This *post is authored by Andrew M. Freeman, MD, FACC, chair of the ACC’s Early Career Professionals Section, and editor of the Patient-Centered Care CardioSource Clinical Community.

We’ve all been there – a busy clinic with a patient who has lots of questions and can’t quite make sense of your chicken-scratch, grade-school level coronary tree drawings. If you’re not in the medical field, it’s often very hard to wrap one’s head around the fact that someone is going to stick a balloon in the artery that supplies your heart. Of course, you’ve been working diligently to make sure that your patients are truly in the know, understand what’s going to be done to them, and that they are “captaining” their own health-ship. Being patient-centered in your delivery of care means involving your patients in their decisions about medications, intervention, and the overall disease processes. But, as we all have experienced, getting a patient up to speed quickly can be a daunting task.

This is where your ACC steps in. With the CardioSmart Explorer App for the iPad 2, you can select from many common health conditions and “bring to life” for patients what these conditions mean and what their treatments can look like. With a wave of your fingers, you can show a patient their heart muscle, its coronary anatomy, and the processes of a stent implantation. You can also mark up an anatomically and functionally correct digital model of the heart, and email this image directly to your patient. If your patient has atrial fibrillation, you can now show them how the electrical system of the heart works and how it can go awry.

The power of this application lies in its user friendliness, availability on the iOS (Apple) platform and its ability to show disease states and treatments with animations and pictures. Really, a picture is worth thousands of words. The concept of coronary disease and PCI with stenting can now be explained in 2 minutes instead of 20 – and can be instantly rewound, forwarded, and played in slow motion until all can grasp what this means.

Ultimately, this means your patient no longer comes to you with the “I don’t know what they did to me 5 years ago, but it involved a hole in my leg” phrase. Instead, you have a well-informed patient who understands exactly what has been done and why. Discussing procedures is now easier, and the risks and benefits of those procedures can be more clearly explained when the patient understands just how the procedure works.

As you can tell, the excitement behind this powerful application is tremendous – and for good reason. This kind of technology is the future of patient-centered medicine and no longer relies on “back-of-the-napkin” line drawings. Your ACC is proud to have brought this project to fruition, for you, our valued members.

This week is National Public Health Week, check out CardioSmart.org and the Patient-Centered Care CardioSource Clinical Community for additional tools and resources available to help prevent, treat and manage cardiovascular disease, while facilitating patient-centered care.

*A version of this article also ran in the CardioSmart Tech column on the Patient-Centered Care CardioSource Clinical Community.

This post was authored by Gerard R. Martin, MD, FACC, immediate past chair of the ACC’s Adult Congenital and Pediatric Cardiology Council.

“For the first 20 years of my son’s life, I felt as though I was driving with my eyes closed. My son was born with CHD, but during those first 20 years there was very little information available and very few support groups,” said Barbara DeMaria, a parent ambassador for the Adult Congenital Heart Association (ACHA), during the recent Congenital Heart Advocacy Day reception held at the ACC’s Heart House.

DeMaria is one of more than 100 patients, family members and health care stakeholders who attended the 7th Annual Congenital Heart Advocacy Day in Washington, DC, on March 18 and 19. The two-day event is designed to bring together congenital heart disease survivors, their families and health care providers to help educate Congress about the need for increased research and programmatic funding to help better understand the disease.  

This year, in particular, attendees met with lawmakers seeking support for National Institutes of Health research funding and Center for Disease Control and Prevention surveillance efforts. In addition, they sought to recruit additional members of Congress to join the Congressional Congenital Heart Caucus.  I had the honor of speaking to and hearing from DeMaria and others the day prior to them heading to Capitol Hill.

This lobby day, of which the ACC has been a long-time partner, is one of the key ways we continue to keep up the drum beat for continued advances in treatment and care for children and adults living with the disease. Not only is congenital heart disease still the nation’s number one birth defect, there are currently more than one million adults living with congenital heart disease thanks to advances that have already been made.

It’s events like this that showcase just how far we have come, that make me encouraged about the future of care for adults and children with congenital heart disease. For me, this lobby day symbolizes the coming together of physicians, patients and families in recognition of the need for collaboration with and among each other. It is this collaboration that I believe members of Congress and others are now beginning to appreciate, understand, and reward through programs, research and initiatives that can (and in some cases already are) not only save lives, but help those with the disease live longer, healthier and productive lives.

There is still much work to do – and more Advocacy Days to be had – but working together I am confident that we can continue to make progress in the treatment of congenital heart disease patients, like DeMaria’s son, all along the care continuum.

