International Circulation: Could you please give us an overview of the meeting?
Dr. Elliot Antman: The meeting starting this Saturday morning is a venue for the American Heart Association at the Los Angeles Convention Center. It is in a lively part of LA, right near the Staples Center and a place called LA Live, with shops and restaurants. We anticipate there will be a lot of interest and excitement in coming to that new venue.
The AHA Scientific Sessions has traditionally been the place where the best science in the cardiovascular world has been presented and discussed. I anticipate that this year will be even more so. As a demonstration of that, we have 853 sessions during the course of a 5 day meeting. That is 111 sessions more than we had last year and is a reflection of the fact that we have so much important science being submitted that the program committee, which I chair, made the decision that we were going to accommodate the best science, even if it meant programming addition sessions and keeping the rooms booked longer. That is exactly what we did.
Among those 853 sessions, they are divided into invited sessions, chief among those are the late-breaking clinical trial sessions themselves. Let me just give you the breakdown, we have got 853 sessions and they are divided in 376 invited sessions, and 477 sessions where original research will be presented. We have 27 late-breaking clinical trials, which will be presented over six sessions. We have 19 reports in what we call clinical science special reports. These are interesting observations that do not quite rise to the level of a late-breaking clinical trial but they are of considerable scientific interest. Those are presented over 4 sessions. There were over 9000 abstracts submitted, 4444 were accepted for presentation, as an oral abstract, a poster, or an oral abstract with an expanded period for discussion.
This year, the International Congress is on valvular heart disease. That is an embedded meeting. Over the 5 days of the AHA sessions, there will be 23 sessions dedicated to discussion valvular heart disease. Surely we will hear about advances in Trans-Aortic Valve Replacement (TAVR) and surgery. We need to remember, that on world-wide basis, we need to recognize that acute rheumatic fever remains a global health challenge and we going to see a joint sessions between the AHA and the World Heart Federation. We will also be talking about the continuing problem of infective-endocarditis.
For the first time this year, we are introducing something called case theaters, where there will be presentation of pre-recorded cases with live, expert panel commentary. The tape of these cases will be stopped at key intervals and their will a power point files that are interspersed to get the best of pedagogical benefits of the case-teaching methodology without performing it as a live case, which we have always had concerns about. This is the best possible resolution of that interesting question.
There will be 7 cases that span the interventional spectrum. The late-breaking clinical trials cover topics such as advances in the management of coronary artery disease, of venous thromboembolism, economics and quality of life, prevention of cardiovascular events, lipid disorders, cell-based therapy for myocardial regeneration, and treatment of congestive heart failure or left-ventricular dysfunction.
Two particularly interesting special sessions worth noting take place on Monday and Tuesday. The Monday sessions is entitled “Carrying for Patients with Cardiovascualr Disease: A Vision of the Future.” The presenters will include Dean Ornish, who will talk about the intent of cardiac rehabilitation, Dan Roden will talk about genetic testing, Michael Davidson will talk about the hybrid operating room-a special facility designed to have both operating and cardiac catheterization laboratory characteristics so patients can have a hybrid procedure-and then a session given by Stefanie Dimmeler on the regeneration of myocardium. The panelist will be joined by a gentleman named Bernard Dennis, who is a patient and heart attack survivor. He will offer a patient perspective on the vision of the future. Bernard is also a businessman is the incoming Chairman of the Board of Directors for the AHA. I believe his contributions will be of particular interest to the attendees.
On Tuesday, we have a special session on controversies in presenting and publishing data, which include conflicts of interest, access and control of data by investigator, redefining what we mean by embargo in the digital era, and open access and peer review. We have ranking members of the journals, the New England Journal, the European Heart Journal, the Journal of the American Medical Association, Circulation, Journal of the American Heart Association, our chair of the Task Force on practice guidelines, and we also have Ron Winslow from the Wall Street Journal. It will quite interesting to have a diverse group of individuals like that, grappling with these four major conflicts. That is high-level overview and I would be happy to answer specific questions.
国际循环:您能给我们介绍一下这次的会议的内容吗?
