2021 ACC/AHA/SVM/ACP Advanced Training Statement on Vascular Medicine Published

January 15, 2021—The American College of Cardiology (ACC), American Heart Association (AHA), Society for Vascular Medicine (SVM), and American College of Physicians (ACP) have published the 2021 ACC/AHA/SVM/ACP Advanced Training Statement on Vascular Medicine.

The document by Mark A. Creager, MD, et al is available online in the ACC’s Journal of the American College of Cardiology, AHA’s Circulation: Cardiovascular Interventions, and SVM’s Vascular Medicine. It is a revision of the 2004 multisociety Clinical Competence Statement on Vascular Medicine and Catheter-Based Peripheral Vascular Interventions.

According to an ACC announcement, the Advanced Training Statement addresses the core competencies required of vascular medicine specialists and complements the training in vascular medicine mandatory of all physician trainees during the standard three-year general cardiovascular fellowship. Furthermore, the document identifies selected competencies of vascular medicine specialists that go beyond core expectations that may be achieved by some advanced trainees during their formal fellowship training or through subsequent training experiences.

In addition, this Advanced Training Statement provides examples of appropriate measures for assessing competence in vascular medicine training, including knowing the strategies to improve vascular health equity by understanding sex, race, and ethnicity-related differences in the clinical epidemiology, causes, and outcomes of vascular disease.

The statement was coauthored by ACC, AHA, SVM, and ACP and was developed in collaboration with the Association of Black Cardiologists, the Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions, the Society for Vascular Nursing, and the Society for Vascular Surgery.