Opinion-Based ACC/AHA Recommendations Raise Concern

The shear number of ACC/AHA recommendations is overwhelming and in fact a barrier to physicians seeking to follow them in practice, she added.

One solution is to conduct studies that focus on the issues where more data are needed. A new charge to the ACC/AHA committees that produce practice recommendations is to identify what areas need more study, Dr. Smith said. The AHA would then advocate to groups like the National Institutes of Health to get these studies funded.