The Scope of Cardiological Competence in New Clinical Settings

Cardiology is the medical discipline or specialty responsible for the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of cardiovascular disease. As this is the major cause of morbidity and mortality in Spain and the European Union,1 cardiology professionals have, with respect to other medical specialists, an additional moral authority and responsibility derived from the relevance for society of an excellent performance in combating cardiovascular disease. Hence the importance of keeping up with the rapid transitions that are currently taking place at the social, administrative, educational, health care, and professional levels, transitions that necessarily generate novel contexts for the practice of cardiology and for its professionals. At the end of 2005, the Spanish Society of Cardiology (SSC), by virtue of its leadership role in combating cardiovascular disease, decided to undertake a project, applying a synthetic approach to the process matrix, involving the professionals in cardiology and in other medical specialties, the health care administrations, the pharmaceutical industry, and biotechnology companies, the institutions, the patients and the general population; these processes will ultimately play a role in the development of the field of cardiology, in the work of The Scope of Cardiological Competence in New Clinical Settings