Last year it was decided that the annual ACC Executive Committee (EC) retreat – usually held around this time of the year at the ACC’s “Heart House” headquarters in Washington, DC — be held in the city where the current ACC president resides. The rationale behind this move was so that the College’s senior leadership team, including staff leaders, could meet and interact in a different setting and engage, while also getting a pulse on local issues and topics.

With this in mind, last week the EC travelled to Houston, TX. We had a great meeting and I had the opportunity to host everyone in my home for some delicious Lebanese food, thanks to my wife Huda! The second day we visited the Methodist Hospital and the Methodist Hospital Research Institute where the team interacted with the hospital leadership. We toured the Methodist Institution of Technology, Innovation and Education (MITIE), fully dedicated to education and simulation. Importantly, we had a town hall meeting with more than 250 professionals, practitioners and trainees from around the Texas Medical Center regarding the future of health care and cardiovascular medicine. The panelists were the leaders of institutions from around the Texas Medical Center — which is the largest in the world and employs about 100,000 individuals – and included Marc Boom, MD, president and CEO of the Methodist Hospital System; David Fine, president and CEO of St. Luke’s Episcopal Health Care System; Ralph Brindis, MD, MPH, MACC, past president of the ACC and senior advisor for Cardiovascular Disease, Northern California Kaiser Permanente; Vivian Ho, PhD, the James Baker III Institute Chair in Health Economics at Rice University; and David Lopez, president and CEO of Harris County Hospital District. I had the opportunity to moderate the discussion of this extraordinary panel of experts. You will be interested in this very open discussion that transcends the Houston market and addresses important issues of our health care system, opportunities and challenges.

On another note, the ACC leadership team will be in touch throughout the year with our sister societies and specialty cardiology societies to listen and collaborate on cardiovascular health care issues of mutual interest. We plan to visit with them at their meetings or at Heart House. This week, John Harold, MD, FACC, president elect of the ACC, Tom Arend, interim chief staff officer and I will be at the HRS meeting in Boston and at the SCAI meeting in Las Vegas.

Moving forward, communication, collaboration and engagement are key to our effectiveness in the health care arena. We will be in touch…Keep in touch!

Look for more photos of the EC retreat and the town hall meeting on the ACC's Facebook page.

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