Menu
Log in

PA Logo

President's Message
March 2025

Dear PaACC Members:

It’s an exciting time of year with ACC.25 in Chicago, and many chapter educational and advocacy opportunities getting started. Now is a great time to get involved!


ACC.25 Chicago

For those of you attending ACC this weekend, we hope you can join us for our annual chapter reception at ACC on March 29th from 5-630 PM at Fatpour TapWorks McCormick at 2206 South Indiana Avenue. A great opportunity for everyone to network with colleagues from throughout the state, meet chapter leadership and find out ways you can get involved, or at least get a free drink! Please stop by and say hello!


Board Certification

As many of you now know, the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) has made the unfortunate decision to reject the application for a new independent Cardiovascular Board. The reasons cited were concerns about financial viability of a new board and lack of consensus support across the medical field (which is laughable). The ABMS proposed a poison pill of allowing the ABIM to maintain a second, competing cardiology board which would have made the new start-up board unable to be financially viable, and then used this as justification to reject the application. The ACC as well as the other four leading societies representing almost all of us who practice cardiovascular medicine are very disappointed in this decision and continue to explore what future alternatives exist. In the meantime, please continue to maintain your current ABIM based board certification in whatever manner you currently use while this process plays out.


CVTeam Educational Series

The MACCS CVTeam has their next virtual educational forum scheduled for April 26th from 8-10 am. This event will help you get up to speed on the top late breaking clinical trials that were presented in Chicago at ACC.25. Free to participate and claim CEU credits, just access the link here.


Multi-Modality Imaging Conference

The PaACC has a quarterly Multi-modality imaging virtual conference where imaging experts from throughout the state participate to illustrate how different imaging modalities can be used to improve patient care. The next conference is scheduled for April 9th at 6pm, please register for free here.

 

Farewell

In Chicago I am officially ending my term as Chapter President and Western Governor. Your next Chapter President and Eastern Governor will be Dr. Marietta Ambrose from the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Timothy Wong from the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center will be taking over as Western Governor from me. They are going to do a fantastic job representing all of us and I look forward to where they take the chapter in the coming years.

It has been my honor to represent all of you, our patients, and all those trying to improve cardiovascular care for patients in our great state. I want to especially thank our chapter executive, Jennifer Ray Beckman, who is a total rock star and coordinates all the different areas that make our state chapter so great. I also want to thank my co-governor, Dr. Sri Adusumalli, who has helped mentor me in this position and been a role model on how to advocate for our state, thanks Sri! I strongly feel that participation in a professional organization and advocating to improve our work environment not only makes me a better cardiologist, but also is an antidote to the burnout and moral injury we all experience day to day taking care of our patients. I would encourage all of you to take time to give back either through advocacy, education, or mentoring the next generation of care givers. If there is anything I can do help any of you get involved in advocacy or the chapter, please connect here.


Thanks,

Ross

Ross Peterson, MD, MBA, FACC

President, Pennsylvania Chapter ACC

Governor, Western PA 

mid-atlantic cvt banner

MACCS CVTeam Education
The Late Breakers: What you must know from ACC.25

Date: April 26, 2025

Time: 8:00am-10:00am

Click here for additional information, including registration. 


CardioNerds graphic

Click here or on the image to listen to the recording.


2024 State of the State Report

TOP ACCOMPLISHMENT

The Women in Cardiology Committee created The Postpartum Hypertension Clinic Development Toolkit to help clinicians, health care teams, and health systems develop postpartum hypertension care programs for individuals with a recent hypertensive disorder of pregnancy – chronic hypertension, gestational hypertension, preeclampsia, eclampsia, and postpartum hypertension.  Three other chapters and the Prevention and Reproduction & Cardio-obstetric Health Committee, members came together to identify and gather clinical resources, guideline references, successful clinic models, timelines, touching on many subjects including coding and billing, funding, and operations.  The 59-page toolkit was placed on acc.org https://www.acc.org/HTNinPregnancy

 

1. Increase Relevance as the CV Professional Home (in particular, highlight any activity/ies that advance diversity and inclusivity, health equity, and/or member wellness)

ACCOMPLISHMENT

Completed our partnership with CardioNerds to deliver Narratives in Cardiology a multimedia educational series jointly developed by the PaACC Fellows in Training Section and the CardioNerds Platform to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion in cardiology.  Each of the sixteen episodes was downloaded at least 10,000 times.

OPPORTUNITY

Build on the success of the series that was based on personal stories and delivered inspiration. 

 

2. Generate and Deliver Actionable Knowledge

ACCOMPLISHMENT

CVTeam adjusted programming to gain attendance at virtual programming; Lunch & Learn sessions focused on CVTeam taught clinical education.

OPPORTUNITY

Continue to find speakers from the membership to share their clinical knowledge.

ACCOMPLISHMENT

FIT leadership designed non-clinical programming to bring via virtual platforms so all FITs could access knowledge not delivered in training.             

OPPORTUNITY

Continue virtual programming, but also add in-person component in cities where several training programs are located.

ACCOMPLISHMENT

Joined with other Mid-Atlantic Chapters to deliver education and networking program that included FIT Abstract contest, emerging faculty, and leadership positions to build experience at regional level.

OPPORTUNITY

Build on the success and solid reputation of the meeting.

 

3. Advance Quality, Equity, and Value of CV Care

ACCOMPLISHMENT

Proactively built a relationship with the ACOG Pennsylvania Chapter and identified the idea that providing blood pressure cuffs to OB patients with certain risk factors would advance care.  Worked with lobbyist teams to find sponsors and got language included in Maternal Mortality Review Committee.

OPPORTUNITY

Work to educate lawmakers on the intersection of CV medicine and maternal care.

ACCOMPLISHMENT

Thanks to the determined efforts of Pennsylvania members, SB 1281, which proposed burdensome licensure requirements for cardiovascular (CV) technologists, was defeated—a victory for patients, providers, and the comprehensive cardiovascular team.

OPPORTUNITY

Remain vigilant on burdensome requirements that especially effect rural areas of the state. 

 

4. Ensure Organizational Growth and Sustainability

ACCOMPLISHMENT

Continued the relationship with the Italian Federation of Cardiology sending mid-career members to preceptorships and Italian national meeting.

OPPORTUNITY

Build on the personal relationships to increase programming.




Pennsylvania Chapter, American College of Cardiology
1554 Paoli Pike, Suite 298

West Chester, PA 19380

www.pcacc.org


Powered by Wild Apricot Membership Software