In December 2009, the ACC and AHA implemented a new policy for relation- ships with industry and other entities (RWI) that requires the writing committee chair plus a minimum of 50% of the writing committee to have no relevant RWI (Appendix 1 for the ACC/ AHA definition of relevance). These statements are reviewed by the Task Force and all members during each conference call and/ or meeting of the writing committee and are updated as changes occur.All guideline recommendations require a confidential vote by the writing committee and must be approved by a consensus of the voting members. Members are not permitted to draft or vote on any text or recommendations pertaining to their RWI. Members of this writing group, who recused themselves from voting, are indicated, and specific section recusals are noted in Appendix 1. Authors and peer reviewers RWI pertinent to this guideline are disclosed in Appendices 1 and 2, respectively. Additionally, to ensure complete transparency, this writing group members comprehensive disclosure information including RWI not pertinent to this document is available as an online supplement. Comprehensive disclosure information for the Task Force is also available online. The work of this writing group is supported exclusively by the ACC, AHA, American Association for Thoracic Surgery (AATS), Preventive Cardiovascular Nurses Association (PCNA), Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions (SCAI), and Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS) without commercial support. Writing group members vol- unteered their time for this activity. To maintain relevance at the point of care for practicing phy- sicians, the Task Force continues to oversee an ongoing process improvement initiative.As a result, in response to pilot projects, several changes to these guidelines will be apparent, including limited narrative text and a focus on summary and evidence tables (with references linked to abstracts in PubMed). 