Author Relationships With Industry and Other Entities (Relevant) e414 Appendix 2. Reviewer Relationships With Industry and Other Entities (Relevant) e417 Appendix 3. Abbreviations e422 Appendix 4. Additional Tables e423 Preamble TheAmerican College of Cardiology (ACC) and theAmerican Heart Association (AHA) are committed to the prevention and management of cardiovascular diseases through professional education and research for clinicians, providers, and patients. Since 1980, the ACC and AHA have shared a responsibility to translate scientific evidence into clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) with recommendations to standardize and improve cardiovascular health. These CPGs, based on systematic methods to evaluate and classify evidence, provide a corner- stone of quality cardiovascular care. In response to published reports from the Institute of and the ACC/AHA s mandate to evaluate new knowledge and maintain relevance at the point of care, the ACC/AHA Task Force on Practice Guidelines (Task Force) began modifying its methodology. This modernization effort is published in the 2012 Methodology Summit Report3 and The latter recounts the history of the collaboration, changes over time, current policies, and Amsterdam et al 2014 AHA/ACC NSTE-ACS Guideline e347 planned initiatives to meet the needs of an evolving health- care environment. Recommendations on value in proportion to resource utilization will be incorporated as high-quality comparative-effectiveness data become available.5 The rela- tionships between CPGs and data standards, appropriate use criteria, and performance measures are addressed elsewhere.4 Intended Use CPGs provide recommendations applicable to patients with or at risk of developing cardiovascular disease. The focus is on medical practice in the United States, but CPGs developed in collaboration with other organizations may have a broader target.Although CPGs may be used to inform regula- tory or payer decisions, the intent is to improve the quality of care and be aligned with the patient s best interest. 