ACC.24, the annual meeting of the American College of Cardiology, takes place April 6-8, 2024, in Atlanta. One of the biggest changes compared to previous years will be the conference's increased focus on the business side of patient care.
While ACC's meetings have historically had a clinical focus on how to best care for patients, the group recognizes the elephant in the room—how to pay for that care—can no longer be ignored. The ACC began a series of focused sessions on the business of cardiology at ACC.23. This year, additional sessions have been added, showing just how important this aspect of patient care is to cardiologists in 2024 and beyond.
Financial literacy in how to run practices and departments as a business among cardiologists is often lacking because they was not a big part of their formal training. And now the current economic climate in healthcare is completely overshadowed by many factors, including continued reductions in Medicare reimbursements, rising inflation, rising supply costs, burnout, a growing shortage of cardiologists, technologists and nurses and a rising demand for healthcare services.
"It is an important moment in time for the consideration of the business elements of the business side of cardiology. These elements are not always at the top of mind for cardiologists when they are focused on caring for patients," explained ACC.24 Chair Douglas Drachman, MD, an interventional cardiologist, director of education, and director of the interventional cardiology fellowship program at Massachusetts General Hospital. "We are very excited about the business of cardiology sessions."
He said the ACC realizes the economics of cardiology have become more complex in recent years and wants to address the need for education in this area. Additionally, he said this new focus of ACC is highlighted by cardiology business management expert Cathleen Biga, MSN, being chosen as the current ACC vice president and incoming 2024-2025 ACC president.
"This will be a really important area for us to focus on and it is often not included in the training of cardiologists and CVTs. We felt strongly about this and we moved from two sessions to four sessions this year." explained ACC.24 Vice Chair Katie Berlacher, MD, MS, medical director of the Magee Women’s Heart Program, program director of cardiovascular fellowship and an assistant professor of medicine at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.
The sessions will focus on business basics, optimizing the care team, sustainability and hot business topics in the world of cardiology.
These sessions also aim to show how the economics work for clinicians who are not directly involved in department or practice management. Cardiovascular technologists are often far removed from the business decision making processes, for example, so a session offers them a view of how decisions are made and the role economics can play in day-to-day care, explained ACC.24 CV Team Lead Kim Guibone, DNP, ACNP-BP, structural heart clinical programs manager at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.
New clinical focus sessions at ACC
Drachman said more than 100 people are involved in putting together session tracks and speakers to discuss a wide variety of topics, and these changes are based on feedback from those involved in the field.
"These sessions include the manifestations of new topics on what is impactful for practices," Drachman explained. "We want everyone to be able to take home information they can use to improve care at their own facilities." He said this reflects the changing nature of cardiology, moving from the old-school concentration just on the heart to a more holistic care approach that includes the entire cardiovascular system.
This includes newer clinical topic areas for pulmonary vascular disease (PVD), peripheral artery disease (PAD), cardiac amyloidosis, cardio-obstetrics, venous thromboembolism, aortic stenosis and the implementation of artificial intelligence (AI) in clinical practice.
"A critical topic right now is PAD and critical limb ischemia (CLI) and a focus on saving lives and limbs," Drachman explained. For this reason there has been an expansion of sessions on PAD and CLI at ACC to provide additional education and to try and get more clinicians involved in this growing space and area of unmet need.
Pulmonary embolism (PE) is another treatment area that has seen a growing number of sessions as more cardiology departments become involved in hospital PE response teams (PERT) to speed up care for emergency patients.
"PERT has revolutionized what we do. These sessions show how other institutions establish these teams and do you overcome turf wars. "
There will also be a growing number of sessions at ACC.24 that explain how to address various health disparities.
What are the hottest late-breaking clinical trials at ACC.24?
Drachman and Berlacher believe several late-breaking presentations delivered at ACC.24 will be incredibly important to the practice of cardiology. That includes updates on the following clinical trials:
• RELIEVE-HF
• EMPACT-MI
• AEGIS-II
• SHASTA-2
• SMART Trial
• DanGer Shock
• ORBITA-COSMIC
• BE ACTIVE
• TACtiC
Other highlights attendees should expect to see at ACC.24
The ACC.24 organizers also drew attention to several interesting sessions and activities that will be available at this year's meeting. This includes:
• Cath lab escape room challenge: Scenario-driven medical problem solving using teamwork, critical thinking and a touch of medical mystery solving.
• 13 hands-on simulation stations
• 11 gameshow-style sessions blending entertainment with education.
• Key Heart2Heart stage sessions
• Louis Bishop keynote: The future of cardiology: Value-based care, private equity and practice landscape by Gerald Blackwell, MD, MBA, FACC.
• Eugene Braunwald keynote: Time for a revamp of the clinical evidence system by FDA commissioner and cardiologist Robert Califf, MD, MACC.
• James Dove keynote: Why quality increasingly matters. By Karen Joynt Maddox, MD, FACC.
• 171 late-breaking science submissions
• 4,600 posters, with the highest number of accepted submissions coming from China, Japan, Brazil, India and Mexico.
• Petting puppies: Brought back again this year by popular demand, there will be puppies to pet on the expo floor. This has become a popular feature recently at several cardiology conferences over the past year.
Dave Fornell has covered healthcare for more than 17 years, with a focus in cardiology and radiology. Fornell is a 5-time winner of a Jesse H. Neal Award, the most prestigious editorial honors in the field of specialized journalism. The wins included best technical content, best use of social media and best COVID-19 coverage. Fornell was also a three-time Neal finalist for best range of work by a single author. He produces more than 100 editorial videos each year, most of them interviews with key opinion leaders in medicine. He also writes technical articles, covers key trends, conducts video hospital site visits, and is very involved with social media. E-mail: dfornell@innovatehealthcare.com