The Heart Rhythm Society canvassed its own electrophysiologist and cardiologist communities for input on the perceived barriers to management of AF that provided understanding of the management choices being made for patients with AF. Society respondents indicated their preference of delivery mechanisms of the AF CME program, which will be channeled through a Web-based education portal and printed toolkit. Onsite lectures and/or workshops and other educational outlets will round out the education initiative.

In addition to gather outcomes data, the campaign also will leverage into practice the updated AF guidelines and the Heart Rhythm Society Expert Clinical Consensus Statement on the Catheter Ablation of Atrial Fibrillation (see below). The Society's 2005 research documented that integrated updated AF guidelines into everyday practice is a major issue for physicians. The Heart Rhythm Society will introduce novel strategies to accelerate the time between guidelines release and their adoption and will use groundbreaking pre-and post-education outcomes testing to measurably demonstrate changes in physician behavior.

HRS/EHRA/ECAS Expert Consensus Statement on Catheter and Surgical Ablation of Atrial Fibrillation: Recommendations for Personnel, Policy, Procedures and Follow-Up — Developed in partnership with the European Heart Rhythm Association (EHRA) and the European Cardiac Arrhythmia Society (ECAS)
     — Download full text, (PDF, 4.79MB) or the Executive Summary (PDF, 138K)