I’m back with updates!

First, I hope you are taking care of yourselves and that your year has been going well so far. I also hope that you are enjoying the spring and are ready for the summer! Some of us are celebrating important milestones, with graduation season and exciting new changes. Congratulations to our new Early career physicians who are leaving fellowship and becoming new attendings and our later career attendings and CV team members who are making new transitions! Good luck to all of you on your new journey and please let us know if we can help in any way! Remember that the PaACC is your professional home, and we are here to support you.

ACC.26 New Orleans

We were thrilled to see many of you at ACC.26, American College of Cardiology’s 75th Annual Scientific Session & Expo. The great state of Pennsylvania was represented in 189 sessions. I hope that many of you were able to attend some of them and support your fellow PaACC members. 

It was fantastic to meet so many of you. A big thank you to all who attended our PaACC.26 Mixer and Networking Event.

A good time was had by all and we certainly got into the NOLA spirit! It was so exhilarating to meet the future of cardiology in our early career members, Fellows in Training, medical residents, and medical students. To also connect in person with our CVTeam members and our fellows (FACCs). It was a powerful reminder of how much we can achieve when we join each other as one cardiovascular community, and why we must continue to stand together in these challenging times. To stay true to our and ACC’s shared mission to transform cardiovascular care and improve heart health for all.

A shout out to our favorite cardiologist, Katie Berlacher, MD, MS, FACC (PaACC past governor and president). Katie did a phenomenal job as the chair of ACC.26. It was DYNAMITE and Katie “set the proverbial bar” for ACC.27! Congratulations Katie! WE ARE SO PROUD OF YOU!

In Katie’s own words:

From the opening moments, we intentionally designed an experience to engage, connect and transform. Built on the science of learning, ACC.26 reimagined how cardiovascular professionals absorb and apply knowledge. Interactivity was not a feature, it was the foundation…At the end of the day, ACC.26 did more than inform – it inspired. It successfully demonstrated what is possible when cutting-edge science, thoughtful design and a vibrant global community come together with purpose…The bar is set for ACC.27 in Houston next April! Link to the full article is here The Magic of ACC.26 by Katie Berlacher MD MS FACC

PaACC - Italian Federation of Cardiology “Twinning” Program

We continued our exchange program where we grow and learn from each other in a more meaningful manner. We were lucky to have our Early career representative (Eastern PA) Mahesh Vidula, MD and our Fellow in training representative (Eastern PA) Aardra Rajendran, MD participate this year. I want to share their experiences with you from their observership in Italy, which culminated with their attending the May 2026 Annual Italian Cardiology Scientific Conference in Rimini, Italy.

In Aardra’s own words:

Through the Pennsylvania Chapter of the American College of Cardiology (PaACC), Dr. Mahesh Vidula and I had the extraordinary opportunity to participate in a professional exchange program with our Italian Association of Hospital Cardiologists (ANMCO) counterparts in Italy. My time in Rome began with a visit to San Filippo Neri Hospital, one of the larger community hospitals providing comprehensive cardiovascular services to its patient population. I was warmly welcomed by Dr. Stefania Angela Di Fusco, Cardiologist and General Secretary of ANMCO and Dr. Alessandro Alonzo.

Pictured from left to right are Doctors Mahesh Vidula, Stefania Angela Di Fusco and Aardra Rajendran.

Aardra continues:

I was particularly impressed by the breadth of the cardiovascular program, including the opportunity for cardiologists to both perform and interpret echocardiograms, as well as the strength of the electrophysiology and interventional programs along with the rapid growth of their structural program. I also appreciated our discussion comparing healthcare access in Italy and the United States. The conversation underscored the shared challenges of delivering timely, high-quality cardiovascular care while balancing access and efficiency. Beyond the hospital, we were able to immerse ourselves in the culture and history of Rome. I spent the evenings wandering through the city's beautiful piazzas, marveling at centuries-old architecture, and enjoying handmade pasta and pistachio gelato.

Pictured from left to right are Doctors Mahesh Vidula, Stefania Angela Di Fusco and Aardra Rajendran.

We then traveled to Rimini to attend the ANMCO National Congress, one of the largest cardiovascular meetings in Italy. The conference was an outstanding experience with several sessions on cutting-edge topics. I particularly enjoyed the sessions on Prevention, Cardiac MRI, and Cardio-Obstetrics.

Convention Center in Rimini	Doctors Mahesh Vidulaand Aardra Rajendran at ANMCO National Congress cardiovascular meeting

We also had the opportunity to meet members of the ANMCO Executive Board and cardiovascular leaders from across Italy.

