Special Preview: The Heart Rhythm Society’s 31st Annual Scientific Sessions

This article provides a sneak peek of Heart Rhythm 2010, taking place May 12-15, 2010. Next spring, professionals representing all facets of the heart rhythm community will converge in Denver, Colorado, for the Heart Rhythm Society’s 31st Annual Scientific Sessions. More than 14,000 total attendees will explore the science, discovery and innovation behind new research, technologies, therapies and approaches to improve the care of patients with heart rhythm disorders. The theme for this year’s scientific sessions is Science, Discovery, and Innovation – Leaders in Quality. While the theme describes the overall tenets of the annual scientific sessions, it also incorporates a specific focus for 2010 — Leaders in Quality. The health care industry is dynamic and changing; the new Obama administration has greater emphasis on high quality care at lower cost. Currently, Congress is considering proposals such as the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ Physician Quality Reporting Initiative (PQRI), health information technology, comparative effectiveness research and use of data registries such as the ICD Registry™ in quality improvement efforts. The Society will be at the forefront of evaluating their impact and advocating for policies that enable members of our field to continue providing patient access to cutting-edge care. The heart rhythm community is uniquely positioned to take a leadership role in the taxonomy and improvement of quality for the cardiac arrhythmia field. Quality initiatives must be defined, structured, and driven by the medical community and supported by outcomes data, rather than being imposed from the outside. We must make the commitment together to lead these efforts and take the necessary steps that will result in the greatest positive impact on our community and our patients. The Heart Rhythm 2010 Program Committee has been charged with developing a strong program not only reporting new science but also providing comprehensive discussions on quality and innovative approaches to patient care. We’ve also incorporated the focus of quality and outcomes into the various sessions and forums. As a result, a select number of sessions will be designated as “Quality” sessions. These sessions will include a Quality Commentator to assist in emphasizing and connecting the relevance of the concept of health care quality and outcomes.

Opening Plenary Session

The Opening Plenary will address some of the tough questions surrounding the impact of health care reform on quality and outcomes, and interpret its meaning for the field. For example: • What is the impact on patient care? • What is the impact on professional medical education? • How does health care reform and changes to the system impact personal/business finances? • How do we address the question of ethics and industry-physician relationships? A panel of speakers will include thought leaders and experts that represent the various stakeholders in this discussion, including government, patients, media and the medical community. The Opening Plenary panelists are: • Susan Dentzer (Moderator), Editor-in-Chief, Health Affairs and Analyst on Health, The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer on the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS); • Tom Daschle, Former Senate Majority Leader and Author of Critical: What We Can Do About the Health-Care Crisis; • Juan Williams, national political correspondent for National Public Radio (NPR), political analyst for the Fox News Channel, panelist for Fox News Sunday and Author; • Harlan M. Krumholz, MD, Professor of Medicine, Epidemiology and Public Health, Yale University School of Medicine; • Eric N. Prystowsky, MD, FHRS, past president, Heart Rhythm Society.

