We recently attended a National Institutes of Health (NIH)-sponsored workshop titled, Inclusion Across the Lifespan, on behalf of the ACC. The 21st Century Cures Act, signed by Former President Barack Obama in December 2016, mandated the NIH convene a workshop of experts to provide input on appropriate age groups to be included in research studies involving human subjects and acceptable justifications for excluding participants from a range of age groups from human research studies.

The Act also required a review of NIH policies on the inclusion of relevant age groups to determine if these should be updated. The workshop brought together researchers, clinicians, biostatisticians and patient and professional organizations. Read more on ACC.org.

By Karen P. Alexander, MD, FACC, chair of ACC’s Geriatric Section, and Timothy F. Feltes, MD, FACC, chair of ACC's Adult Congenital and Pediatric Cardiology Section.