Could This Be the ACC Meeting of the Future?

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I couldn't help but notice the "Heart Hub" at the American College of Cardiology Meeting this year, pictured above. There were doctors nicely nuzzled up to a bar in a relaxed atmosphere where a bartender served cranberry juice, soft drinks and perhaps a small snack, as doctors watched and interacted with any of four talks occurring simultaneously at the meeting. Some were interesting case discussions with a question and answer format where you could text message your answer to a multiple-choice question on your cell phone and, like American Idol, the results would be instantly displayed on the screen for the audience to view before the correct answer was given.

Which made one wonder, with all the concern about industry influence that was aired publicly at the meeting with gargantuan corporate displays that stretched 25-30 feet in the air for over a quarter of a mile in the display hall as a backdrop, might his be a better way to provide education for tomorrow's doctors?

But there was only one problem:

This is very expensive to produce. Who the heck would pay for it?

-Wes