The American College of Cardiology (ACC) and WebMD announced this
week their joint initiative to help educate both clinicians and
patients about cardiovascular risk reduction. The collaborative
effort, known as "Cardiovascular Risk Reduction: Putting Guidelines
Into Practice to Improve Outcomes," will target the educational
needs of healthcare professionals, including cardiologists, primary
care physicians, and other clinicians, as well as those of patients.

"The combination of the two organizations' expertise and reach to
physicians and patients presented a unique opportunity to reduce
cardiovascular risk in this country," Steve Zatz, MD, executive vice
president of professional services for WebMD, told Medscape
Cardiology.

For this initiative, ACC has teamed up with Medscape, the primary
portal for physicians and healthcare professionals available through
WebMD, which is the leading provider of health information for both
consumers and clinicians. Resources provided by the initiative for
healthcare practitioners will include continuing education
activities, cardiovascular news, and patient information.

"Medscape and the ACC are collaborating on the development of
content with each focusing on our respective audiences," Dr. Zatz
said. "The collaboration will provide Medscape's members with the
latest information regarding the management of cardiovascular risk.
We will help clinicians both improve their knowledge and their
ability to communicate and motivate their patients to reduce their
cardiovascular risk."

"The ACC has long been known for providing the latest clinical
information to cardiovascular professionals," Jack Lewin, MD, chief
executive officer of the ACC, said in a news release. "As we broaden
our reach to provide of-the-minute cardiovascular information to
patients as well, we are delighted to be working with WebMD, which
has a strong presence and hard-earned reputation in this arena. For
professionals, we are very excited to be working with Medscape to
deliver the latest educational tools to our physicians, those in
other specialties, and their patients."

Although the specific details of future projects are not yet clear,
editorial content for the new initiative will be directed by a
multidisciplinary steering committee, including leading US experts
in cardiology and primary care. Christopher Cannon, MD, an associate
professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, Boston,
Massachusetts, will chair the steering committee. Dr. Cannon is also
editor in chief of ACC's Cardiosource, which offers current clinical
information to practicing cardiologists.

"One of the benefits of online communication is being able to
provide content in multiple formats, so that we can match the
delivery of information with the learning style of the user," Dr.
Zatz said. "Content will be available as text, audio, and full-
motion video and graphics so that it will be as engaging as possible
to our audience."

Scott C. Ratzan, MD, editor-in-chief of the Journal of Health
Communication: International Perspectives, is not involved in the
ACC-WebMD collaboration but was asked to provide independent
commentary. He recommends that content areas to be covered should
include "something that can be measured over time ¡X behavior or
social change ¡X that ultimately contributes to health."


"These types of initiatives that ultimately impact the health
literacy of individuals to help people make informed health
decisions advance quality health and well-being," Dr. Ratzan
said. "There should be an evaluation plan that measures [the effect
of this type of initiative] as well as key indicators that
illustrate change."

Nathan D. Wong, PhD, FACC, FAHA, professor and director of the Heart
Disease Prevention Program in the Division of Cardiology at the
University of California, Irvine, also provided independent
commentary for Medscape Cardiology.

"With both WebMD/Medscape and the ACC being highly respected
organizations within the cardiology community, educational
information for both physicians and the public sponsored jointly by
the two will be highly regarded as the premier source of guidelines
and recommendations," Dr. Wong said.

"Of course, it will be important to have some dialogue with the
American Heart Association, which also provides educational
materials through their Web site, to ensure there is not too much
overlap, as each of the organizations brings important attributes to
the area of cardiovascular risk education," he added.

Content areas that Dr. Wong believes should be covered by the new
initiative include appropriate use of lipid therapies, including
combination treatment, to increase patients getting to goals for
lipids; strategies for improving hypertension control, particularly
systolic hypertension, which remains the principal problem in most
hypertensive patients; resources for smoking cessation; and
resources for lifestyle management, particularly aimed to enhance
compliance to nutritional and physical activity recommendations that
target the US obesity epidemic.

For clinicians, educational materials from this intiative will be
available at www.medscape.com/acc and at www.cardiosource.com, ACC's
clinical Web site. Clinician-directed patient education materials
will be available at Medscape's forthcoming Patient Education Center
and at CardioSmart (www.cardiosmart.org), the ACC's new site on
cardiovascular disease, prevention, and management for healthcare
professionals to use with their patients.

For consumers and patients, information will be available at
www.webmd.com and at the newly-launched ACC CardioSmart site
(www.cardiosmart.org), which will offer award-winning news and
videos provided by WebMD. These patient-friendly sites are intended
to promote active participation in cardiovascular health, disease
prevention and treatment, and improved physician-patient
relationships and communication.