Because lack of patient understanding and adherence may adversely affect outcomes, physicians and other healthcare providers should make every effort to engage the patient s active participation in prescribed medical regimens and lifestyles. In addition, patients should be informed of the risks, benefits, and alternatives to a particular treatment and should be involved in shared decision making whenever feasible, particularly for COR IIa and IIb, for which the benefit-to-risk ratio may be lower. The Task Force makes every effort to avoid actual, potential, or perceived conflicts of interest that may arise as a result of industry relationships or personal interests among the members of the writing committee. All writing committee members and peer reviewers of this guideline were required to disclose all such current health care-related relationships, including those existing 24 months (from 2005) before initiation of the writing effort. The writing committee chair may not have any relevant relationships with industry or other entities (RWI); however, RWI are permitted for the vice chair position. In December 2009, the ACCF and AHA imple- mented a new policy that requires a minimum of 50% of the writing committee to have no relevant RWI; in addition, the disclosure term was changed to 12 months before writing committee initiation. The present guideline was developed during the transition in RWI policy and occurred over an extended period of time. In the interest of transparency, we provide full information on RWI existing over the entire period of guideline development, including delineation of relationships that expired more than 24 months before the guideline was finalized. This information is included in Appendix 1. These statements are reviewed by the Task Force and all members during each conference call and meeting of the writing committee and are updated as changes occur. 