Director's Messages

Notes from the American Heart Association Scientific Sessions 2012

Description

This year's American Heart Association (AHA) Scientific Sessions, held Nov. 3-7 in Los Angeles, offered a wealth of new and provocative research findings and provided a welcome opportunity for those of us in the NHLBI scientific community to meet with our colleagues in cardiovascular research and clinical practice from around the world who are working to increase knowledge that can ultimately improve health for all. I was delighted to have had the opportunity to attend many of the sessions and was honored to have been involved in a few of them as a moderator and discussant.

I want to congratulate all of our NHLBI staff members who gave well-received presentations and moderated thoughtful panels. I also want to congratulate the many NHLBI-supported investigators who were recognized at the meeting, together earning more than 20 awards and giving distinguished lectures spanning basic, clinical, and population research. More than 40 current and former NHLBI-supported investigators and members of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Advisory Council were named AHA Distinguished Scientists this year, a prestigious designation that "is bestowed on a select group of prominent scientists whose contributions to research have advanced our understanding of cardiovascular diseases and stroke." Also noteworthy was the international collaboration award given to the members of the Resuscitation Outcomes Consortium, or ROC, at the concurrent AHA Resuscitation Science Symposium on Nov. 3.

NHLBI staff and NHLBI-supported investigators also presented the results of several high-profile clinical trials and epidemiology studies that are likely to influence clinical practice, such as:

I believe that all of us are still processing the information we were exposed to at the meeting and eagerly await the opportunity to review many of the papers as they are published.

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