The last month has been filled with exciting international opportunities and accomplishments stemming from discussions with colleagues all over the world. Over the last year, the College has seen a 12 percent increase in international members, the highest rate of growth the ACC has ever achieved in a 12 month period. This is huge! Currently, there are 14 International Chapters and 4,869 members who hail from over 100 countries.  Recent collaborations across the globe have promising implications for the upcoming year and there are still several more meetings on the radar for the rest of 2011 and throughout 2012.

Two weeks ago, I joined an eight member ACC delegation and over 18,000 Chinese physicians at the Great Wall International Congress of Cardiology in Beijing, China. Combined, the ACC group presented on an exhaustive list of topics, including coronary revascularization, patient protection and the Affordable Care Act, late breaking trials at ACC.11, the Hospital to Home initiative, disease management models, cardiovascular imaging and CV care among geriatric patients. Moving forward, we are working with the ACC China Chapter and the Chinese Cardiology Society to build registries and collaborate on research and education.  We also just launched the China ACCEL audio education program in Mandarin, and the new JACC in Chinese journal.

At the end of September, I trekked to New Delhi for the India Heart Protection Summit where leaders from across the world convened to tackle the growing trend of cardiovascular disease (CVD) in developing countries. The meeting followed on the heels of the United Nation’s (UN) Summit on Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) during which Bill Zoghbi, MD, FACC, and I advocated for the inclusion of CVD in the UN’s Eight Millennium Development Goals. During my visit, I presented “Quality, Efficiency, and Professional Accountability: The Importance of Clinical Registries” and was able to attend the exciting launch of the PINNACLE Network in India. The first 10 PINNACLE participants in the NCDR outpatient registry have begun sending us their data through our partner, FIGMD, who is based in Chicago and Bangalore, India. Quality and outcomes data, both inpatient and outpatient, is extremely limited in India. During a meeting with the Minister of Health, Ghulam Nabi Azad, I shared the possibility of us helping them to improve quality and outcomes with data-supported solutions. I also mentioned the Million Hearts Campaign, as Azad is rolling out the largest NCD campaign in the world.  Stay tuned.

To round out a month of heavy international travel, I just returned from the Canadian Cardiovascular Congress in Vancouver where I participated in a panel discussion on what Americans and Canadians can learn from each other in these challenging times. We discussed the strengths and challenges of current strategies that are employed in order to improve health care in both countries. By learning from each other, I am confident that we will achieve greater heights of success. 

To keep up to date on international developments, visit the International Center on CardioSource.org.

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