For me, as the founder and chairman of the annual Cardiovascular Research Technologies (CRT) meeting for the last 15 years, the highlight of this year’s meeting was the keynote address given by the 42nd president of the United States, Mr. Bill Clinton. This year we targeted a high-profile individual who could address the meeting’s attendees from his own personal experience and share his perspective on health care reform during an election year. The topic remains a highlight of the political debate, especially when a new cardiovascular innovation faces regulatory and reimbursement challenges.

I did not invite Mr. Clinton to CRT 2012 just because he served two terms as our president, created millions of jobs, and ended with surplus budget. I did not invite him because he personally experienced both CABG and stenting, which most of the meeting’s attendees perform on a daily basis; and it was not because Mr. Clinton is now a vegan who succeeded at becoming a role model for the majority of patients for whom a healthy lifestyle was prescribed after their cardiac event. I invited former President Clinton for all of those reasons, but most importantly because of his involvement in and dedication to charity work through the William J. Clinton Foundation, which impacts health care issues globally. Namely, the foundation has helped more than 4 million people living with HIV/AIDS gain access to the medicines needed for treatment and has expanded its scope to include efforts to strengthen health care delivery systems and to combat malaria and tuberculosis. Further, the Alliance for a Healthier Generation, a partnership between the Clinton Foundation and the American Heart Association, aims to reduce the nationwide prevalence of childhood obesity by 2015 and to empower kids to make healthy lifestyle choices.

You can only imagine how thrilled we were to hear that Mr. Clinton had accepted our invitation. Indeed it was a remarkable evening that will be remembered for years. More than 1200 attendees packed the house eager to hear solutions for the problems currently troubling our nation: health care, jobs creation, deficit reduction, home foreclosures, overcoming disparities, and how to keep key innovations in the US. Although Mr. Clinton spoke for almost 90 minutes, the rapt audience wanted to hear more. In response to a question on how to prevent US technology from migrating offshore, Mr. Clinton suggested the appointment of a bipartisan commissioner charged with the task of promoting and facilitating the regulatory processes that would keep innovation within the US and to bring in more innovation with appropriate reimbursement.

Former President Clinton’s speech was the talk of the meeting and beyond as it inspired both faculty and attendees across all disciplines to now get together to find novel and efficacious solutions that will keep innovation and clinical investigations in the US and to streamline the regulatory and reimbursement pathways.

We were also pleased to learn of the FDA’s new proposal regarding the guidance document for first-in-human trials, an initiative that we and others have called on for the last few years. We also learned of ideas to balance the risks and benefits associated with device approval. The atmosphere at this year’s meeting was palpable and more positive than ever, and I hope that we all continue to work together to shorten the overall premarket application process in order to enable to bring our patients effective, safe, and affordable devices expeditiously.

CRT 2012 had, so far, the highest attendance in live case transmissions and faculty presentations. We are committed to bringing the meeting’s attendees content that will impact their practice and are hopeful that we succeeded in this mission.

As the official journal of the CRT meeting, CRM is proud to publish the best scientific abstracts presented at this year’s meeting both in print and online. It is our hope that you continue to support the CRT meeting, CRM , and www.crtonline.org with your future participation and contributions.