{"id":5523,"date":"2010-12-23T20:08:02","date_gmt":"2010-12-24T01:08:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/cardioexchange\/?p=5523"},"modified":"2011-07-19T17:45:20","modified_gmt":"2011-07-19T21:45:20","slug":"thad-waites-looking-back-at-2010-and-ahead-to-2011","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/cardioexchange\/2010\/12\/23\/thad-waites-looking-back-at-2010-and-ahead-to-2011\/","title":{"rendered":"Thad Waites: Looking Back at 2010 and Ahead to 2011"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>To celebrate the holiday season,\u00a0<strong>CardioExchange<\/strong> asked several of our contributors to choose the 3 most important cardiology-related events of the past year and to make 3 predictions for 2011.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Looking back at 2010:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">1. Dabigatran, which has been released, and the other oral thrombin inhibitors, which will be released:\u00a0Imagine, we finally have\u00a0\u00a0a replacement for warfarin, in the appropriate situations. For the patients (and ignoring the cost for the moment), it will be a big improvement\u00a0\u2014 no blood testing, no dietary changes, and take just two pills a day with no adjustments.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">2. The <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Patient_Protection_and_Affordable_Care_Act\">Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act<\/a>, of course. The\u00a0PPACA is still a work in progress and will be for years to come. But, it will induce and implement the biggest changes in cardiology and general medical practice since Medicare started.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">3. The Midei case, or the general governmental scrutiny of excessive use, fraud, and abuse:\u00a0Cardiology especially has an opportunity here. While the outcome of cases like this could greatly injure our profession, we have a chance to turn defeat into victory. Appropriate-use criteria, professional accreditation of cardiac cath labs, and data-driven improvements in the inpatient and outpatient settings can effectively show our high level of professionalism. A very large, super-majority of us practice this daily and constantly.<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Predictions for 2011:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">1. The PPACA will not be overturned. It will be implemented in various-sized bits and pieces over the next several years.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">2. Cost cuts, requirements to implement EHRs, and other governmental actions will drive even more groups into employed status.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">3. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.h2hquality.org\/\">The Hospital to Home (H2H) national quality improvement initiative<\/a>, led by the <\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\">American\u00a0College<\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\"> of Cardiology and the Institute\u00a0for Healthcare Improvement, <\/span>will be a big success.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>To celebrate the holiday season,\u00a0CardioExchange asked several of our contributors to choose the 3 most important cardiology-related events of the past year and to make 3 predictions for 2011. Looking back at 2010: 1. Dabigatran, which has been released, and the other oral thrombin inhibitors, which will be released:\u00a0Imagine, we finally have\u00a0\u00a0a replacement for warfarin, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":790,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[625],"class_list":["post-5523","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","tag-reviews-and-predictions"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/cardioexchange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5523","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/cardioexchange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/cardioexchange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/cardioexchange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/790"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/cardioexchange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5523"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/cardioexchange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5523\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/cardioexchange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/cardioexchange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/cardioexchange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}