We have now reached China on our cardiovascular tour through Asia. ACC President Doug Weaver and I, along with our ACC delegation, are attending the Great Wall International Congress of Cardiology. This is our 3^rd year in this joint sponsorship of a major meeting -- this year with over 2500 cardiologists from China and Asia attending. It has been a great and eye-opening trip. The science exchange is very valuable for BOTH sides. Dr. Weaver and I had an incredible visit to Fu Wai hospital, China’s largest CV center. Just in the one year since former President Jim Dove and I were there, the changes are impressive. Fu Wai is a D2B partner and they feel they are well within the 90 minute reperfusion goal -- and they’d be interested in using the NCDR to be consistent with ACC in data exchanges. Their outcomes in PCI, CABG, CHD, and transplants closely parallel ours, but CV disease is rapidly growing in China, partly because of worsening Western habits of diet and exercise, but also because so many people (mostly men) still smoke here. The Great Wall Conference is probably the biggest anti-smoking venue that occurs in this country -- given the government conflict with significant ownership of tobacco income -- and this is a really bold aspect for the Chinese contingent of our joint meeting.

For anybody who hasn’t been to Beijing recently, it is almost shocking to see the near absence of bicycles and scooters, replaced by modern, up-scale and luxury vehicles and super-modern transit and infrastructure. I don’t think there is a U.S. city as modern, clean and affluent in general as this place. There is no ‘bad section.’ Most Americans don’t know this. The rural areas may be far behind -- but watch how fast they start to catch up too. The energy, passion to achieve, and work ethic is what our country was like until recently. By comparison, we seem to have developed a society that feels ‘entitled’ in many ways in the U.S. (in my opinion), versus the ‘fire in the belly’ passion and personal responsibility ethic to succeed that one can’t help feeling here. But, people are very, very nice. They seem to like us and the U.S.

Personally, I have complete faith in our country to continue to lead and succeed in the changing world, but success in the future will not be handed to us on a platter of entitlement. I’m not talking about lower income people here, I’m talking about us ALL! We need to keep our antennae up to deal with the competition we face in the future. I think we’re up to it -- but not in the way old Europe and America feel entitled to more time off, more benefits, higher pay without higher performance, etc. If America doesn’t start replacing our aging infrastructure, for example -- and be willing to pay for it -- we will become obsolete over the next decade in this new world. But, we won’t let that happen. Right?