Footnotes

• Contributors All authors have made substantial contributions to conception and design, acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data. All authors have been involved in drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content, and all authors have given final approval of the version to be published.

• Competing interests In compliance with EBAC/EACCME guidelines, all authors participating in Education in Heart have disclosed potential conflicts of interest that might cause a bias in the article. HW has received research grants from: Sanofi Aventis; Eli Lilly; Medicines Company; NIH; Pfizer; Roche; Johnson & Johnson; Schering Plough; Merck Sharpe & Dohme; Astra Zeneca; GlaxoSmithKline; Daiichi Sankyo Pharma Development and Bristol-Myers Squibb, and has served on advisory boards for Merck Sharpe & Dohme, Roche and Regado Biosciences. KT has received lecture honoraria from Roche Diagnostics. JSA has received Consultation and Data Safety and Monitoring honoraria from Servier pharma, Johnson & Johnson, Bayer, Daiichi Sankyo Pharma, Sanofi Aventis, Bristol Myers Squibb, Elsevier Publishers, and UptoDate. AJ has consulted or presently consults for most of the major diagnostic companies. At present these include Roche, Alere, Abbott Ortho, Critical Diagnostics, and Radiometer. He also consults for Amgen.

• Provenance and peer review Commissioned; externally peer reviewed.