Elliot Antman教授:美国心脏协会(AHA)科学年会,从这个星期六早上开始在洛杉矶会议中心举行。这是洛杉矶的繁华地段,正好在斯台普斯中心和一个叫做LA Live的地方附近,周围有很多商店和餐馆。我们期望参加这次会议将是充满乐趣、并且十分让人兴奋的。
美国心脏协会科学会议,历来是介绍和讨论心血管领域科学研究的前沿阵地,我期望今年更是如此。为此,我们在5天的会期中安排了853场会议,和去年相比,多出了111场,这说明我们有很多重要的科学研究成果需要提交和讨论,因此由我主持的计划委员会做出决定,即便是延长会期时间和会场房间的预定,也要完成此次最后好的研究成果讨论,并且我们的确做到了。
在853场会议中,分为376场特邀会和477场创新研究会,其中特邀会最主要的是自己的最新临床试验研讨。在总共的853场会议中,我们将在超过6场会议中发布27个最新临床试验结果;将在超过4场会议中发布19篇报告,也就是我们所说的临床科学专题报告,这些都是十分有趣的观察结果,虽然这些报告还没有完全上升到最新临床试验的水平,但他们都有相当大的科学趣味性;我们还有9000多个摘要将提交到这次会议,其中4444篇已经被接受发表,作为口头文摘、海报、或对口头文摘进行的扩展性讨论。
在心脏瓣膜病成为国际会议的中心话题的形势下,在我们为期5天的美国心脏协会会议中,还专门嵌入式的安排了23场会议来专门讨论心脏瓣膜病,也将分享在反式主动脉瓣置换术(TAVR)和外科手术的最新进展;我们需要记住的是,在全球基础上,我们需要认识到急性风湿热仍然是一个全球性的健康挑战,所以在5天的会期中我们将看到美国心脏协会和世界心脏联盟对此发布的一个联合会议。另外,我们还将继续讨论感染性心内膜炎的持续问题。
今年,我们首次推出一个叫做“案例现场”的分析研讨会,这个会议将播放预先录制的,有现场专家进行讲评的“案例”,这就象现场报道一样,但是和现场报道的区别在于,录像带可以停下来,让大家与手术医生进行互动讨论,这种“案例现场”研讨形式抓住了病案教学方法的关键,而不会在实际案例中置患者于危险中,这是我们一直关注的问题,也将可能是解决这个有趣问题的最好办法。
我们有涵盖包括“介入疗法”在内的7个预先录制的病例,涉及的主题主要是最新的临床试验进展,如冠状动脉疾病、静脉血栓、经济学和生活质量的管理、心血管事件的预防、血脂紊乱、细胞治疗心肌再生、充血性心力衰竭或左室功能障碍的治疗。
在5天的会期中,周一和周二将举办两场非常有趣和值得注意的特别会议,周一的会议是名为:“为心血管疾病患者举办的:对未来的憧憬”。主讲人将包括Dean Ornish,他将谈论心脏康复的目的, 丹·罗登将谈论基因测试,迈克尔·戴维森将谈论混合操作间--一个拥有同时进行手术和心脏导管插入式手的特殊设施实验室,这个实验室的特点是便于病人进行混合手术。随后,Stefanie Dimmeler将就心肌再生这个话题举行会议,一个叫Bernard Dennis的先生加也将加入到这个专题的讨论,他是心脏病的幸存者。他将从一个病人的角度告诉我们他对未来的憧憬,Bernard还是一个即将进入AHA成为董事会主席的企业家,我相信与会者将会对他的贡献特别感兴趣。
在星期二,我们还有一个特别会议,对呈现和发布的数据进行讨论,其中包括利益冲突、调查员的访问和对数据的控制、在数字时代重新定义我们所说的禁止访问、开放存取和同行评议等,我们有期刊中的佼佼者,比如《新英格兰杂志》、《欧洲心脏杂志》、《美国医学协会杂志》、《循环》、《美国心脏协会杂志》,在实践指导方面,我们的有Task Force的主席,我们也有从《华尔街日报》来的罗恩.温斯洛从,这就让背景各异的人, 和我们共同讨论应对这四个主要的冲突,这将是非常有趣的。这是我对这次会议综合概述,我也很乐意回答一些具体的问题。
International Circulation: How many years have you been chair of the Scientific Sessions Committee?
Dr. Antman: The way the AHA is structured is that you spend two years as the Vice-Chair and then two years the Chair. This is my second year as the Chair for a total of four years being administratively involved in the leadership in the committee of the Scientific Sessions proper.
国际循环:您任科学会议委员会主席一职多少年了?
Elliot Antman教授:根据AHA的结构制度,你要花两年时间做副主席,然后再做两年主席。这是我做主席的第二年,参与管理和领导委员会的科学会议总共四年。
International Circulation: How have you seen the content change over your time there? What kinds of sessions were necessary to add?
