"Saving time, saves lives" – that's been the motto for the ACC's door-to-balloon (D2B) campaign. Since the launch of the "D2B: An Alliance for Quality" at AHA in 2006, more than 1,000 hospitals in the U.S. and abroad have signed up to reduce their D2B times to the guideline-recommended 90 minutes or less.

During my time at AHA there has been lots of talk about D2B and the next steps – and why shouldn’t there be? The D2B campaign has helped spark change in the practice habits of hospitals around the world and is continuing to push hospitals to make evidence-based improvements in the care they provide. These changes have had a measurable impact on patient outcomes, including the most important patient outcome of all: mortality.

The ACC is keeping up its efforts to encourage participation in this initiative; in fact, there was significant interest from our cardiovascular colleagues in China at last month’s Great Wall International Congress of Cardiology. We’re keeping up the good work! So is the AHA – they have a similar program called "Mission: Lifeline" that tackles reducing door-to-reperfusion times.

As I head back to Washington, D.C., where talk of reforming the health care system has reached a loud crescendo, it’s initiatives like D2B and events like AHA and ACC.09 that we need to promote as tools for reform. All are keys to bridging the gaps between science and practice and providing tools and strategies to improve quality. Congratulations to everyone who helped make AHA happen. I’m looking forward to the same success in just a couple of months at ACC.09!

Workforce issues are another big topic at AHA – and a big topic in the overall health care reform debate as well. Yesterday, I attended a meeting of the Women in Cardiology Council. This Council works on workforce issues specific to female cardiologists and encourages women in medical school to enter the field of cardiology by providing mentors. Despite the growth in the number of female medical school graduates, there has been little growth in the number of women entering cardiology. Given the problems in our health care system with disparities in care, this is a significant problem, especially as growing numbers of female heart disease patients request female physicians!

Today, I met with members of the Cardiology Training & Workforce Committee. We discussed how to encourage more medical students to enter cardiology. One suggestion was to reduce the length of training for fellows – this could make specializing in cardiology a less daunting task, but this needs to be balanced with making sure that fellows receive enough training to provide the highest quality of care. Concerns among members about the supply of cardiovascular specialists are growing, given the large number of practitioners who are on the verge of retirement. Something like 43% of general cardiologists are over the age of 55! Combine that with an aging population and you have a recipe for disaster.

One of yesterday’s big late-breaking trial from AHA’s annual meeting was the JUPITER trial (Rosuvastatin in the Prevention of Cardiovascular Events Among 17,802 Men and Women with Elevated Levels of C-Reactive Protein). The trial has fascinating findings. Up to now, there has been an inconsistent measuring of C-Reactive Protein in patients because it was unclear if it was helpful or not. JUPITER indicates that even if a patient is otherwise relatively healthy, if they have an elevated CRP, they should be put on a statin. With the release of this trial, physicians need to begin measuring CRP again and treat it with statins. This is going have an immediate impact of practice patterns for cardiologists. Not to mention, it goes to show the importance of clinical evidence in guiding decision making. I encourage you to read more about the study.

I met with the Adult Congenital and Pediatric Cardiology Council earlier today – there was much excitement about Friday’s release of the ACC/AHA Guidelines for the Management of Adults with Congenital Heart Disease. The Council intends to engage the 1,200 members of the ACPC Section in promoting this important resource to not only CV professionals, but also primary care physicians and internists. Issues of insurability and access to quality care are real problems for the 1 million adults living with CHD. Not to mention, for all those adult CHD patients, there are only 50 appropriately trained specialists. I encourage you to read the Guideline and share it with other physicians.

I’m here in New Orleans for the start of AHA’s 2008 Annual Scientific Session. With over 30,000 attendees, this meeting is a great opportunity for cardiovascular professionals to catch up on the latest science. I know several important late-breaking trials will be released in the next couple of days, and I’m looking forward to working with our colleagues at AHA.

Annual meetings, like AHA or ACC’s ACC.09 in March, are an important opportunity for physicians to enhance their medical knowledge and learn from colleagues across the country and around the globe. There’s an exchange of clinical information and ideas at these meetings that just doesn’t happen anywhere else. Physicians get to learn first-hand about the newest methods and clinical evidence from leading experts. Leaving the meetings, they have a new-found knowledge they can put into their own practice to ensure patient value – the highest quality of care at the most effective cost.