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Heart in Diabetes conference offers ‘cross-pollination’ of specialties in cardiometabolic health
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The growing burden of type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular and renal disease, and new information from several groundbreaking outcomes trials have spurred an urgent need to bring together experts from a range of specialties to help clinicians make sense of the changing cardiometabolic landscape, according to the organizers behind the inaugural Heart in Diabetes conference.
The 3-day meeting, described as where the heart, kidney and diabetes meet in clinical practice, will take place from July 14 to 16 at the Sheraton Philadelphia Downtown. The agenda includes sessions that span the subspecialties from cardiology, lipidology and endocrinology to nephrology and primary care, with an emphasis on the latest guidelines and data from important CV outcomes trials.
“The main driving factor behind this meeting was a realization that the intersection of diabetes and CVD is becoming its own field,” Mikhail Kosiborod, MD, FACC, FAHA, director of cardiometabolic research at St. Luke’s Mid America Heart Institute and professor of medicine at the University of Missouri-Kansas City and a conference co-chair, told Endocrine Today. “It transcends the traditional specialty boundaries. It’s rapidly growing and expanding. There is a wealth of information that is being generated in the field, and our understanding of what diabetes is and the factors responsible for determining outcomes in patients with diabetes is something that requires a cross-pollination of specialties.
“We call it diabetes and cardiovascular disease,” Kosiborod said, “But it is really a cardio-renal-metabolic syndrome.”
Other meetings offer a focus on cardiometabolic topics, but oftentimes sessions must be cut short to allow other information within the specialties, according to conference co-chair Yehuda Handelsman, MD, FACP, MACE, FNLA, medical director and principal investigator of the Metabolic Institute of America in Tarzana, California.
The Heart in Diabetes conference, Handelsman said, will offer a platform for cardiologists, endocrinologists and nephrologists to come together and deeply explore clinical issues of heart health and diabetes, including the role of insulin resistance, hypoglycemia, and antihyperglycemic medications’ effect on the heart, acute coronary syndrome, atrial fibrillation and heart failure.
“The intersection between the heart and diabetes has become far more intense, primarily based on the superior results of some of the CV outcomes trials,” Handelsman, a member of the Endocrine Today Editorial Board, said in an interview. “One thing has become very clear — we need to have a multidisciplinary understanding of the impact of the new clinical information that we have regarding the heart in diabetes. How do we look at the impact on clinical practice? How do we address the questions?”
Conference highlights include the following:
- prevalence and pathophysiology of CVD and diabetes, featuring presentations on the “cardio-renal syndrome” (Peter A. McCullough, MD, MPH), the epidemiology of CVD in diabetes and metabolic syndrome (Nathan D. Wong, PhD), and the “missing link” between insulin resistance, CVD and type 2 diabetes (Ralph A. DeFronzo, MD);
- thrombosis and diabetes, including discussions on the “partnering” of hypercoagulation and hyperglycemia in developing CVD in diabetes (Peter J. Grant, MD, FMedSci) and antithrombotic therapy to manage CVD in diabetes (Deepak Bhatt, MD, MPH);
- the role of type 2 diabetes medications in transforming CVD risk management (George Bakris, MD and Silvio E. Inzucchi, MD);
- congestive heart failure in diabetes, including talks exploring two phenotypes of heart failure (Kosiborod; Eldrin F. Lewis, MD, MPH, and Kenneth B. Margulies, MD) and the role of the diabetologist in the management of congestive heart failure (Vivian A. Fonseca, MD); and
- diabetes, dyslipidemia and CVD, including an overview of the AACE 2017 lipid and CV prevention guidelines for the “extreme risk” patient (Handelsman), the implications of the FOURIER Outcome Trial on CVD and type 1 diabetes (Henry N. Ginsberg, MD) and a “Lipids and Beyond” panel discussion.
“We’re no longer in a situation where being in our own silos is acceptable — nor is that good for patient care,” Kosiborod said. “We have come to the realization that this is one syndrome — one disease — that is causing multiple manifestations across various organ systems. There is an impetus to create a meeting venue where people who see themselves as subspecializing in a field have a forum to come together and discuss the emerging data.”
The Cardiology Today, Endocrine Today and Healio.com staffs will provide coverage from Heart in Diabetes 2017, including reports on the sessions, onsite video interviews and much more. For more information on the Heart in Diabetes conference and registration, visit www.heartindiabetes.com. – by Regina Schaffer
Disclosures: Handelsman and Kosiborod are co-chairs of the Heart in Diabetes conference.