Dr. Antman: In the last four years, in addition to an increase in the absolute number of sessions where science is being presented, we are seeing more clinical trials presented at the AHA than at other meetings, we are seeing a lot more interesting observations of new drugs and therapeutics for dealing with heart disease—for example, novel devices for managing hypertension, like renal denervation procedure—we are seeing promising new drugs lowering cholesterol by a completely different mechanism than statins, we are seeing new drugs that are quite promising for the management of diabetes, we are seeing a number of advances in cell-based therapy for the regeneration of myocardium. As I look over the last four years, I am extremely gratified to see the rich array of presentations on promising new therapies that are breaking new ground for the way that we can treat patients with cardiovascular disease.
国际循环:在您任职期间,科学会议的内容是否有所改变? 需要补充添加什么类型的会议?
Elliot Antman教授:在过去的四年里,除了增加绝对数量的会议以外,更多的科学研究成果被呈现出来,与其他会议相比,在AHA我们看到了更多的临床试验结果,包括更多的用于治疗心脏病的新药物,和新的疗法,以及有趣的临床观察,例如,用于治疗高血压的新设备,像肾脏的去神经过程;与他汀类药物完全不同的作用机制但很有前景的降低胆固醇的新药物;很有希望治疗糖尿病的新药物;还有大量用于治疗心肌再生的先进的细胞疗法。在过去的四年里,我非常高兴地看到这一系列的科学研究成果展示会,用于推广具有潜力的新突破和新疗法,这样我们才可以治疗心血管疾病。
International Circulation: Do you think there is more on the horizon than there was in the past?
Dr. Antman: I think we are also seeing some interesting evolution of the methodology by which we deliver this information. For example, the pre-recorded case theater will be revealed this year. We are also making great use of all the digital enhancements in this digital era. One can get a copy of the program book as an iBook for the iPad or iPhone. You can download it as a searchable database directly onto your iPhone. It is possible to search that database by a number of different filters: by topic, by day, by speaker, and combinations of those filters. If you search the website scientificsessions.org, you will see links on the left hand side that will allow you to download all the digital forms of the program.
国际循环:你认为与过去相比我们是否有更高的起点?
Elliot Antman教授:我认为通过的信息的传递,我们在方法上也看到了一些有趣的进展。例如,将今年展示的预录的案例现场。我们也在最大程度的使个数字时代的数字功能发挥大极致。你可以通过iPad或iPhone得到一份作为iBook的计划书。您可以把它作为一个可搜索的数据库直接下载到你的iPhone。你也可以通过几种不同的关键词在数据库进行搜索: 通过主题,日期,作者,并且可以组合这些关键词进行联合搜索。如果你搜索网站scientificsessions.org,您将看到左边的链接,这将允许您下载所有的数字形式的应用程序。
International Circulation: There has been some fear that the drug pipeline is slowing down, if not drying up. What are you comments on this?
Dr. Antman: You are correct in one sense in that Big Pharma has a pipeline that is drying up. However, there are very interesting smaller biotechnology companies that are producing therapeutics. Those smaller biotech companies are the source of the materials that I have just alluded to: new drugs for managing diabetes, hypercholesterolemia, or heart failure. Often, these new biotech companies ultimately merge with larger pharma company. The answer to your question is a complicated one. Big Pharma probably is having some of their pipeline dry up, but the emerging biotech companies are producing some very interesting therapeutic products that we are bringing to the meeting for presentation and scientific discussion of their pros and cons.
国际循环:已经有一些人担心,药物管道如果不是正在干涸就是正在放缓。您对此有什么看法?
Elliot Antman教授:在 某种意义上你是正确的,大型制药公司所拥有的新药开发制作管道正在枯竭。然而,有很多令人关注的小型生物技术公司正在生产新的药物和疗法。那些规模较小的生物技术公司正是我刚刚提到的: 治疗糖尿病、高胆固醇血症、或心脏衰竭新药物材料的源头。通常,这些新的生物技术公司最终都会与更大的制药公司合并。你所问问题的答案很复杂。大型制药公司可能有一些药物制作管道正在枯竭,但新兴生物技术公司正在生产一些非常有趣的治疗产品,我们将在会议上对这些产品进行介绍,并系统地讨论他们本身的优点和缺点。
International Circulation: Would you call this a democratization of the drug making process?
Dr. Antman: I think that is an interesting observation. Yes.
国际循环:你会把这称为民主化的药物制作过程吗?
Elliot Antman教授:是的,我认为看到这样的过程是十分有趣的。
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