Dear Colleagues,

I am pleased to announce that I was invited to present news from the Interventional Council and Section to the ACC Leadership earlier this week. The entire leadership team, including the CEO, Presidential Team, and leadership staff were present. It was a tremendous opportunity to let the leadership know what is important to interventional cardiologists and to update them with our accomplishments in the Council and Section. They were very interested and receptive to what we had to tell them.

I began by stressing the importance of our disdain of the re-credentialing process in general and the MOC in particular. They were informed that we feel the current re-credentialing process is too expensive, onerous, time-consuming, counter-productive and that it does not enhance our care of patients or our professional satisfaction. Furthermore, they were made aware of the near unanimous support in our recent Council and Section Meetings in San Diego for an alternative re-credentialing process, namely, the National Board of Physicians and Surgeons. The question was asked of whether we feel that an alternative re-credentialing process would "lower the bar" for our specialty, which I strongly disagreed with.

We briefly discussed the NCDR and STEMI reporting of Out of Hospital (OOH) Arrest Patients. The leadership is aware that interventional cardiology strongly believes that OOH arrest patients should not be included in STEMI public reporting, since this will lead to risk averse behavior among our colleagues and institutions.

The Interventional Section Publications Work Group, led by Tanveer Rab, MBBS, FACC of Emory, was highlighted as an example of what our Council and Section members are working on to improve the care of patients in interventional cardiology. A manuscript prepared by this group which addresses the issue of treating OOH arrest patients is in the final stages of review by JACC and we are hopeful for publication soon. We believe this is an important addition to the medical literature and something the Council can be extremely proud of.

Other topics that the Publications work group is exploring in conjunction with George Vetrovec, MD, MACC and ACC.org for future manuscripts include:

• PCI in surgically inoperable patients and public reporting
• Interventional management of acute pulmonary embolism
• Treatment of non-culprit lesions after STEMI and non-STEMI hospital discharge
• The role of mechanical LV support in the catheterization laboratory
• Pre-procedure assessment of aortic stenosis
• Debate format: Clinical trials vs Clinical Practice

Skip Anderson, MD, FACC has been working to build a database of speakers who can respond to invitations to the College from our international colleagues and to facilitate collaboration and learning on an international level. Skip has also asked for volunteers to help in this endeavor which is strongly endorsed by the ACC.

The Council is also in the early stages of forming a Structural Heart Disease working group, led by Joaquin Cigarroa, MD, FACC. This is a Heart Team concept and will include members with collaborative special interests outside of interventional cardiology including, but not limited to general cardiology, adult congenital, cardiac surgery, echo/imaging, EP, cardiovascular team, FIT, and anesthesia.

We in the Council and Section would like to continue to see a strong relationship between the ACC (aka, House of Cardiology) and SCAI (aka Home of Interventional Cardiology), as we look to both organizations for leadership in the field. The ACC leadership assured us that they are in lock-step with us in this regard.

Lastly, the Council expressed its support of the collaboration with CRF at the ACC's Annual Scientific Sessions and is looking forward to assisting the College and Chris White and his team in developing excellent programming at ACC.16 next year. I would also like to recognize that Roxana Mehran, MD, FACC has been named Interventional Council Chair-Elect and will become the Chair of the Council in March 2016. She brings a tremendous fund of knowledge and a unique energetic style to the Council and we couldn't have chosen a better leader for the future.

Thank you all for your continued interest and support of the Interventional Council and Section. This is your organization, and with your energy, enthusiasm, and dedication, we will continue to grow within the ACC. Please contact me through Amy Dearborn (adearborn@acc.org) if you are interested in participating in any of the activities listed above or if you have new ideas you would like us to pursue.

Sincerely,

Steve Ramee, MD, FACC