“Innovation and Implementation in Cardiovascular Medicine: Challenges in the Face of Opportunity” is the focus of a viewpoint published today in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) by me and ACC Executive Vice President of Science, Quality and Education William J. Oetgen, MD, MBA, FACC.

In the piece, we note that “innovation requires creativity, problem solving, hard work, vision and leadership. It means thinking ‘outside the box,’ testing and retesting new hypotheses, asking questions, not fearing failure, and being comfortable with the unknown.” All of these characteristics are much easier said than done, yet the field of cardiology is full of innovative treatment strategies that can be credited for the dramatic decline in cardiovascular mortality over the last many decades.”

However, today’s health care landscape requires us to look at innovation in a different way. We note in our viewpoint five key strategies identified by participants in the Forum on Healthcare Innovation, which was convened by the Business and Medical Schools at Harvard University to move discussions around health care innovation beyond the development of drugs, new therapies and medical devices. The strategies, which include: 1) making value the central objective; 2) promoting novel approaches to process improvement; 3) making consumerism really work; 4) decentralizing approaches to problem solving; and 5) integrating new approaches into established organizations, serve as a modern-day template for innovation.

You can see these strategies in action by looking at the story of transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) in the U.S. If anything, we’ve learned from TAVR that “the pathway from innovation to implementation is a team sport.” However, as we note in our JAMA viewpoint, there are several challenges to innovation and further TAVR-like successes including “stagnant funding for medical research in the U.S.” and “calls to revise, or even eliminate, Medicare funding for post-graduate medical education.” Also of concern: the need for a steady stream of innovators across a broad spectrum of science and medicine, and finding meaningful ways to involve the practicing community and patients in clinical research.

Reaching the enormous potential is within our grasp, however all of us must re-commit to our shared goals of improving health and reducing the burden of cardiovascular disease to be successful in innovation.

Read the full JAMA article here. In addition, innovation is a focus of several sessions during ACC.15 in San Diego, including the Opening Showcase Session on Saturday, March 14; a special “Future of CV Medicine Track” all three days of the meeting; and a unique presentation on “Health Care Innovation Around the World” taking place on Monday, March 16 from 12:30 to 2 p.m. in the Innovation Stage in the Expo Hall (#1147).

< Back to Listings