This post was authored by Icilma Fergus, MD, FACC, president elect of the Association of Black Cardiologists.

Teaming up with the ACC on the Spirit of the Heart (SOTH) community events has been an easy partnership for the Association of Black Cardiologists (ABC). Heart disease remains the number one health threat in America, and underserved and minority communities tend to be hit the hardest, with lower health literacy levels and greater cardiovascular risk.  Through the SOTH events, ACC and ABC have come together to increase awareness of heart disease and promote better heart health in high-risk communities.

Tomorrow is the first SOTH community event for 2013, with the goal of raising awareness in underserved communities in the San Francisco area. A community leaders’ forum breakfast will feature discussions by local health care, city and political leaders on heart disease prevention and community strategies, and will be immediately followed by a full day of free health screenings, a “Living with AFib” educational program and activities for the public where individuals can learn about their risk for heart disease and receive free counseling.  Be sure to check out CardioSmart’s Facebook page for photos from the event.

Our other joint ACC/ABC SOTH events last fall held in Houston, TX, Dallas, TX, Austin, TX and Harlem, NY were tremendously successful, and we’ll be continuing these community events throughout the year.

Personally, I have always had an interest in spreading awareness of prevention of heart disease to populations who are most seriously affected, especially women and communities of color. I chose to become a cardiologist partly because when I was doing a work study as a pre-med student, I saw sick dogs with weak hearts being studied at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital, and I immediately knew that I wanted to work with the heart.  I wasn't sure about whether I wanted to work in invasive or non-invasive until I met Dr. Thierry LeJemtel during my residency. Dr. LeJemtel is a brilliant French cardiologist who is famous for his work in heart failure. He quickly became my mentor and someone who I looked up to. I remember these beautiful, intelligent nurse practitioners he worked with, affectionately known as “Charlie's Angels.” I knew that one day I wanted to be half as smart as Dr. LeJemtel, and work hard and still look as poised and polished as his nurse practitioners.

If you have not yet gotten involved in the SOTH events, I urge you to get involved. For some, it is a great reminder as to why we got involved in cardiology in the first place.

With the increase in use of technologies such as Smartphones, tablets and e-readers, mobile devices are now a part of our everyday lives. These technologies have become increasingly popular over the past few years and have the ability to be truly transformative in our work flow as well as the way we communicate with one another other globally. To that end, the ACC has developed several mobile resources for you and your patients that hopefully you will find helpful.

The CardioSmart Explorer App is the first medical app by the ACC, was previously available exclusively to members of the ACC for free, but is now also available to the general public for a nominal fee (to download the App click here). The app is available for the iPad 2 and is designed to help you explain medical conditions and procedures to patients and thus enhance the clinician/patient relationship at the point of care. (Watch the demo video below or click here). Physicians and health care professionals can review and discuss common heart problems and treatment options by utilizing the app’s high-resolution cardiac graphics and animation, as well as walk step-by-step through the structure of an animated 3-D beating heart by swiping up or down through seven basic layers of normal cardiac anatomy.

In the works is the AnticoagEvaluator App, an ACC risk assessment tool that will launch at ACC.13. This tool is an easy and fast way for clinicians to assess stroke and bleeding risk and the benefits and risks of antithrombotic therapy in patients with chronic atrial fibrillation. The app will be free for ACC members and will be available for use on iPhone, iPad, and Android devices starting in early March.

In addition, the ACC has created a new ACC Connect App for members. The App is available for both iOS (iPhone, iPad, and iTouch) and Android devices, and allows cardiovascular professionals to stay connected through their electronic devices. Features include a searchable member and ACC staff directory, the ability to update individual contact information, news feeds from the ACC, and access to important ACC phone numbers. As a member, I encourage you to check your own profile for accuracy. To download on an iOS device, click here. For Android devices, click here.

For those attending ACC.13 in San Francisco, meeting attendees should download the ACC.13 eMeeting Planner App. This easy-to-use App allows you to personalize your meeting by searching for sessions by specialty, interest area, and role in the cardiovascular care team. Plus, get access to Expo info, animated maps, Twitter feeds and more (to download the App click here).  There will also be several sessions at ACC.13 targeted at mobile technologies and social media. Watch these tutorials on "How to Create and Export Your Schedule" and "How to Use Filters" for a more detailed look at using the ACC.13 eMeeting Planner App.

