TCT.14: Stents and TAVR, keynote speakers highlighted
Bioresorbable stents, TAVR trials, and keynote speaker Hillary Clinton are high on the must-see list of presentations at this year’s Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics (TCT) conference, according to director Gregg W. Stone, MD.
Updates to last year’s app will help attendees to see it all.
This year TCT will be held in Washington, D.C., from Sept. 13 – 16. Stone stated that while much more material will be available through the app and new participatory aspects will engage attendees more fully in real time, it’s only as good as remembering your smart device. “We will not be providing tablets this year,” he said at a press conference.
Included in the improvements in the TCT app are a broader range of viewable presentations available through the app, new radio stations in English, Mandarin, and Spanish, and improvements to polling functions. Abstracts and PowerPoints from presentations will also be made available through the app.
Stone emphasized that this year will have a little something for everyone. Highlights on this year’s agenda include TAVR trials PARTNER I and CLEAN-TAVI, several bioresorbable stent trials including ABSORB II, I-LOVE-IT 2, and EVERBIO II, and controversially, the findings from the BRIGHT trial, reassessing the use of heparin in coronary intervention.
A special session will look at the potential impact health reform will have on the future of cardiovascular medicine.
The keynote speakers, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Uwe Reinhardt, PhD, of Princeton University in N.J., will also be highlights of the conference.
While a large number of late breaking trials and first reports were submitted, fewer than 20 were selected for presentation at the conference. However, Stone said, “Be prepared for an extraordinary four days of science.”
Stone anticipated cross-over with the debates and discussion at European Society of Cardiology Conference (ESC) since the two conferences being so close together this year.
In addition to being TCT director, Stone is also co-director of the division of medical research and education at the Cardiovascular Research Foundation (CRF), a professor at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons and director of cardiovascular research and education at the Center for Interventional Vascular Therapy at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center, all in New York City.
A list of late-breaking clinical trials is available here. Cardiovascular Business will be reporting live and posting clinical trial findings and other TCT news on site.