Facts and principles learned at the 31st Annual Williamsburg Conference on Heart Disease

Mark A. Peterman, MD, Hassan Farooq, MD, and William C. Roberts, MD

The December 2003 conference on heart disease in Williamsburg, Virginia, was the 31st such conference to be held in that city and has been directed by one of us (WCR) since it began in 1972. The conference usually attracts about 200 enrollees, most of whom are repeat attendees. The conference provides 19.75 hours of continuing medical education credit, and nearly all of the speakers are nationally and/or internationally recognized. It is one of the longest-running cardiology courses sponsored by the American College of Cardiology. Its unique feature is that each presentation is 90 minutes, which allows most speakers to discuss more than one topic and answer questions.
The proceedings of the December 2002 conference were summarized in the April 2003 issue of Baylor University Medical Center Proceedings, and this issue attempts to summarize the proceedings of the December 2003 conference. We took extensive notes during the latest conference and met on many occasions to reproduce as accurately as possible what was said by the presenters. This year’s summary also provides many references to the topics discussed.