Category Archives: ACC.12

2012 coverage of the ACC Scientific Sessions in Chicago

Social media: the future of clinical research?

Leave a reply

Dr. Robert Harrington (@HeartBobH), current Director of the DCRI and soon-to-be Chair of Medicine at Stanford, is a passionate advocate of the 3 Cs: Connectivity, Collaboration, and Communication. These principles and tools like social media have enormous potential to solve problems in health care if they are applied appropriately.  We need to do a better job of engaging patients in clinical research, disseminating evidence and guidelines,  and forming patient communities.  These are all possible with tools now available.  Recognizing the importance of communication and information dissemination, the ACC was very forward-thinking in having Dr. Harrington speak on the future of social media in medicine and clinical research.  In the spirit of his message, we have posted his talk here.  Pass it along!

1 Reply

Congratulations to Duk-Woo Park, who received the 2012 Douglas P. Zipes Distinguished Young Scientist Award this week at the ACC!

Duk-Woo Park (in black) at the ACC.12 Convocation

Established in 2005, the Douglas P. Zipes Distinguished Young Scientist Award recognizes young scientists who have made outstanding contributions to the field of cardiovascular disease and who have amassed an impressive body of scientific research in either the basic or clinical domains.  Well deserved.

Bridge to Brazil

Leave a reply

Dr. Otavio Berwanger reflects on the BRIDGE-ACS trial, which evaluated whether a multifaceted quality improvement intervention can improve the use of evidence-based therapies and reduce the incidence of major cardiovascular events among patients with ACS in a middle-income country.  The findings were simultaneously published in JAMA.

Tracking performance, improving quality, advancing research

Leave a reply

US-based clinical registries, such as the National Cardiovascular Data Registry and Get With The Guidelines, have been instrumental in identifying and addressing gaps in quality of care for patients across the country. It is fascinating to see approaches in other countries who have developed nationwide clinical registries, inclusive of all citizens. In Sweden, clinical registries like SCAAR and SWEDEHEART, have not only been used to describe trends in nationwide clinical outcomes but are now being used as a platform for the conduct of randomized trials. With rich characterization of patients and longitudinal followup, clinical registries can be used to identify, enroll, and follow patients randomized to treatments or strategies of care that need more investigation. These innovative “randomized clinical registry studies” are being conducted in the US as well. We need more of them.