‘Engagement and discussion’ key themes of AHA’s annual Scientific Sessions
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Key takeaways:
- The American Heart Association Scientific Sessions will take place in Philadelphia from Nov. 11 to 13.
- The meeting will feature 726 sessions, 27 late-breaker presentations and more than 4,000 abstracts.
The Healio team is providing live coverage of the American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions in Philadelphia.
This year’s AHA Scientific Sessions are designed to promote “engagement and discussion,” Amit Khera, MD, MSc, FACC, FAHA, chair of the AHA 2023 Scientific Sessions Program Committee and the Dallas Heart Ball Chair in Hypertension and Heart Disease, professor of internal medicine and director of the Preventive Cardiology Program at UT Southwestern, told Healio.
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“The main thing we are trying to do this year is think about engagement and discussion,” Khera said. “Every single session at AHA 2023 is 75 minutes; it used to be 60 minutes. We extended it so there are more panel discussions and more dialogue. That’s why people come in person. I hope we see that people are energized and engaged to be together and talking through the science with a lot of discourse.”
The meeting, being held Nov. 11 to 13 at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia, features 726 sessions, more than 4,000 abstracts and 27 late-breaking clinical trial presentations across eight sessions.
Khera said for the late-breakers, “We have a bigger denominator, about a 20% increase in submissions this year over last year, but yet we cut the numerator on purpose because we wanted to spend more time on discussion. We have 27 this year and had 35 last year, and that was intentional. We also have audience response so that their questions can be answered on the big stage. We are really making it interactive.”
He said the late-breakers expected to generate the most discussion include:
- The SELECT cardiovascular outcomes trial of the weight-loss drug semaglutide 2.4 mg (Wegovy, Novo Nordisk). As Healio previously reported, topline results were released showing the drug reduced risk for major adverse CV events in patients with obesity and CVD by 20% compared with placebo. “We want to use SELECT as a jumping point to talk about obesity in general,” Khera told Healio. “That session has two speakers in addition to the presenter, so that we can frame SELECT and talk about another big AHA initiative on cardiovascular-kidney-metabolic health. We can align these things and show where obesity management is today.”
- The ORBITA-2 trial assessing efficacy of PCI vs. placebo on angina frequency in patients with single- or multivessel disease, at 12 weeks, on no antianginal therapy. It is a follow-up to the ORBITA trial, which found that compared with a sham procedure, PCI did not improve exercise time in patients with single-vessel disease on maximal antianginal therapy at 6 weeks.
- The MINT trial of restrictive vs. liberal blood transfusion in patients with MI and anemia.
- The ARTESIA trial of apixaban (Eliquis, Bristol Myers Squibb/Pfizer) for stroke prevention in patients with subclinical atrial fibrillation. “When we pick up these small AFibs, do we do anything with them?” Khera said. “This issue is an extension of those wearables that everyone is using.”
- Several BP and lipid trials related to population health, including a trial of automated referral to central pharmacy services for statin initiation and a study of a novel hypertension treatment program in Nigeria.
- A late-breaker session themed around artificial intelligence at the bedside, including a trial of screening for peripartum cardiomyopathies using an AI-enhanced digital stethoscope and one assessing a speech analysis app to detect worsening HF events before hospitalization is necessary.
“The other big thing we pushed this year is cross-disciplinary programming,” Khera told Healio. “At the AHA Scientific Sessions there is clinical science, population science and basic science. There is a huge basic science footprint. So we forced our planning committee to reach across the aisle and make sessions together. Hopefully we have accomplished our goal of making this cross-disciplinary, which makes it a unique meeting.”
The Healio team will be on-site at the meeting, with coverage of late-breaking science, expert perspectives, videos and more. Follow along at this link and on X (Twitter) at @CardiologyToday.
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