AHA Council on Clinical Cardiology: bringing the best science to the bedside for more than 50 years.
It is indeed a special privilege to be officers of the Council on Clinical Cardiology, as we, along with our members, celebrate the 50th Anniversary of our Council. As we review the state of the Council and look toward its future, it is very clear that we have drawn from our past. The Council on Clinical Cardiology was initially established by the American Heart Association as the Section of Clinical Cardiology on June 5,1952. The minutes of its first meeting held on April 11, 1953, are clear evidence that a strong foundation was set by the collective wisdom and vision of its founding members, then led by the Council’s first chairman, A. Carlton Ernstene. The AHA Section on Clinical Cardiology was established with a clear purpose: “to facilitate and encourage investigations, prevention, treatment, and education in the field of clinical cardiology.”1 In the minutes of this meeting, Samuel A. Levine heralded the future of this Council and its steadfast dedication to the development of practice guidelines and scientific statements, when he declared that “… the American Heart Association’s research program is of a very high caliber, but very serious thought should be given to methods whereby the results of research are made available to the medical profession at large.” That same year, the group developed a meeting structure of presenting brief versions of original investigations (what we now know as abstracts) along with …