Heart Rhythm 2010 Program Overview

Sessions are developed and organized by the Heart Rhythm Society’s Scientific Sessions Program Committee. This year’s Program Committee Chair is Bruce L. Wilkoff, MD, FHRS, CCDS and the Abstract Chair is Anne M. Gillis, MD, FHRS. For a complete listing of the Program Committee members, please visit www.HRSonline.org/Sessions. Upon completion of the sessions, participants will be able to: • Describe the role and impact of the electrophysiology community in the health care reform. • Identify strategies to incorporate measures of quality and clinical outcomes into daily practice. • Recognize how electronic communication can enhance the research, clinical care and education of the electrophysiology community. • Recognize the role of social networking, blogs, Wikis and Twitter in enhancing learning in electrophysiology. • Recognize new scientific advances in the field of cardiac arrhythmias: basic electrophysiology, defibrillation, catheter ablation, cardiac pacing and noninvasive diagnostic techniques. • Apply scholarly exchange of ideas with basic and clinical scientists throughout the world. • Apply, through Clinical Tutorials and Core Curricula, up-to-date instruction and knowledge in new developments in the diagnosis and management of cardiac arrhythmias. • Examine results of recent clinical trials as they pertain to current and future clinical practice. • Identify the newest pharmaceutical products and devices used in the field of cardiac arrhythmias. Heart Rhythm 2010 will offer multiple specialized tracks to allow attendees to customize their own itinerary and attend the sessions that are most relevant to their interests and learning. The specialty tracks include Allied Professionals, Basic/Translational Science, Cardiovascular Implantable Electronic Devices and Heart Failure, Clinical Electrophysiology and Catheter Ablation, Pediatric/Adult Congenital Heart Disease, and Regulatory/Health Policy. The sessions will also be identified by one or more of the following initiatives: AF 360°, SCA 360°, Practice Management, and Fellows-in-Training.

Basic Science Forum

Program Chairs: David S. Rosenbaum, MD, FHRS, MetroHealth Campus, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH; José Jalife, MD, FHRS, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI In partnership with the Cardiac Electrophysiology Society (CES), the Basic Science Forum, Novel Target to Cure Cardiac Arrhythmias, will focus on the following eight topic areas: sodium channel (one): ischemic heart disease, sodium channel (two): idiopathic VF, targeting gap junctions, the autonomic nervous system, non-myocyte triggers of atrial fibrillation, miRNAs, and targeting calcium in failing arrhythmia heart. The Basic Science Forum will also include the Douglas P. Zipes Lectureship presentation and the Opening Plenary session.

Allied Professional Forum

Program Chairs: Laurie K. Racenet, MSN, ANP, Alaska Heart Institute, Anchorage, AK; Julie B. Shea, MS, RNCS, FHRS, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA; Traci L. Buescher, RN, Mayo Medical Center/St. Mary's, Rochester, MN The Allied Professional Forum will promote quality education for allied professionals and inspire attendees to expand scientific discovery and apply it to their daily practice. Two forums will be offered to allied professional participants. A one-day complimentary program, emphasizing the fundamentals, has been designed for allied professionals new to the field. A second one-day, fee-required program has been developed with an advanced content focus. These forums include a Hands-on Session, networking luncheon, Allied Professional Orientation for those attending their first scientific sessions and the Opening Plenary session.

VT/VF/HF Summit

Program Chairs: Michael R. Gold, MD, PhD, FHRS, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, SC; Bradley P. Knight, MD, FHRS, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL; Leslie A. Saxon, MD, FHRS, CCDS, USC University Hospital, Los Angeles, CA; Gordon F. Tomaselli, MD, FHRS, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD This one-day summit, which is always a sold-out event, will be divided into four sessions integrating expertise from four disciplines: VT ablation, basic science, devices and heart failure. Topics will include: mechanism of VT, heritable diseases of cardiac rhythm - what’s new in 2010, EP approach to the heart failure patient in the era of VADs, and primary ICD therapy in young patients. The summit will also showcase the recipient of the Founders’ Lectureship Award (Dr. Mark Josephson), and the format will include greater interactivity with attendees and moderated panel discussions.

Live Cases

Faculty Chairs: John D. Day, MD, FHRS, Utah Heart Clinic, Salt Lake City, UT, and Bruce L. Wilkoff, MD, FHRS Live case presentations will be offered Thursday and Friday. The sites for the live cases will be the Cleveland Clinic and the Utah Heart Clinic. The Utah Heart Clinic will present a complex AF ablation and percutaneous LAA occlusion case. The Cleveland Clinic will present two cases on lead extraction.

Hyde Park Corner

Hyde Park Corner is a free-standing, slideless session in which an appointed speaker steps up on the soap box to introduce new or controversial ideas or techniques. The individual will be espousing the virtues of the idea, even if it has not been sufficiently tested in a clinical trial to allow it to stand on ‘guideline’ level merits.