The ACC also offers ways to review CardioSource.org content on your iPhone, iPod touch, iPad, Android and Blackberry through the CardioSource Mobile App. Further, several of ACC’s print publications feature apps including the JACC iPad edition App (which was named one of the top medical education apps, and one of Apple’s top 80 medical apps); the Cardiology magazine App available for the iPad, iPhone and iPod touch; and the CardioSource World News App for the iPad. Other mobile resources include heart songs and ACCEL.

Further, CardioSmart offers several mobile resources for patients. The free CardioSmart Med Reminder app is designed to help patients take their medications as prescribed in addition to serving as a personal medication record (PMR) to help patients communicate to their health care providers about medications. Other mobile resources include free SMS text messaging services for patients in the U.S. looking for tips to prevent cardiovascular disease or to quit smoking.

There are so many tools and different ways we can impact health care. I do hope you find these tools useful in your daily work, providing you with content and tools at your fingertips for improved efficiency and effectiveness in providing health care.  Under Incoming President John Harold, MD, MACC’s direction next year, I am confident the ACC will take its digital strategy to the next level, with even more mobile offerings and tools to help the cardiac care team and their patients achieve their goals.

This post is written by JoAnne M. Foody, MD, FACC, editor of CardioSmart.org and medical director of the Cardiovascular Wellness Center and Pollin Cardiovascular Wellness Program at Brigham and Women's Hospital.

We've come a long way with prevention and treatment of heart disease in women, but there's plenty of room for improvement. Women continue to be misdiagnosed, underrepresented in research and less likely to perceive heart disease as their number-one health threat, despite the fact that more women than men die each year from cardiovascular disease.  American Heart Month highlights the need to eliminate these disparities, and this month there are plenty of opportunities to get involved and support these efforts.

A Twitter Chat held Feb. 1 by CardioSmart, the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) and Centric TV, a part of BET Networks, was successful with over almost 28 million impressions over the course of the week and more than 500 people participants. If you missed it you can view the archived chat here.

As ACC President William Zoghbi, MD, FACC, shared in a previous blog post, last week’s Women’s Cardiovascular Health Symposium and The Heart Truth’s Red Dress Collection Fashion Show were also a huge success. It was truly an honor to moderate the amazing symposium panel of cardiovascular and health care leaders, including the US Surgeon General. Last week’s 7th Annual Heart of Women’s Health conference was also an exciting opportunity to enhance knowledge and ultimately increase competency in the treatment of cardiovascular disease in women. Keith C. Ferdinand, MD, FACC, and I jointly led the sold out conference, where, along with last year's winner, Michelle Albert, MD, MPH, we had the privilege of presenting the 2013 Heart of Women's Health credo Award to Leslee Shaw, PhD, FACC, for her outstanding contributions to the field of heart disease in women.

Yesterday the first-ever National Heart Health Awareness Day took place. CardioSmart partnered with Diet Coke to conduct free heart risk screenings and educational awareness at major national health care institutions and academic medical centers.

Heart Month to me is always a reminder of why the College has invested in CardioSmart. Through partnerships with consumer groups, other medical specialty societies and public and private health care initiatives, CardioSmart is our door to our patients. It’s about raising awareness of heart disease, providing education on heart healthy choices, and building that physician/patient relationship. Together we can save lives.

P.S. Check out my video on what motivates me to stay heart healthy. Enjoy!

This post was authored by Robert Vincent, MD, CM, FACC, member of the ACC’s Adult Congenital and Pediatric Cardiology (ACPC) council and membership section.

Congenital Heart Awareness Week is an opportune time to raise awareness of the world's #1 birth defect, as well as acknowledge all that the ACC and its member volunteers and staff have done, and continue to do, to help cardiologists care for patients with congenital heart disease (CHD). While we’ve had many “wins” this past year (check out Dr. Jenkins’ previous blog post), there is still much to be done in the name of CHD patients and their families.

As the number of adult patients with CHD (ACHD) is only increasing, last week JACC published results of a survey of general adult cardiologists that looked at the prevalence of general adult cardiologists who care for ACHD patients, and identified patterns of consulting with ACHD specialists, and awareness of ACHD national clinical guidelines. Among other findings, a lack of access to ACHD specialists appears to be a significant gap in care, as 38.5 percent of respondents reported not having access.

