Yesterday I arrived in San Francisco for the TCT (Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics) conference, a yearly interventional cardiology meeting. Meetings like TCT provide an opportunity for interventional cardiovascular professionals to stay up-to-date on the latest science, technology and procedures. When it comes to cardiovascular education, the traditional paradigm is under attack and a new -- and more relevant -- platform is emerging. Not only are there new tools linking education and quality, but CMS, Congress and others are increasingly focused on education linked to licensing, certification and credentialing.

The ACC is actively addressing these issues by providing an integrated approach to life long learning. This includes developing opportunities for cardiovascular professionals to measure, track, and improve their performance, and, thus the quality of care they provide to patients. We are planning to help members meet and excel in the face of these new requirements. I like to think we’re leading the revolution in cardiovascular life long learning.

Meanwhile, we’re leveraging ACC’s quality resources like our registries, guidelines, performance criteria and expert faculty to facilitate this revolution. A great example of a new tool is our IC3 Program – our pioneering registry focused on the ambulatory setting. IC3 allows participants to benchmark their clinical performance, compare with others, and make adjustments where necessary -- and to participate easily in various new payment incentive models. 

All this talk of education and measurement isn’t going away anytime soon. We’ve got to adjust and take steps to thrive in a changing environment -- by directing and leading the change.

That said, if the frustratingly ill-crafted proposed CMS 2010 Physician Payment Rule is not taken off the table for cardiology, we’ll be diverted away from leading in the health reform charge in order to deal with a vestigial example of what's very wrong with the current environment and payment system. The proposed Rule would reduce practice revenues in outpatient cardiology by 20-40 percent, essentially devastating community cardiology practice. This is occurring in parallel to an opportuntiy for real and positive system change. What tragic timing -- and what a painful example of the problems and archaic nature of the current HHS and CMS systems (see my last post for more of my views on this). 

*** Image from Flickr (Paraflyer). ***

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