Industry Advisory Forum Highlights Importance of Collaboration

The ACC convened nearly 100 clinicians, ACC leaders, industry partners and staff at Heart House on July 15 for the first Industry Advisory Forum (IAF) of 2026. The day-long event focused on prevention and opportunities to collaborate around scalable solutions that would move the profession from treating cardiovascular diseases to preventing risks.

"The opportunity today is not simply to treat disease better after it occurs, but to identify risk earlier and intervene before disease develops," said ACC President Roxana Mehran, MD, FACC, during her presentation on why partnership is key to prevention. "The future of prevention depends on bringing together clinicians, researchers, health systems, industry, policymakers, patients and professional societies around this shared vision."

IAF Chair and ACC Past President Edward Fry, MD, MACC, who also co-chairs ACC's Comprehensive CV Prevention Task Force, provided the keynote on why prevention and screening must move upstream and underscored the current global burden of cardiovascular disease in the U.S. and around the world.

Expert panels and small group discussions dove further into actional opportunities, sharing approaches to prevention, screening and earlier treatment within the policy, primary care and outpatient settings. Participants also explored how to enable preventative care at various points along the patient journey, leveraging the strengths of the entire cardiovascular care team, as well as community engagement.

Upping Their Game

The future of clinical research is strengthened by diverse perspectives. This summer, ACC welcomed the newest Clinical Trial Research (CTR) program cohort to Heart House, where ACC leaders and program alumni shared insights, experiences and inspiration – highlighting how varied professional backgrounds drive innovation, enhance scientific rigor and increase the real-world relevance of clinical research. Learn more about the program.

Members on the Move

Ami Bhatt, MD, FACC, former ACC Chief Innovation Officer, has been named Chief Medical Officer for WHOOP, the human performance company.

Since joining the ACC in December 2021, Bhatt helped advance and expand its Innovation Program, accelerating efforts to drive the digital transformation of cardiovascular care.

"Thanks to Dr. Bhatt's leadership, energy and vision, the ACC has strengthened strategic collaborations across the health care and technology landscape and made significant strides in empowering clinicians to understand and leverage AI in their work," said ACC CEO Cathleen C. Gates.

Learn more about ACC's Innovation Program.

A Closing Era, An Enduring Charge

In the span of a single spring, cardiology has lost a generation of its founders. Eugene Braunwald, MD, MACC, James S. Forrester, MD, William W. Parmley, MD, MACC, and J. Michael Criley, MD, FACC, were not simply distinguished physicians; they were the architects of the discipline we practice today and directly impacted my career. Every catheterization laboratory, every coronary care unit, every clinical trial design and every paramedic responding to a chest pain call carries some trace of their imagination.

We are living through the closing of an era. The giants who taught us how to think about the heart, who named mitral valve prolapse, defined cardiogenic shock, founded the TIMI Study Group, and edited the journals and textbooks that shaped generations, are leaving the stage almost together. Their absence is not only personal; it is structural. The scaffolding of modern cardiovascular medicine was built by their hands, and to lose them in such close succession is to feel the ground shift beneath us.

Yet when mentors of this magnitude pass, the obligation does not pass with them. It transfers. The current generation of cardiology leaders inherits not only their science but also their standards: the intellectual curiosity of Braunwald, the analytic precision of Forrester, the editorial conscience of Parmley, and the bedside humanism of Criley.

The measure of our leadership will be whether we can carry those standards forward with the same generosity of spirit and whether we, in turn, can prepare the next generation as faithfully as they prepared us.

As Henry Adams wrote, "A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops." For Braunwald, Forrester, Parmley and Criley, that influence will travel far beyond any of us: into trainees not yet born, into discoveries not yet imagined, and into a discipline that will forever bear the imprint of their lives.

Leadership Lessons From a Lasting Legacy

In her recent JACC Leadership Page, ACC President Roxana Mehran, MD, FACC, reflects on the passing of Eugene Braunwald, MD, MACC, and the enduring leadership lessons his career offers the cardiovascular community. Beyond his landmark scientific contributions, Braunwald's influence shaped institutions, advanced patient care, and inspired generations of cardiovascular leaders through mentorship and vision, she writes.

His example underscores that great leadership is rooted in intellectual curiosity, integrity, service and commitment to the future. Mehran notes that as cardiovascular medicine navigates rapid change, the ACC remains dedicated to fostering these values to empower the next generation of leaders and improve heart health for all. Read more.

Keywords: Cardiology Magazine, ACC Publications, CM-Sep-2026, Leadership, Research, Committee Membership