisco, meeting attendees should download the ACC.13 eMeeting Planner App. This easy-to-use App allows you to personalize your meeting by searching for sessions by specialty, interest area, and role in the cardiovascular care team. Plus, get access to Expo info, animated maps, Twitter feeds and more (to download the App click here).  There will also be several sessions at ACC.13 targeted at mobile technologies and social media. Watch these tutorials on "How to Create and Export Your Schedule" and "How to Use Filters" for a more detailed look at using the ACC.13 eMeeting Planner App.

The ACC also offers ways to review CardioSource.org content on your iPhone, iPod touch, iPad, Android and Blackberry through the CardioSource Mobile App. Further, several of ACC’s print publications feature apps including the JACC iPad edition App (which was named one of the top medical education apps, and one of Apple’s top 80 medical apps); the Cardiology magazine App available for the iPad, iPhone and iPod touch; and the CardioSource World News App for the iPad. Other mobile resources include heart songs and ACCEL.

Further, CardioSmart offers several mobile resources for patients. The free CardioSmart Med Reminder app is designed to help patients take their medications as prescribed in addition to serving as a personal medication record (PMR) to help patients communicate to their health care providers about medications. Other mobile resources include free SMS text messaging services for patients in the U.S. looking for tips to prevent cardiovascular disease or to quit smoking.

There are so many tools and different ways we can impact health care. I do hope you find these tools useful in your daily work, providing you with content and tools at your fingertips for improved efficiency and effectiveness in providing health care.  Under Incoming President John Harold, MD, MACC’s direction next year, I am confident the ACC will take its digital strategy to the next level, with even more mobile offerings and tools to help the cardiac care team and their patients achieve their goals.

Decision making has evolved over time. Many years ago, when options were limited to either medical or surgical, clinical decisions were relatively simpler and the “Heart Team” was smaller and more cohesive. However, with the introduction of catheter-based approaches in addition to surgery, specialties became more siloed. Today, with choices and treatments more complex than ever, it’s critical that we rekindle the Heart Team approach. Collective input and wisdom from a complement of medical, surgical and interventional experts is needed for optimal decision making.

This team approach, inclusive of shared-decision making with patients, is at the crux of patient-centered care. It is also the crux of a State-of-the-Art paper published on Feb. 25 in the JACC by myself and other cardiovascular and surgeon leaders. The paper highlights the many ways that managing care for patients with complex cardiovascular disease has changed substantially over the last decade with the advent of appropriate use criteria, advances in information technology, and an increasing amount of evidence-based data. As such, it points out that “failure to implement a Heart Team is increasingly not an option.”

Over the last three years, the Heart Team concept has been included as class 1 recommendations in European guidelines for coronary revascularization, as well as played a headlining role in the 2012 Appropriate Use Criteria for Coronary Revascularization Focused Update, as well as the 2012 ACCF/AATS/SCAI/STS Expert Consensus Document on Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement. In the case of coronary revascularization, AUC and Guidelines recommend that Heart Teams consist of cardiovascular surgeons, interventional cardiologists and primary cardiologists. More recently, in the case of transcatheter aortic valve replacement, Heart Teams will need to consist of surgeons, interventionalists, and general cardiologists, as well as imaging specialists, neurologists, cardiac anesthesiologists and others vital to patient selection and optimal procedural performance.

The paper highlights the balanced and complementary approach to patient care offered by the Heart Team as a result of joint and shared decision making among multi-disciplinary stakeholders. While specific strategies for implementation of Heart Teams will vary as a result of things like institutional structure or facility limitations, it is critical that the broad concept evolve to become the standard of cardiovascular care moving forward. “By exploring the multiple options available and sharing them with patients and their families where applicable, more optimal shared decision making is achieved, along with a tailored recommendation for therapy for a more informed and engaged patient,” the paper states. “From a professional team point of view, subsequent joint participation in procedures can not only improve the skill sets of all involved medical and surgical personnel but also elevate the cognitive interchange that occurs among the specialties.”

