Last night I officially turned over the gavel to David Holmes, MD, FACC, marking the end of my presidency of the ACC. This past year as president has been rewarding, but it’s also been incredibly challenging. When I first took over from Alfred Bove, MD, PhD, MACC, I identified the theme of my presidency as “professionalism,” knowing that the year would bring many changes that would require others in the health care arena to view us as true professionals, not just a guild.

Reflecting on the past year, I feel that we’ve accomplished a lot in proving ourselves as such. We are viewed by many as a forward-thinking, professional society, and as a trusted resource when it comes to cardiovascular science and education expertise. We are also increasingly the go-to organization for issues involving quality assessment, appropriateness of cardiovascular care, and new care delivery and payment models. Our efforts to date have been consistently recognized by the White House, Congress, Medicare, National Institutes of Health, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, FDA, patient advocacy groups and our partners in the medical community.

This is not to say the year has been without struggle. Interventional cardiology has been accused on multiple occasions of overuse of coronary stenting procedures. Electrophysiologists received similar criticism when a JAMA article, based on NCDR ICD Registry data, reported the presence of inappropriate implantation of ICDs for primary prevention of sudden cardiac death in Medicare beneficiaries. Health care reform and other regulatory changes have placed cardiology in an uncertain position – where will the profession be 5, 10, 15 years from now? Will there be “private practice” as we know it today?

The ACC has worked to overcome these challenges by taking a leadership role, rising to the occasion of “knights of cardiology,” and proving to the world that we will not stand by and be simply knaves or pawns. We are quality in action.

Under Holmes’ leadership, we will continue this tradition of professionalism, with Holmes bringing additional focus on education and science. Whether it’s through education, science, quality programming, professionalism or advocacy, we are making a collective difference and saving the lives of countless patients in the process.

Thank you for the past year of my presidency, and for the opportunity to hear your concerns and questions through the ACC in Touch Blog. Although I’ll no longer be an author here, I hope to have frequent “guest blogs” where I can continue to hear your feedback. Thank you for all that you do.

*** Image from Flickr (walknboston). ***