Where we are and where we are going in the treatment of heart disease

The end of the 2011 American Heart Association meeting.
It is good to think where we are. I think this has been a most interesting meeting. Heart medicine is moving into several new areas of treatment.
My personal view is that Cardiac Surgery and Angioplasty are now mature techniques.
Further improvements are likely to be marginal. We know that the ideal way to treat most heart attacks is to open the blocked artery with a balloon as quickly as possible. For some cases changing the way we use blood thinners at the time of the procedure can increase the chances of success.