Answering questions about our education and membership

Posted on by Kurt Jensen

We've gotten a number of excellent and illuminating questions about the Alliance of Cardiovascular Professionals recently—enough to put them together as a blog. We've got news, too—we're updating our online continuing education platform!

Does ACVP offer continuing education online?

"I am a registered cardiac sonography tech. I was wondering if your organization offers any continued education courses online. If so will you please direct me to the right location... I am having such a hard time navigating through these websites. Thanks for your help!"

Yes! ACVP does offer continuing education courses online through CVCEU.ORG.

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Future of cardiology: personalized care through genetics?

Posted on by Kurt Jensen

Genetic arrhythmia programs are paving new roads for personalized cardiac care—from preventing unnecessary cautionary testing or treatment to improving screening.

Melvin Scheinman, MD—the first person to perform catheter ablation for arrhythmia in a human patient, now chief of the Comprehensive Genetic Arrhythmia Program at the University of California, San Francisco—believes genetic testing will lead to the "ultimate form of personalized medicine," writes Gregory A. Freeman of HealthLeaders Magazine.

"If you examine the genetic background of a patient, you may be able to identify sensitivity to specific drugs, propensity for developing some very serious heart disorders, and at the same time rule out those same things for other people," said Scheinman to HealthLeaders.

"That is really what personalized medicine is all about—delivering the right care to the patient because you truly understand the patient and don't have to treat him or her as just a member of a group with certain statistical risks."

A proliferation of genetic arrhythmia programs "across the country" have been introducing new, measured responses to a sudden cardiac death in the family—preventive healthcare for some, but not all family members.

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Mitral Valve Repair: “An Opportunity for Quality Improvement”

Posted on by Kurt Jensen

Even in low-volume VA centers, mitral valve repair outcomes best replacement.

A large multi-center study presented at the 96th American Association for Thoracic Surgery Annual Meeting followed trends in mitral valve (MV) surgeries in the Veterans Administration Health System from 2001-2013 and provided further evidence to support the use of mitral valve repair over mitral valve replacement in patients with degenerative MV disease.

"MVRepair has a greater short-term protective effect against mortality than MVReplace has in patients with primary degenerative MR," write the authors. "Despite this survival advantage, the rate of MVRepair is low at some centers; therefore, there is clearly an opportunity for quality improvement."

Beyond a survival advantage, mitral valve repair was also found to result in fewer complications and shorter hospital stays.

Is that success dependent on volume? Not necessarily.

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