New York, NY - The American College of Cardiology (ACC) and Cardiovascular Research Foundation (CRF), which hosts the successful TCT meeting each fall, have announced that they will be partnering on the planning, organization, and running of the ACC's i2 Summit in 2009. This news comes on the heels of the ACC's recent announcement that it is splitting with the Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions (SCAI), with whom the i2 Summit was jointly run in 2008.

Next year's meeting takes place March 28-31, 2009 in Orlando, FL.

Under the joint partnership, the CRF will work with the ACC to develop the programming for the i2 Summit for a period of five years. In 2009, Drs David Holmes and George Dangas will serve as the director and codirector for the i2 course.

Speaking with heartwire, ACC CEO Dr Jack Lewin insisted that the ACC was not handing off the ACC i2 Summit to the CRF but rather that the two organizations would be working together to build on the success of the interventional content. "The CRF is a welcome partner; however, this is not a jointly owned meeting, nor are we handing over the reins. We look forward to working together on program development. . . . The college is really focused on trying to be a real partner to interventional cardiologists and to bring them up to total representation of their needs and issues."

The announcement will undoubtedly have an impact on the SCAI, which announced earlier this month that its own 2009 meeting would take place May 6-9, 2009, at Caesar's Palace, Las Vegas. In future years, the SCAI plans to move its future meetings to late February or early March.

Asked to comment on the news for heartwire, Dr Mark Turco (Washington Adventist Hospital, Tacoma Park, MD), a SCAI board trustee, told heartwire that he is "not worried about any impact of this on our meeting or on SCAI in general," emphasizing that the SCAI annual meeting has a number of unique educational features that distinguish it from the ACC's i2 Summit.

"The society continues to grow and continues to gain interest from new interventional physicians," he said.

As previously reported by heartwire, a growing disgruntlement over the "interventional-unfriendly" flavor of the ACC meeting came to a head last year, when prominent interventional cardiologists considered launching a new interventional meeting to compete directly with the ACC's i2 summit. In a letter sent to then-ACC president Dr James Dove, members of industry and the interventional community complained that the ACC had permitted personal agendas to take "center stage" in a way that left interventionalists feeling "disenfranchised" and "alienated." In particular, many interventional cardiologists felt that the COURAGE trial was unfairly represented to the press and that the sanctioning of Dr Martin Leon (Columbia University, NY) for his alleged embargo break during an ACC satellite symposium was, according to the letter, unduly harsh, creating a "schism" between interventionalists and general cardiologists. On the industry side, the four major drug-eluting-stent (DES) manufacturers—Cordis/J&J, Boston Scientific, Medtronic, and Abbott—calling themselves the "PCI coalition" and represented by the trade group Advamed, announced they would be pulling their funding from the ACC/i2 Summit unless the ACC meeting merged with that of the SCAI. The status of company involvement—necessary for the funding of the meetings—has been uncertain in the wake of the ACC/SCAI divorce. It is predicted that Advamed companies, which have a largely positive relationship with the TCT meeting, will likely have no qualms now about bringing their funding back to the i2 Summit.

An Advamed spokesperson said in a statement to heartwire that its members involved in the design and development of PCI products and services "applaud" the partnership. "Specifically, we are excited about the opportunity to bring the broader cardiology community together in a world-class educational meeting; CRF and ACC each bring unique competencies to the partnership."

In his interview with heartwire, Lewin highlighted the strides the ACC has taken to heal any real or perceived rift among its members, suggesting it would be difficult to find a single interventional cardiologist today who believes that the college hasn't made drastic changes to encourage cross-fertilization and partnership between interventional and general cardiologists.

In a joint press release issued by the ACC and the CRF, Dr Gregg Stone, chair and chief medical officer of the CRF, said that the foundation is "honored to partner with the ACC to organize and enhance the preeminent interventional cardiology meeting of the spring." Similarly, ACC president Dr Douglas Weaver stated that the i2 Summit will now "offer unsurpassed evidence-based content, presented by leaders in interventional cardiology, and this collaboration brings together the strengths and expertise of both the ACC and CRF to deliver an unparalleled program that appeals to all cardiovascular professionals."