Doctors Aardra Rajendran and Mahesh Vidula having dinner with members of the Italian Federation of Cardiology

Aardra concludes:

Between conference sessions, we explored the seaside town of Rimini, which is located along the Adriatic Coast. Perhaps the most fascinating excursion was visiting Domus del Chirurgo, the Surgeon's House, a second-century Roman physician's home with one of the largest collections of ancient surgical instruments ever discovered! What a privilege to witness how medicine and surgery were practiced two thousand years ago!

 We are deeply grateful to PaACC for making this experience possible. The hospitality and generosity of our Italian hosts made this an unforgettable professional and cultural exchange. Dr. Vidula and I return to Philadelphia inspired by the friendships we formed and the shared commitment to advancing cardiovascular care across borders.

PaACC Culture Moment

I wanted to share this photo (courtesy of Aardra Rajendran) of the Monumento alle Donne del Mare (Monument to the Women of the Sea), officially known as the Monumento in Bronzo alla Sposa del Marinaio (Bronze Monument to the Sailor’s Wife). It is a poignant bronze statue located at the very end of the main pier (Porto Canale) in Rimini, Italy. Affectionately referred to as the famous "woman statue,” this bronze sculpture depicts a woman looking out to the horizon with her children. It honors the generations of local women; wives, mothers, and daughters of local fishermen, who bravely waited on the shores, anxiously scanning the horizon, and praying for the safe return of their husbands and sons from the sea. It also serves as a memorial for those who were lost at sea.

PaACC Early Career Series: "CardioLaunch: Your Early Career Playbook!”

I hope you have been enjoying this novel, innovative, exciting, and stimulating webinar program. We have covered diverse topics related to professional career growth and development, in the cardiovascular profession. Thank you to our PaACC Early career representatives, Doctors Mahesh Vidula (Eastern rep) and Matthew Lander (Western rep) and PaACC Diversity and Inclusion Representative Dr. Oby Ibe, for their hard work as creators, organizers, and leaders of this program. Do join us for the next installment of this series on June 23, 2026, at 6:30pm:

Which Bucket First? A Physician's Guide to Investing in the Right Order.

This session covers the key account types available: Backdoor Roth IRA, 401(k), 403(b), 457(b), HSA, and taxable brokerage. Invest in you for this hour and understand how to prioritize savings as income grows. Register Today

PaACC Diversity and Inclusion Section

I am extremely excited to announce that Dr. Oby Ibe, who has been instrumental in creating, organizing, and leading our PaACC Early career series, is our new Diversity and Inclusion Representative. She is currently working on many exciting ideas and activities that will be of interest to all. I encourage you all to look out for them and participate. Please join me in congratulating Oby!

Oby Ibe, MD, MPH is a Clinical Assistant Professor at Penn Presbyterian Medical Center, specializing in preventive cardiology, lipidology, and cardiovascular imaging, focused on advancing health equity and lifestyle medicine for diverse communities.

PaACC Women in Cardiology

Please join me in welcoming Dr. Henrietta (Hetty) Afari as our PaACC Women in Cardiology Representative-Western PA. You may remember Hetty as our previous FIT representative (Eastern PA). We are extremely excited to have Hetty back on the team and can’t wait to see what she has in store for our WIC section!

Henrietta Afari, MD is an Assistant Professor at UPMC Heart and Vascular Institute, who takes a special interest in global health and women’s health women’s cardiovascular health, with a focus on heart disease in pregnant women.

Pennsylvania ACC Multimodality Imaging Series

Our PaACC Multimodality Imaging Series has continued to be popular with our members. We are lucky to have faculty from different institutions around the state present thought-provoking cases, backed by outstanding evidence shaping current practice and delivering insights from talented multidisciplinary expert panels. Thank you to Dr. Mahesh Vidula (Eastern rep) for creating, organizing, and continuing to lead these sessions. These interactive webinars with high quality, informative discussions covered a variety of topics from Assessment of Myocardial Viability to SCAD and Cardiogenic Shock management. I am very excited about our future offerings where we plan to explore and dare I say “simplify” the world of Adult Congenital Heart Disease and break it down in an easily digestible manner.

PaACC Education Activities

Ambulatory Specialty Model (ASM) for Heart failure (HF)

By now many of you have heard about the mandatory five-year ASM for HF which was finalized last year by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and officially launched on January 1, 2027. ASM is a five-year specialty model designed to assess whether episode-based accountability for chronic conditions can improve outcomes and reduce cost of care. Based on the MIPS program, ASM for HF is a two-sided risk model that evaluates individual clinician performance based on specific quality and cost measures, improvement activities, and promoting interoperability. Evaluation of performance in ASM will positively or negatively impact the totality of participant’s Medicare Part B payments by as much as 9%.

