The Handoff: Your Week in Cardiology News – 3/16/17

The Handoff is a weekly roundup of cardiology news covering various developments in subspecialties, the pharmaceutical industry, and the overall state of health care as it affects cardiologists. Keep your finger on the pulse of cardiology with The Handoff.

• The American Heart Association (AHA) has released a first-of-its-kind scientific statement focusing on the link between meal timing, meal frequency, obesity, and cardiovascular disease.
• As it turns out, not all health care plans are created equal: plans offered directly by hospitals or health care systems may provide better customer service compared to private insurers.
• A study published in JAMA investigated the estimated mortality from cardiometabolic deaths linked to “suboptimal intakes of 10 dietary factors” in the US.
• In other suboptimal diet news: Girl Scout Cookie season is here again, and CNN Health has ranked each cookie based on nutritional value and how many minutes of exercise are required to burn off the calories in a serving. 
• Outgoing  interventional cardiology fellow Ankur Kalra, MD, of the Houston Methodist Hospital and Weill Cornell Medical College in Houston, Texas, shares his top 5 tips for how to make it in cardiology practice.
• The Mayo Clinic and Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia have announced a collaboration to fund a number of regional centers throughout the US to study and potentially delay heart failure resulting from hypoplastic left heart syndrome in pediatric patients with congenital heart disease.
• The American College of Cardiology 66^th Scientific Sessions & Expo kick off tomorrow. Check out Cardiology Advisor’s preview for what sessions to watch for during the conference.