NEW ORLEANS — The opening session of the American College of Cardiology’s annual gathering — one of medicine’s largest conferences, with more than 16,000 attendees — can feel a bit theatrical. In typical fashion, this year’s conference kicked off last Saturday with a local brass band marching and playing its way through the crowd. Beads were thrown. The mood was festive. And based on the pre-conference buzz, the field seemed to be celebrating a long-forgotten section of cardiology: prevention.
Prevention is normally relegated to the periphery of national conferences. Lacking the adrenaline of interventional cardiology or the industry attention of electrophysiology, its meetings would take place in half-empty conference rooms, away from the main action. There would be no free lunch or swag.
But the attention economy of cardiology is rapidly changing. At this year’s ACC, prevention trials occupied primetime slots. At a talk covering the new cholesterol guidelines, a crowd stood behind a sea of occupied chairs. Ushers, minding fire department regulations, turned attendees away. Large industry booths advertised, among others, PCSK9 inhibitors, renal denervation therapies, and increasingly sophisticated cardiac CT scans pitched as the future of prevention. The field was having its Expo Hall moment.
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