Sunday, March 14, 8:00 AM - 9:30 AM   Dr. David Blumenthal, national coordinator for Health IT, has had a busy year, primarily working with other governmental agencies to help implement provisions in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009 that deal with defining and funding the adoption of EHRs. In December, he announced the long-awaited interim definition of meaningful use, which describes who is eligible for stimulus dollars, as well as the necessary functions of the EHR for a facility or practice to be considered eligible by CMS for funding.

Hospital CEO turnover increased in 2009, tracking at 18 percent in the U.S., up from 14 percent in 2008, according to the American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE).

Tuesday, March 16, 10:30 AM - 12:00 PM Organizers of ACC.10 have highlighted this session as potentially having some practice-changing results. Researchers will present three-year follow up data from the DEDICATION trial, which compared drug-eluting stents (DES) with bare-metal stents (BMS) in STEMI patients. Not everyone is convinced that DES is the way to go in this patient population. We'll see.

Monday, March 15, 10:30 AM - 12:00 PM Each year at the ACC meeting, program planners pour through abstracts to include in the late-breaking clinical trials sessions. This year, they picked 30 abstracts out of more than 100 that were submitted. Many of the late-breaking selections promise to be game-changers. If you want to get a sense of what your future practice might look like, you need to sit in on this session.

Monday, March 15, 8:00 AM - 9:30 AMHow do interventionalists stay current on all the exciting research regarding drug-eluting stents (DES)? Well, that is what this session is geared to do!

Sunday, March 14, 8:30 AM - 10:00 AMSimulation has become increasingly important, particularly with a renewed emphasis on reducing errors and streamlining protocols. This simulation exercise will showcase everything one needs to know about conducting exercises to improve door-to-balloon (D2B) times.

Sunday, March 14, 8:00 AM - 9:30 AM This is one of those sessions that examines both sides of various topics including stents, pharmacological strategy and thrombus aspiration. Attendees can expect vigorous debate, with convincing evidence on both sides.

Monday, March 15, 2:00 PM - 3:30 PM Of course, radiation exposure from medical imaging is a concern of cardiologists, but how large of a problem is it? Come to this session and find out.