ACC Oregon July Newsletter - 2019

By: Ty J. Gluckman,  MD, FACC
ACC Oregon Governor


Dear Oregon ACC Member:

With summer almost two thirds over, hopefully each of you has gotten the chance to get away-a road trip to the coast, hiking in the mountains, or perhaps some place much, much further. And after some well-deserved rest and relaxation, I suspect most of you have probably come back to the frustration of finding your mailbox (real or electronic) overflowing with medical journals. For a while, I'll let these journals pile up with the belief that I'll find a way to get to them. The reality is that more times than not, I never find the time.

The good news today is that there are more ways than ever to access medical information. Increasingly, however, we want information at our fingertips available at a moment's notice. Whether rounding in the hospital or seeing patients in clinic, how often have you found yourself asking an important clinical question with uncertainty about the answer? Maybe you found what you needed easily. I have heard from many of you though, "Why doesn't the ACC make it easier to find what I need?"

Just this week in clinic alone, I faced three questions for which I wasn't 100% sure that I had the right answer.

* What is the INR goal for a patient with a mechanical bi-leaflet aortic valve prosthesis and atrial fibrillation?
* At what left ventricular internal dimension should an asymptomatic patient with severe aortic regurgitation be referred for valve replacement?
* What's the criteria that's used to define patients with clinical ASCVD as being very high-risk?

The honest reality is that it's not practical to go looking for answers by scrolling through guidelines that can run 100+ pages in length. As such, it should come as no surprise that the ACC has identified "generation of actionable knowledge" as one of its key strategic priorities. This concept places emphasis on making clinical information easier to consume, share, integrate and update.

While this will take time, I wanted to share with you some ways in which the ACC is trying to make it easier to find what you need now.

Guideline Hubs

Going back to 2008, every guideline released by the ACC has an associated Hub - its own landing page on www.ACC.org where all related materials/resources are housed. It's a one-stop shop for everything you need related to that Guideline.

How do I find the Hubs?

1. Go to www.ACC.org and click on the "Guidelines" link in the right upper corner.


2. On the Guidelines landing page, you'll find all of the Guidelines (along with all other clinical policy) listed in reverse chronological order.  Under each Guideline is a link to the JACC page, the PDF, and the Hub.


3.Within each Hub are a number of useful resources/links: Quick Reference, Slides, Perspectives, Education, Apps and Tools and Patient Resources.


I encourage you to see what's there-I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.
Guidelines Made Simple
 
One of the newest tools developed by the ACC is Guidelines Made Simple-an interactive PDF that includes the highest yield tables and figures for each Guideline. This tool can be accessed under the "Apps and Tools" section of the Hub for only more recent Guidelines or simply search for "Guidelines Made Simple" using your favorite web browser.

1. The Table of Contents for each Guidelines Made Simple document includes hyperlinks to high-yield content. Find an area that you're interested in and click the link.
2. When you want to do another search, click on "Back to Table of Contents" in the right upper corner. You'll be all ready to go.




While the College has a long way to go before "actionable knowledge" is fully realized, please know that it's working hard to make it easier for members to find what they need!

Ty J. Gluckman, MD, FACC
Providence Heart Institute
Portland
Oregon Chapter, American College of Cardiology | 503-345-9294 
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