At the end of the day, dialogue among patients, their families and the various medical professionals involved in providing care is key to ensuring the most appropriate treatment. Ultimately our goal as physicians is to ensure our patients are not only equipped to take greater responsibility for managing their cardiovascular health, but to work collaboratively with us to achieve common goals. The Heart Team, in my mind, is the pathway to achieving this goal.

Read more about the Heart Team Approach on CardioSource.org.

American Heart Month is well on its way and the past few days have been a true testament of how through partnerships and combined efforts, messaging about awareness of heart disease can reach the masses.

Leaders from the ACC were in New York City for Fashion Week to attend and support The Heart Truth's Red Dress Collection 2013 fashion show. Through a public-private partnership, the College and the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) joined together to support women's heart health through the fashion show. It was a tremendous success and before the show, the ACC hosted a first-ever Women’s Cardiovascular Health Symposium featuring US Surgeon General Regina M. Benjamin, MD, MBA; NHLBI Director Gary Gibbons, MD; Million Hearts Executive Director Janet Wright, MD, FACC; Brigham's and Women Health Care President Elizabeth Nabel, MD, FACC and other ACC and cardiovascular health leaders.

It was a town hall-style symposium with great conversation, and focused on ways health care providers, patients and consumer groups can work together to support the goal of reducing heart disease among women and collectively advance the fight against heart disease. In addition, Dr. Nabel, the former head of NHLBI, provided an intriguing glimpse into the decade-long history of the Red Dress Collection Fashion Show, which is a partnership between fashion leaders—including top designers, models, and celebrities — who have demonstrated their support for the issue of women and heart disease by participating in The Heart Truth’s Red Dress Collections at New York’s Fashion Week annually since 2002. She also noted the history of the campaign and how every woman can relate to a red dress, making it a powerful symbol in the fight against this deadly disease. The red dress has come to serve as a red alert to convey the message that “Heart Disease Doesn't Care What You Wear—It's the #1 Killer of Women.” In addition, Dr. Nabel commended the NHLBI’s partners and stressed how partnering with Diet Coke and now the ACC has enabled the campaign to reach millions of patients and elevate awareness of heart disease as the nation's leading killer.

Immediately following the symposium, the Red Dress Fashion Show began and included several big-name celebrities, which was exciting to be a part of and watch. New this year was the first non-celebrity, Cindy Parsons, who received a standing ovation, and was a participant in the "Follow the Fifty" campaign, a Heart Truth community grant program. Be sure to check out photos from the show here and you can also watch a video of the fashion show via CardioSmart’s Facebook page.

Aside from the excitement of the Red Dress Fashion Show, this week another great accomplishment took place on CardioSmart, ACC’s patient portal. I’m excited to announce that CardioSmart.org rolled out its revamped collection of digital tools and resources designed to help individuals prevent, treat, and manage cardiovascular disease. The updated new site includes more than 30 robust cardiovascular condition centers, available in English and Spanish, that guide patients through each stage of their journey including causes, symptoms, and treatments. Users can personalize their page by identifying topic areas of interest and by saving noteworthy news or questions to ask their doctor to their dashboard. CardioSmart.org tools such as Find a Drug, Preparing for Your Next Appointment and Ask an Expert enhance the patient-provider relationship. Users can set goals with their care team and track progress using our weight, waist, blood pressure, and activity trackers and our heart risk, BMI and cholesterol calculators. Users can also connect with peers on our online communities, take heart healthy challenges, earn CardioSmart points and spend them in our CardioSmart Store.  I encourage you to look around the new site, and let us know what you think! Congrats to the teams who have worked tirelessly over the past year to make CardioSmart even more beneficial to our patients.

What an exciting time for the ACC! I never thought attending New York Fashion Week would be an activity I’d do as ACC’s President (in addition to carrying the Olympic torch), but it goes to show to always expect the unexpected. I’m thrilled to have been a part of it and am excited for the future!

