April 4th, 2011
ACC the Second Time Around: Pharmacology Spotlight on HF and A-Fib and Immersion at the Heart Hub
Hansie Mathelier, MD
Several Cardiology Fellows who are attending ACC.11 this week are blogging together on CardioExchange. The Fellows include Sandeep Mangalmurti, Hansie Mathelier, John Ryan (moderating and providing an outsider’s view from Chicago), Amit Shah, and Justin Vader. See the previous post in this series, and check back often to learn about the biggest buzz in New Orleans.
After attending my first ACC conference last year and feeling overwhelmed by all the potential knowledge I could acquire, I felt like this would be different experience because I was no longer a novice attendee. Boy I was wrong! But the difference for me this year and last year is that I am ok with not being able to attend everything that I want to.
On Saturday I attended the Pharmacology Spotlight conference regarding atrial fibrillation and heart failure. Who knew, that if you wanted a seat you needed to arrive at 6am… Just kidding but not really. The expected attendance for these two conferences was underestimated. An overflow room twice the original conference size was needed to allow all knowledge seekers to attend! Was the attendance to these sessions filled to capacity because of the topic or the meat of the conference had not begun? I think a mixture of both.
The best part of my Saturday morning was sitting at “Heart Hub” and being able to watch six talks at the same time in a comfortable chair. I easily could see myself sitting at “Heart Hub” everyday to maximize my learning. It is also the perfect place for the cardiologist who wants to multi-task the conference by being able to toggle between the talks. After about 90 minutes, I realized sitting here throughout the conference would give me a headache.
I am off to patio to get my daily dose of vitamin D and plan the rest of my day and perhaps conference.
For more of our ACC.11 coverage of late-breaking clinical trials, interviews with the authors of the most important research, and blogs from our fellows on the most interesting presentations at the meeting, check out our Coverage Roundup.
NEJM Journal Watch — Recent Cardiology Articles- Strategies and Criteria for the Diagnosis and Management of Myocarditis
- Sex-Based Disparity in CABG Outcomes: Are We Moving Toward Parity?
- Can Genetic and Social Risk Scores Improve Cardiac Risk Prediction?
- Extensive Ablation vs. Pulmonary Vein Isolation in Persistent Atrial Fibrillation
- Can a Novel Stent Design Improve Long-Term Outcomes of Percutaneous Coronary Intervention?