ESC’s Congress is just one meeting of the many international meetings the ACC leadership team and I attend each year that foster relationships with other international societies, although it is certainly the largest. In the five brief days we'll be in Barcelona, we’ve met with 14 international cardiovascular societies, along with Huon Gray, Chair of our new International Council, and that's not counting the informal conversations we've had along the way. This is a reflection of how strongly the ACC feels about working with international societies.

As mentioned at the start of the Congress, cardiovascular disease is not just a problem in the U.S. – it’s a problem across the world. And if all the countries across the world work together to find what works best for treatment CVD, then patients everywhere benefit.

One area in which this is particularly evident is comparative effectiveness research. Comparative effectiveness research has the potential to do so much: from informing the practice of medicine to improving care. Not only do we need to work together with international societies to collect comparative effectiveness data to improve care, we also need to work with other societies to disseminate these best practices. It’s not good enough that the information stay within the U.S. or the originating country; the information needs to be spread as far and wide as possible. By keeping the lines of conversation open at meetings like ESC’s, hopefully we’ll be able to increase our collaborations to benefit patients around the world.

*** Image from Flickr (katmere). ***