Photo Captions:
Top: ACC Board of Trustees Member Mary Walsh, MD, FACC, myself, and CardioSmart Chief Medical Expert JoAnne M. Foody, MD, FACC before the first-ever Women’s Cardiovascular Health Symposium.
Middle: Million Hearts Executive Director Janet Wright, MD, FACC, my daughter Roula, and myself ready for the start of the Red Dress Fashion Show.
Bottom:  Cardiovascular experts spoke during the ACC Women's Cardiovascular Health Symposium ahead of the fashion show.

Last week, current ACC leadership and incoming leaders came together in Washington, DC to gain the knowledge and tools needed to be effective leaders in transforming cardiovascular care and improving health. In addition to getting up to speed on ACC basics and strategic priorities, attendees of the annual Leadership Forum had a chance to network and hone skills for communication and collaboration, running effective meetings in a digital world, and decision making. As the pace of life continues to increase and we juggle competing priorities, revisiting the foundations of leadership is crucial for all of us.

Everyone has their own definition of leadership. In my option, a successful leader is someone who not only has a strong vision and strategic plan, but can also inspire and guide others.  As cardiovascular professionals, we have all dedicated ourselves to continuous education in various corners of cardiology. However, our obligations to professional development as well as our practices and hospitals often leave a gap in leadership opportunities. Taking an active leadership role in the College allows us to identify shared aspirations, enlist others in a common vision, and ultimately help shape the future of cardiology.

One of the highlights of the Forum was the keynote speaker during Friday’s dinner. In front of a packed house of 180 ACC leaders, speaker Vincent Covello, PhD, offered strategies for communicating effectively about high stress, high concern or controversial issues, something we’re all familiar with given our choice of career paths. “High concern situations change the rules of communication,” Covello noted. “The key to risk communication success is anticipation, preparation and practice.” His closing remarks caught my attention. A quote from Mark Twain: “It takes me an average of two weeks to prepare an impromptu speech.” Now that’s something for all of us to ponder.

I truly enjoy this conference more and more every year. It’s an opportunity to bridge veteran leadership with fresh ideas from promising new leaders and promises to have a transformational impact on the College and cardiology in 2013 and beyond.

Check out a video from my colleague David May, MD, FACC, incoming chair of the BOG on the important roles leaders play at the ACC:

Last week I had the chance to attend the Cardiovascular Summit: Solutions for Thriving in a Time of Change, held in Las Vegas. The CV Summit started last year with much success and continued this year with more than 400 attendees!  It was a superb meeting that left participants with more knowledge, solutions, and next steps to thrive as physicians in a time of uncertainty and continuous change.

The meeting kicked-off with sessions on the status of health care reform in the U.S. and the potential impact on cardiovascular medicine over the next few years. The keynote address, given by Harold Miller, executive director of the Center for Healthcare Quality and Payment Reform, taught us ways that physicians can lead the way to a new reimbursement system that rewards quality, rather than quantity, while saving money for the health care system.

The following day covered data management and the cardiovascular service line, essentially how to work better with each other and using data to connect the dots, as well as how to implement a solid infrastructure from the get-go.

In a special workshop for congenital heart disease professionals, ACC Senior VP of Advocacy Jim Fasules, MD, FACC, shared Medicaid changes expected as a result of the Affordable Care Act, as well as widely anticipated value-based purchasing programs and their potential effects on pediatric cardiology.

In addition, due to the massive coding changes this year stemming from the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule, a pre-conference session discussed appropriate documentation for those codes and concerns about audits.

Finally, the Summit appropriately concluded with sessions on leadership and governance. Workshops on finance and evolving payment models discussed contracts, horizontal integration, incentivizing physician and MLP compensation, and more, and left attendees with ways to deal with the new, evolving environment – things that they don’t necessarily teach you in medical school.

In the session on strategic change and how to keep your organization from becoming irrelevant, W. Martin, MD, eloquently stated that change never stops. There may be a reprieve between changes, but a broader vision requires a next evolution, another change. I couldn’t agree more, and it is our duty to educate ourselves and lead the change.

Special thanks to everyone involved for making this meeting a huge success, especially Howard Walpole, Jr., MBA, MD, FACC, course director of the ACC Cardiovascular Summit, and Pamela S. Douglas, MD, MACC and C. Michael Valentine, MD, FACC, course co-directors.

