Need Help With Advance Care Planning?

Helping providers understand, integrate and document advance care planning into their routine practice is the primary objective behind the ACC’s new PINNACLE Advance Care Planning Toolkit. Developed by experts in the field and members of ACC’s Geriatric Cardiology Section Palliative Care Work Group, the toolkit includes detailed information about Advanced Care Planning “Terms to Know” and how to effectively conduct conversations with patients and their families or care providers. Click here for more information and to download the toolkit.

Best Practices for Ionizing Radiation Safety

As ionizing radiation-based cardiovascular procedures are being performed with increasing frequency, a new expert consensus document aims to provide best practices for safety and effectiveness.

The document, published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology and developed by the ACC, Heart Rhythm Society, North American Society for Cardiovascular Imaging, Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions, Society for Cardiovascular Computed Tomography, in collaboration with Mended Hearts, compiles and interprets the current radiation biology and safety knowledge base applicable to cardiovascular imaging.

Our aim is “to enable cardiovascular practitioners to select the optimal imaging technique for a given clinical circumstance while balancing a technique’s risk and benefits, and to apply that technique optimally to generate high-quality diagnostic images that deliver the greatest clinical value with minimal radiation exposure,” writes John W. Hirshfeld Jr., MD, FACC.

Professorship Honors Eric R. Bates, MD, FACC

The University of Michigan has launched the Eric R. Bates Professorship in Cardiovascular Medicine to honor the accomplishments of active faculty member Eric R. Bates, MD, FACC. “A professorship represents the highest honor for the person for whom it is named and, also, for the person who has the privilege to hold the professorship years into the future,” wrote leaders of the University Medical Center in announcing the professorship.

Bates is part of a long legacy of 50 family members that attended the University of Michigan, eight of whom graduated with medical degrees. In his more than 45 years at the university, he has trained more than 250 cardiovascular fellows and has been recognized as a global leader in heart attack diagnosis and treatment.

According to the university, the physician named to this new professorship will be expected to help usher in the next wave of innovation and embody the same high standards that Bates has set for himself.

Reforming Prior Authorization to Improve Patient Care

“For more than a decade, mandated, payer-directed prior authorization of diagnostic imaging and medications has been one of the biggest barriers to patient access,” write Andrew P. Miller, MD, FACC, ACC Board of Governors chair, Robert Shor, MD, FACC, immediate past chair of the ACC’s Membership Committee, Thad Waites, MD, MACC, ACC Health Affairs Committee chair, and B. Hadley Wilson, MD, FACC, ACC Membership Committee chair, in a recent leadership page published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. The page outlines the College’s leadership in efforts to find a solution to prior authorization that balances the needs of all involved, including the creation of appropriate use criteria in 2005 and the more recent launch of Prior Authorization Reporting Tools (PARTools) to help collect real-time data on prior authorization barriers.

“Prior authorization reform is consistent with the mission and vision of the ACC and supports the ‘Quadruple Aim,’ by removing barriers to care, promoting evidence-based best practices, and improving patient satisfaction, while enhancing care team engagement,” Miller, et al. write. “Together we can bring about change and ensure best care for patients, cost-efficient practice, as well as patient and provider satisfaction.” Click here to read the complete leadership page. To access ACC’s PARTools, go to ACC.org/PARTool.