Big Weekend Coming Up in Cardiology
The American College of Cardiology will meet in Chicago this weekend. The European Heart Rhythm Association gathers in Vienna.
Since I was invited to EHRA, I leave for Vienna on Friday. I don’t like that the meetings conflict, but I am a heart rhythm doctor first, and a cardiologist second.
ACC always features important trials. I will cover these in spoken form on the This Week in Cardiology podcast and in written form at TheHeart.org | Medscape Cardiology. Surely one or two will make the Study of the Week over at Sensible Medicine.
I did write my usual ACC preview column. Much like I choose studies for the podcast, here I simply pick the 5 trials that interest me most. It’s a highly biased selection.
A notable observation comes in comparing the first two late-breaking trials at ACC. One trial seeks to understand a common but mysterious condition. The second trial seeks to expand an indication for an expensive drug. I called it science vs marketing.
Stay tuned. I will be active on X and writing a lot in the coming weeks. If you are in Vienna, please do say hi.
Two more things: this Friday, on TWICPodcast, I will discuss one of my favorite biases—collider bias. Collider bias is the great explainer of nearly every purported paradox in cardiology. Teaser: despite hundreds of articles in the medical literature there is no such thing as the obesity or smoker’s paradox.
Finally, congratulations to Professors Jay Bhattacharya and Marty Makary on being confirmed as NIH director and FDA commissioner. Both were voices of reason during the pandemic. I look forward to a new chapter in medical science and regulation.
As always, thank you for the support. I do have fun writing and thinking about medical science. JMM
That Semaglutide trial….maybe not nefarious….but a bit nauseating.
PRAGUE-25 was one of your "5 Trials to look for" at ACC but you haven't mentioned it at all in either of your podcast episodes after ACC. The skeptic in me has a theory about why that is. I would love to give you the benefit of the doubt. Please offer your appraisal of this study. Thank you!