Ideas on Trial

Ideas on Trial is a dynamic and interactive modification of the traditional debate session. Instead of two debaters taking the pro and con side of an issue, the actual “idea” goes on trial with a Chief Justice and two Associate Justices presiding over the trial. Attorneys call several witnesses to help make their point to the jury, which is the audience, to make a decision as to whether the idea is “appropriate” or “guilty.”

Poster Town

Poster Town features a lounge area and a presentation theater for moderated poster sessions, and will be the main focal point on the exhibit floor. Poster Town provides a unique opportunity to directly experience science, discovery and innovation. A special section will be dedicated to feature basic science posters.

Fellows-in-Training Boot Camp

Fellows-in-Training Boot Camp integrates classical cardiac electrophysiology into the present environment of advanced technology. Faculty will facilitate case-based discussions in an interactive format that will explain rules, exceptions to these rules and exceptions to these exceptions.

Joint Sessions with International Affiliates

Approximately 30 percent of attendees to Heart Rhythm are international and traveling from outside North America. Therefore, to encourage involvement from the international heart rhythm communities, there will be eight 90-minute sessions on Saturday with topics of medical and scientific interest to attendees. International affiliates may submit proposals to the Program Committee for review. Submissions are due by November 9, 2009.

Faculty

Each year there are more than 900 internationally renowned experts that represent a cross section of every intricate detail within the field of cardiac arrhythmias. These faculty members are confirmed by early January and can be viewed at www.HRSonline.org/Sessions.

Heart Rhythm 2010 Abstracts

The submission site opened Monday, October 19, 2009 and will close Friday, December 11, 2009 at 11:59 p.m. EDT. Submissions received on Saturday, December 12, 2009 12:00 a.m. EDT will not be accepted. Presenting authors will receive their acceptance/rejection notification in February 2010. The submission for Late-Breaking Clinical Trials will begin February 1, 2010 and close March 6, 2010. For questions, please contact Chloé Muhammad, Coordinator, Scientific Sessions, at abstracts@HRSonline.org. Abstract categories and author designation information can be viewed online at www.HRSonline.org/Sessions/Abstracts.

Registration

Attendees can register online starting January 11, 2010. Travel and housing information will also be available online as well as the online itinerary planner at the time of registration.

A Note from the Program Chair

On behalf of the Heart Rhythm Society’s Scientific Sessions Program Committee and its leadership, I would like to extend an invitation to attend Heart Rhythm 2010, May 12-15, in Denver, Colorado. Heart Rhythm 2010 will bring together leading experts from around the globe to focus on the core values of the scientific sessions with a special focus on quality. With internationally recognized speakers and a comprehensive assortment of sessions, you will gain first-hand knowledge and perspectives that you can implement immediately into your practice. While science, discovery and innovation collectively embody the accomplishments and aspirations of the field of cardiac arrhythmias, the focus of Heart Rhythm 2010, Leaders in Quality, will address the current challenges that face our field. Developments in the area of quality and outcomes are essential to the overall evolution of treatment and care for patients. New policies and standards will be developed, and we must take a leadership role in its development. As major stakeholders in the process, we need to have input and represent the best interests of our patients and our field. The focus of Leaders in Quality will start on day one with the first session at Heart Rhythm 2010. We will explore how quality affects the individual topics being discussed, and the Society is honored to have a unique group of panelists for this year’s Opening Plenary session, including representatives from government, media, academia and the medical community. The Opening Plenary will address the pressing questions surrounding health care reform and its impact on quality and outcomes. Each year, the Program Committee works to develop an outstanding program, and this year is no exception. The Heart Rhythm Society’s Annual Scientific Sessions aim to provide the latest and best information about the subjects that matter most to heart rhythm professionals. I look forward to seeing you in Denver! Registration begins online January 11, 2010.

For more information, please visit www.HRSonline.org