The American Heart Association’s chief science officer, Rose Marie Robertson, spoke with CardioBrief to clarify and discuss the AHA’s position regarding the SHAPE-inspired legislation in Texas (see our previous story). Robertson confirmed that the AHA has indeed declined to endorse the proposed bill. Although Robertson would not rule out a legislative approach in the future, she did observe that it is “a very blunt instrument.”
Robertson has read the proposed Texas bill, and said that “legislation we would support in this arena would take a more comprehensive approach… we wouldn’t be likely to support legislation that places a disproportionate amount of emphasis on imaging modalities as opposed to a more comprehensive approach” to patient diagnosis and treatment, noting that there are “other approaches that are often efficacious.” She noted that the AHA’s approach to childhood obesity, which involves working with insurance companies and other institutions, is “a good example of an approach that is not a legislative approach.”
Placing some distance between the AHA and SHAPE, Robertson noted that “we develop our guidelines in collaboration” with “major organizations” like the NIH.
[…] SHAPE published its own guidelines independent of the AHA, ACC, or NHLBI, and when SHAPE endorsed legislation to mandate insurance reimbursement for MI screening, my initial impulse was to overlook the nagging sense that something was wrong (why is a small, […]