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ACC 2006 ANNUAL SESSION HIGHLIGHTS

An Introduction

Robert A. Harrington, MD, FACC^_*,_*, Christopher M. O’Connor, MD, FACC^_*, James H. Stein, MD, FACC and Matthew R. Wolff, MD, FACC

^_* Duke University Medical Center, Duke Clinical Research Institute, Durham, North Carolina
Cardiology Division, University of Wisconsin Medical School, Madison, Wisconsin.

^_* Reprint requests and correspondence: Dr. Robert A. Harrington, Duke University Medical Center, Duke Clinical Research Institute, 2400 Pratt Street, Room 0311–Terrace Level, Durham, North Carolina 27705. (Email: harri019{at}dcri.duke.edu).

There were more than 1,600 original abstracts presented at the annual sessions, including 48% from international participants reflecting both the global burden of cardiovascular disease as well as the global influence of these meetings. For the first time, there were abstracts presented from our newest members—the cardiac care associates. More than 30 late-breaking clinical trials were presented, ranging from small, novel first-in-man studies to large, global megatrials. Many of these presentations were timed to coincide with a concurrent online or print publication of the study results, allowing our members to critically review the data in more detail than what was possible even a few years ago.

In addition to the latest cardiovascular science and clinical information, this year’s annual sessions took advantage of innovative educational tools to promote more interactive learning opportunities. Posters in interventional cardiology, imaging, and cardiac arrhythmias were available both in traditional paper format as well as in an e-poster forum. This technology allows the viewer to peruse the posters of interest at a computer terminal, viewing images and other material not easily made available in the traditional poster format. The Clinical Cardiology Spotlight sessions on Sunday made use of an interactive Audience Response System to initiate a moderated panel discussion using ACCSAP Board Review-type questions. Community rooms were popular places for attendees to gather for both formal and informal education. These rooms had plasma screens with the main sessions relevant to that community being videostreamed into the room. Additionally, the community rooms were comfortable gathering places for networking and exchanging ideas with friends and colleagues between more formal sessions.

Recognizing the key role that the media plays in the dissemination of medical information to our patients, this year’s meeting had extensive on-site media activities, including more than 40 h of live television with ACC.TV, hosted by Dr. Randy Martin. Live press conferences were beamed to plasma screens throughout the Georgia World Congress Center, making accessible to ACC.06 attendees the interactions between presenters and the press that would be translated into the next day’s newspaper articles.

In this supplement to the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, there are summaries of the Highlights session from the annual meeting. This popular session is held on the final afternoon and consists of presentations by the coordinators of the topic working groups from the Program Planning Committee. These presentations summarize the most important information from the entire meeting and include the hottest original abstracts as well as practice-relevant findings from the late-breaking clinical trials. Detailed information from the Atlanta meetings is summarized and referenced in the papers that follow.

This Article Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Harrington, R. A. Articles by Wolff, M. R. Search for Related Content PubMed Articles by Harrington, R. A. Articles by Wolff, M. R.