CMS announced regions where qualifying specialists were mandated to participate in this new ASM for HF. Cardiologists in these selected regions who annually treat 20 or more HF patients covered by traditional Medicare are required to participate in ASM for HF. PaACC previously released the geographic areas of Pennsylvania which were selected and other important details. ACC flagged this as a high-priority campaign and provided more details on ASM requirements, including key dates. See ASM resource page: ASM for HF- ACC. We will continue to provide you with information on ACC and CMS programs that cover this important topic.

ACC.26 Late Breaking Clinical Trials/LBCT webinar

PaACC Education Section Lead Dr. Colin Craft will join the Italian Federation of Cardiology to present the most impactful ACC.26 Late Breaking Clinical Trials. We will review some key trials, along with useful and practical commentary from our own experts, in PA and Italy.

CVTeam Educational Series

Our CVTeam continued its dynamic and popular virtual educational series. Recently covered topics included cardiac genetics, diuresis in acute heart failure and pulmonary arterial hypertension. Please visit our page and feel free to participate and claim CEU credits using this link here. The series continues September 22^nd.

PaACC Advocacy

Update on licensure requirement for medical imaging professionals (including cardiac sonographers, cardiac Cath/electrophysiology lab technologists).

AS some of you might be aware, over the past decade, various interests have pushed to move from the current efficient and safe process of “individual credentialing by hiring facilities” for medical imaging professionals, to a “state mandated licensure” requirement, that is supervised by the Pennsylvania board of medicine. 

PaACC opposes this because we consider such a mandate to be: "a solution in search of a problem that does not exist." We are unaware of systematic patient safety issues that currently exist and would need to be solved by “state mandated licensure.” However, we are GENUINELY concerned about the potentially harmful impact on the imaging workforce by imposing this “state mandated licensure” requirement. It will add administrative and financial burdens and worsen the workforce shortage. This was the experience in the state of Maryland after a similar bill was passed. The MD cardiology technologist workforce was so adversely impacted that a later exemption was granted for their cardiology technologists. We would prefer to completely avoid this situation!

Your PaACC was instrumental in forming a coalition last year to defeat a previous version of this bill, Senate Bill 1281, in 2025, and it was cleared from the docket without a vote. However, outside interests continue to push for this unnecessary “state mandated licensure.” 

Currently, House Bill 2173 (which passed licensure committee vote on 6/3/2026 and will move to the house floor), and its companion Senate Bill 1334 are moving through the process toward floor votes.

We NEED your help with the following: please continue to respond to current (and future) email campaigns to contact your state representative. We try to make this as easy as possible through a program called VoterVoice, takes no time to enter your information and hit SEND! Please spread the word to your colleagues, family members, and other stakeholders who all  lose if our medical imaging professional staff workforce is weighed down by senseless regulation.

PaACC at 2026 ACC Legislative Conference

PaACC will be at 2026 ACC Leg Con from October 4-6, 2026, in Washington, DC. Come join our delegation as we hear from ACC leaders, staff and other experts on health policy and current issues affecting patients and our cardiovascular profession. This is also a great occasion for them to hear directly from us. This signature three-day event also provides a rare opportunity to speak directly to members of Congress and their staff, on the final day of the meeting. Come practice and/or learn advocacy skills! There is plenty of time left to register for this event! Please email us to let us know if you will be attending. PaACC hopes to see many familiar and new faces this year.

FINAL THOUGHTS - IT’S A WRAP FOLKS!

It remains my absolute honor and pleasure to represent our state of Pennsylvania. Ensuring that our cardiovascular community, our patients, and other stakeholders continue to experience excellent cardiovascular care, while addressing the critical issues that maintain and improve the quality of cardiovascular medicine in Pennsylvania.

Our section leaders continue to tirelessly work and provide you with relevant, creative, and informative programming; staying abreast of the issues that affect us daily and advocating with our state leaders.

So please join us for our upcoming events! Get involved. Reach out to us and send us your feedback, so we remain focused on what is important to you!

Remember to check out our website at www.pcacc.org, follow us on LinkedIn, and please reach out any time via president@pcacc.org with questions, ideas, needs or if you would like to get involved in PaACC activities.

Finally, do make time for yourselves and your loved ones! Focus on your wellness and find time to enjoy the summer activities. Have a safe and enjoyable summer!

Warmly,

Marietta Ambrose, MD, MPH, MSEd, FACC

President, PaACC

Governor, Eastern PA