The Academy of Elite Doctors exists because good cardiology is distributed far less evenly than good evidence. The trials are read everywhere. The conditions under which they can be applied are not the same everywhere. Our work is to close that distance.
The gap we work on
Most of the cardiovascular evidence base is generated in well-resourced centres with on-site surgical backup, unrestricted access to imaging, and patients who present early. A great deal of the world’s cardiology is practised without any of those things: a district hospital an hour from the nearest catheterisation laboratory, a clinic where the patient has already paid for the consultation out of pocket, a unit where the choice is not between two strategies but between one strategy and none. Guidelines written for the first setting are applied daily in the second, and the translation is left to the individual clinician to work out alone.
What we do about it
- Teach the reasoning, not just the recommendation. A clinician who knows why a recommendation exists can adapt it when the conditions differ. One who has only memorised it cannot.
- State the disagreements. Where the American and European societies differ, we say so. A trainee who has read only a smoothed consensus is exposed the first time they are questioned properly.
- Support research where the questions arise. Protocol review, statistical help and honest manuscript critique, so that clinicians working in under-represented settings publish what they see rather than only read about elsewhere.
- Verify credentials rather than sell them. The member directory checks qualification, training and registration, and nothing about it is for sale.
- Keep the entry cost low. Free teaching, free reference material, and prices set against what a trainee in a public hospital can afford rather than what a specialist market will bear.
What we will not do
We do not publish content whose conclusion has been shaped by a commercial relationship. We do not award recognition that has been paid for. We do not overstate the strength of evidence to make a page more persuasive, and where evidence is thin we say so, even when a confident answer would sell more. A teaching institution that trades on its credibility has nothing else to trade on.
Who the Academy is for
Medical students who have already decided on cardiology; residents and fellows preparing for examinations; consultants who want a reliable check on a threshold or a trial position; physicians, intensivists, emergency doctors and nurses outside cardiology who nonetheless manage cardiac patients every week; and clinicians practising far from a tertiary centre who carry decisions alone.
Who leads it
The Academy was founded by Dr A M Thirugnanam, MD, MSICP, FSCAI, Ph.D., Senior Interventional Cardiologist, and its academic direction is set by the standing committees described on the committee page. More about the Academy’s history is on the about page, and the fastest way to see whether the teaching suits you is the learning centre or the free downloads.