Be sure to check out ACC’s Facebook page for photos from the CV Summit.

Stay on top of 2013 changes and efficiently and accurately report cardiovascular services and procedures with the updated 2013 CPT® Reference Guide for Cardiovascular Coding. Visit CardioSource.org/CPT to order your copy.

San Francisco is an eclectic city with a rich history that is known for some of the most forward-thinking technology development in the country. In March, thousands of ACC members and colleagues will come together in San Francisco for our 62nd Annual Scientific Session (ACC.13). With this year’s theme: Discovery to Delivery, we'll be seeking to learn, explore, enjoy, and make a more lasting mark on the world through improving cardiovascular health.

In this month’s President Page published in JACC I dive into the reasons why ACC.13 offers something for everyone – with 16 learning pathways with topics ranging from interventional, imaging, and prevention, to heart failure, congenital disease, and all the topics in between.

In addition, to help members make the most of the sessions and activities that have been so effective in meetings past, such as guest lectures, late-breaking clinical trial presentations, and convocation, this year's meeting team is capitalizing on modern technologies with the ACC.13 eMeeting Planner App and Online Planner. I encourage you to use these tools to more easily explore sessions, presentations and speakers. Plus in the coming weeks, new features will be added allowing you to instantaneously locate sessions and design the agenda that best fits your needs, then automatically populate your electronic calendar with your sessions of interest. If you haven’t already, search “ACC.13” in your app store to download the app. This is our recommended way to navigate and attend the meeting, and tailor the science and education to your needs.

ACC.13 will also feature the official launch of two important web-based educational offerings: the College's Lifelong Learning Portfolio (LLP) for the cardiovascular professional, and the revamp of CardioSmart.org for patients and their care team.

The College is indebted to Dr. Miguel Quinones, chair of the Scientific Session, Co-Chairs Drs. Christie Ballantyne, Neal Kleiman and Mark Davies; TCT@ACC-i2 Chair Dr. Gary Mintz, Co-Chair Dr. Cindy Grines, and their committees for the superb planning of this Scientific Session. We’re looking forward to taking our hearts so San Francisco for a great meeting! See you there.

For more information about ACC.13, visit www.accscientificsession.org.

Earlier this week the nation waited in anticipation as the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 was passed through the Senate, and eventually through the House late New Year’s Day, therefore averting the so-called “fiscal cliff” from taking effect. The bipartisan deal included a one-year patch of the flawed Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) formula, preventing Medicare payment cuts of 26.5 percent that were set to kick-in on Jan. 1. Across-the-board sequester cuts of 2 percent were also delayed, keeping Medicare reimbursement safe for another two months.

Throughout the past year, ACC leadership and staff helped lay the groundwork for several quality-related provisions in the new law through ongoing dialogue with congressional committees about ACC’s quality improvement tools, including registries. Included in the legislation, was an extension of the Geographic Work Adjustment through 2013 and reauthorization of funding for measure endorsement for another year. The ACC worked with the Stand for Quality coalition, including the National Quality Forum and the American Medical Association, to advocate for extension of this funding.

Also thanks to the incredible efforts of ACC’s Advocacy team, a provision to qualify registry programs to meet Physician Quality Reporting System (PQRS) reporting requirements was included. Professional society clinical data registries, such as the ACC’s National Cardiovascular Data Registry, collect robust data that are used to provide feedback to physicians and enhance performance. This focus on quality, evidence-based care by itself is an effective way to reduce overall costs while enhancing quality of care. Registry participation is a more robust performance improvement method than the current PQRS, and now that more physicians can meet PQRS requirements, physicians can avoid future penalties under the program. This provision was the result of discussions between ACC, the American Society of Clinical Oncology, the Society of Thoracic Surgeons, and a few other organizations with bipartisan staff for the Senate Finance Committee and House Ways and Means Committee in the summer and fall.

The College also played a key role in a provision to enhance the quality of data needed for new delivery and payment models. The law now requires the Secretary of HHS to develop a strategy to provide data for performance improvement to physicians in a timely manner. This provision is the direct result of testimony by physicians, including ACC Past President Doug Weaver, MD, MACC, before the Senate Finance Committee this summer as well, as a roundtable discussion between committee staff, ACC and several other specialties this fall.

