I attended the ACC Board of Governors Meeting on March 28, 2014, and would like to share some highlights with you.

 

ABIM MOC and Recertification

Dr. Richard Baron, President and CEO at ABIM, spoke to the Board of Governors about the recertification and maintenance of certification process.  He explained the rationale for the processes that ABIM has developed for attesting to the qualifications for certification. 

 

After his presentation a number of Governors made pointed comments about the process, including:

• Does not recognize CME and other educational content that doctors receive.
• Lack of evidence for these increasing burdens, despite the amount of work required.
• Concerns about the Practice Improvement Module (MOC Part 4) around the amount of work, lack of feedback, and competing quality improvement initiatives we do in our hospitals and practices.

Henry H. Ting, MD, indicated that the Mayo Clinic had applied to the ABIM for and received approval to attest to MOC Part 4 (Practice Improvement) on behalf of physicians that participate in quality improvement at their institution. This may be an opportunity at your institutions.

 

ACC Strategic Plan Rolled Out

The ACC is rolling out its strategic plan. There are 6 key areas:

• Membership value and engagement
• Population Health
• Data, Information and Knowledge
• Transformation of care
• Purposeful education
• Advocacy

The Ohio-ACC looks forward to bringing members value through these key initiatives.  

 

ACC PAC

The ACC PAC is an important vehicle for ACC to advocate for the practice of cardiology at the State and National level on your behalf.   Please contribute to the ACC Political Action Committee (PAC). To make a contribution to the PAC go to www.accpacweb.org.

 

Science News from ACC.14

One of the most interesting presentations was the negative result of the Symplicity-3 trial of renal denervation using Medtronic's radiofrequency catheter for the treatment of drug resistant hypertension.  Prior studies, either uncontrolled or using unblended controls, had suggested that renal denervation using an RF system markedly improved blood pressure control.  However, Symplicity-3 was rigorously controlled with the inclusion of a blinded control group.  This study showed minimal benefit, with both the control arm and the RF ablation arm showing reductions in blood pressure that were nearly equivalent.  Some were surprised by the reduction of blood pressure in the control arm, however, this has been observed previously in anti-hypertensive medical therapy trials.

What will this mean for the field of renal denervation?  I have a few thoughts:

• Future trials for blood pressure devices should include a blinded control arm prior to approval.  Otherwise placebo and other confounding effects may markedly mislead the apparent utility of such devices.
• Renal denervation may still have merit, however, it appears that there either needs to be improvement in technology or technique so that the benefits are of sufficient magnitude to pursue.

Feel free to contact me at christopher.cooper@utoledo.edu.

 

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