In February, we will celebrate the 20th year of the Cardiovascular Research Technologies (CRT) meeting. The objective of the first meeting, held in Washington, DC on February 18, 1997, was to introduce a new technology to the field of interventional cardiology: vascular brachytherapy. At that time, we were combating in-stent restenosis of bare metal stents and high restenosis rates following treatment of de novo lesions with balloon angioplasty. The quest for an effective therapy to prevent or treat restenosis led to the breakthrough of vascular brachytherapy, which was emerging as an effective and safe solution to a lingering problem.

The enthusiasm about the promising research in the field merited the annual meeting that was initially named Cardiovascular Radiation Therapy (CRT) and had a modest attendance of 400 researchers from multiple disciplines, including radiation oncologists, interventional cardiologists, physicists, biologists, and technologists. The meeting incorporated for the first time a Food and Drug Administration (FDA) town hall session to facilitate informal interaction with agency officials to help guide industry and independent physicians in the regulatory aspects of introducing new devices to the field.

Shortly after brachytherapy was introduced to the market, drug-eluting stents (DES) were developed and became a disruptive technology for bare metal stents, restenosis, and vascular brachytherapy. This was not surprising to CRT meeting attendees, however, because the conference had proudly introduced the new DES technology as part of its underlying mission to promote innovation in the field. With that as the driving aim, the meeting evolved to include six different tracks focused on innovative, new technologies with the potential to impact our practice and patient care. On a side note, we still dedicated one live case and several lectures to brachytherapy and other technology useful for treating in-stent restenosis of drug-eluting stents.

Today, CRT is a cluster of boutique meetings hosted in one venue, including coronary, endovascular, structural, technology, atherosclerosis, and clinical research tracks. In addition, the meeting organizers recognize the need for and emphasize special symposia for nurses and technologies and fellows in training. The meeting also addresses racial and gender disparities by having dedicated sessions on women in cardiology and heart issues that affect women disproportionately and partnering with the Association of Black Cardiologists (ABC) to focus on racial differences and inequality of care.

This year the meeting attendance will exceed 2200 participants and include researchers from around the world and a faculty of 500 experts that will share the knowledge via 20 live cases, 120 interesting cases, 300 abstracts, and more than 800 lectures. One of the highlights of the CRT meeting is the keynote guest, which in the past has included two former U.S. Presidents William Jefferson Clinton and George W. Bush, former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Newt Gingrich, and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney. For the 20th year celebration, we are proud to have former U.S. Vice President Al Gore who will address the CRT conference on February 20.

This year’s meeting includes three sessions with FDA officials, including a joint town hall with officials from the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services (CMS), to discuss regulatory and reimbursement issues related to new devices and innovation. In addition, CRT meeting content will be featured on CRTonline.org and CardioTube.org, which support the conference throughout the year.

So how is the Cardiovascular Revascularization ( CRM ) journal related to the CRT meeting? For the past five years, CRM has been the official journal of the meeting and every CRT attendee received a complimentary free subscription. In addition, the new innovation and interesting cases presented at the meeting will be the focus of two special issues of the journal in 2017. With the growth of the CRT meeting comes the growth of the CRM journal and we are expanding from our current cycle of eight annual issues to 10 in 2017 and 12 in 2018. In addition, the CRM editorial board is being restructured to consist of active CRT faculty.

With the proliferation of cardiology journals, the strength of a journal relies on a society that will commit to recruiting and publishing strong manuscripts and robust distribution. The CRT meeting is the second largest interventional cardiology meeting in the USA with respect to content and attendance. With your support and participation, we can continue to grow the meeting and the journal to be strong, unbiased sources for disseminating knowledge and information about the innovation and technological progress in our field. We welcome those of you who attended in the past and those attending for the first time at the 20-year anniversary CRT meeting and we extend to all of you an invitation to come to our future CRT meetings. In the meanwhile, stay connected via CRTonline.org and CRM .