While the offsets used to pay for the $25 billion SGR patch do result in an increase in the equipment utilization rate for advanced imaging modalities that is limited to CT/MR/PET, which will mean reduced payments, but fortunately ACC staff were able to keep prior authorization and changes to the in-office ancillary services exception kept out of the agreement.

Moving forward, ACC’s Senior Vice President Jim Fasules, MD, FACC, said it best when he told the ACC presidential team earlier this week  that while “the work now shifts to the spending cuts debate with a big spotlight on entitlements … right now we get to stop holding our breath.” It is now more important than ever that the cardiovascular community and the rest of the house of medicine build on the momentum from these efforts and continue to push for a permanent repeal of the SGR. As I mentioned in my blog post last week, 90 percent of ACC PAC-supported candidates (104) won their respective elections in November 2012, strengthening the College’s allies on Capitol Hill. These relationships and grassroots efforts have and will continue to be increasingly important as we work towards a permanent repeal over the next year. The ACC stands ready to work with Congress as it confronts the challenges and opportunities within Medicare.

Stay tuned to the ACC Advocate and CardioSource.org for additional details in the coming months.

The last week of December is always a good time to look back and reflect, and also look forward to the next year, setting new resolutions to help us achieve our goals. This past year has been a busy one for the College, and I’ve been honored to serve as President.  In this blog post, I would like us to reflect on the successes of the past year and take pride in the accomplishments that our member volunteers and staff helped achieve. These have spanned the areas of education, quality, advocacy, membership and international engagement. Here is, in my opinion, a list of ACC’s top 10 successes of 2012:

1. The College launched a new online Lifelong Learning Portfolio to help members track educational needs, as well as learn more efficiently based on preferred topics and formats.
2. The College has embraced a new digital strategy and is improving online education resources based on user feedback, including an improved layout, the addition of CardioCompass and more. We have launched several mobile Apps adding to ACC’s collection, including the ACC Connect App, the CardioSource Mobile App, and for those attending ACC.13 the ACC.13 eMeeting Planner App, and more.
3. The ACC expanded its online and print publication coverage and now covers more clinical news than ever on CardioSource.org.  In addition to the Cardiology magazine print publication, this year the College launched CardioSource WorldNews and  CardioSource InterventionalNews to keep members up to date on both clinical and member news.  In 2013 the ACC is launching a new Journal of the American College of Cardiology (JACC) focused on heart failure.
4. The ACC is enhancing CardioSmart to help CV professionals explain patient conditions at the point-of-care.
5. The College increased its focus on patient-centered initiatives like Million Hearts and Choosing Wisely aimed at preventing heart disease/stroke and ensuring appropriate care. We’ve also elected our first public member to the Board of Trustees.
6. The College’s National Cardiovascular Data Registry (NCDR^®) launched the STS/ACC TVT Registry™, along with dashboards for the ACTION Registry^®-GWTG ™ and ICD Registry™ so that hospital performance data can be tracked in real-time.
7. The College is developing new quality initiatives around cardiometabolic health and anticoagulation use, along with new clinical toolkits on heart failure and atrial fibrillation to help clinicians meet guideline recommendations at the point of care.
8. 90 percent of ACC PAC-supported candidates (104) won their respective elections in November 2012, strengthening the College’s allies on Capitol Hill.
9. On the international front, the College is expanding international reach to create a more collaborative membership environment across the globe. We have added 10 international Chapters this year, and recently welcomed our 26th chapter; our international membership has reached more than 6,000 members.
10. The ACC’s social media presence is growing strong with more members joining these channels; I became the first Tweeting President with my Twitter account @WilliamZoghbi. Plus, we now have over 12,000 likes on ACC’s Facebook page and more than 6,000 following @ACCinTouch on Twitter!

As we get ready for the year ahead, I hope you can take pride in all that we have accomplished together at the College. I hope you’ve all had happy holidays and I look forward to a great new year!