In an effort to address these gaps, the ACC’s Adult Congenital and Pediatric Cardiology (ACPC) council and membership section is working with ACC's Chapters and the patient advocacy group, the Adult Congenital Heart Association, to educate general cardiologists through the Provider Action for Treatment of Congenital Heart disease (PATCH) program. The PATCH program also focuses on developing networking programs between ACHD subspecialty cardiologists and general cardiologists through grand rounds, visits to ACHD clinics, and more. In addition, webinars on various aspects of ACHD care are available for ACC's members. To view the archives webinars, click here.

In addition, every year the ACC teams up with the Adult Congenital Heart Association and Mended Little Hearts for a National CHD Lobby Day, and this year’s activities will take place on March 18 and March 19. The College will be hosting a welcome reception at Heart House on March 18.  To get involved contact Stephanie Mitchell at smitchel[at]acc.org.   

Finally, the newly revamped CardioSmart.org has a congenital heart defects condition center, and includes an overview, questions to ask a doctor, the latest news and research on the topic, how to get support through our partner organizations like Mended Hearts or Mended Little Hearts, and more. I encourage you to share these resources and information with your patients.

For those attending ACC.13, there are several pediatric cardiology and ACHD-focused sessions, including the 2013 Dan G. McNamara Lecture with Aldo Castaneda, MD, FACC, who will be discussing the historical development of pediatric cardiac surgery.  Interested attendees should also check out the congenital cardiology solutions learning pathway.

As always, ACC members interested in congenital heart disease issues are welcome to join the College’s Adult Congenital and Pediatric Cardiology membership section. Contact Stephanie Mitchell at smitchel@acc.org if interested.

American Heart Month is well on its way and the past few days have been a true testament of how through partnerships and combined efforts, messaging about awareness of heart disease can reach the masses.

Leaders from the ACC were in New York City for Fashion Week to attend and support The Heart Truth's Red Dress Collection 2013 fashion show. Through a public-private partnership, the College and the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) joined together to support women's heart health through the fashion show. It was a tremendous success and before the show, the ACC hosted a first-ever Women’s Cardiovascular Health Symposium featuring US Surgeon General Regina M. Benjamin, MD, MBA; NHLBI Director Gary Gibbons, MD; Million Hearts Executive Director Janet Wright, MD, FACC; Brigham's and Women Health Care President Elizabeth Nabel, MD, FACC and other ACC and cardiovascular health leaders.

It was a town hall-style symposium with great conversation, and focused on ways health care providers, patients and consumer groups can work together to support the goal of reducing heart disease among women and collectively advance the fight against heart disease. In addition, Dr. Nabel, the former head of NHLBI, provided an intriguing glimpse into the decade-long history of the Red Dress Collection Fashion Show, which is a partnership between fashion leaders—including top designers, models, and celebrities — who have demonstrated their support for the issue of women and heart disease by participating in The Heart Truth’s Red Dress Collections at New York’s Fashion Week annually since 2002. She also noted the history of the campaign and how every woman can relate to a red dress, making it a powerful symbol in the fight against this deadly disease. The red dress has come to serve as a red alert to convey the message that “Heart Disease Doesn't Care What You Wear—It's the #1 Killer of Women.” In addition, Dr. Nabel commended the NHLBI’s partners and stressed how partnering with Diet Coke and now the ACC has enabled the campaign to reach millions of patients and elevate awareness of heart disease as the nation's leading killer.

Immediately following the symposium, the Red Dress Fashion Show began and included several big-name celebrities, which was exciting to be a part of and watch. New this year was the first non-celebrity, Cindy Parsons, who received a standing ovation, and was a participant in the "Follow the Fifty" campaign, a Heart Truth community grant program. Be sure to check out photos from the show here and you can also watch a video of the fashion show via CardioSmart’s Facebook page.

Aside from the excitement of the Red Dress Fashion Show, this week another great accomplishment took place on CardioSmart, ACC’s patient portal. I’m excited to announce that CardioSmart.org rolled out its revamped collection of digital tools and resources designed to help individuals prevent, treat, and manage cardiovascular disease. The updated new site includes more than 30 robust cardiovascular condition centers, available in English and Spanish, that guide patients through each stage of their journey including causes, symptoms, and treatments. Users can personalize their page by identifying topic areas of interest and by saving noteworthy news or questions to ask their doctor to their dashboard. CardioSmart.org tools such as Find a Drug, Preparing for Your Next Appointment and Ask an Expert enhance the patient-provider relationship. Users can set goals with their care team and track progress using our weight, waist, blood pressure, and activity trackers and our heart risk, BMI and cholesterol calculators. Users can also connect with peers on our online communities, take heart healthy challenges, earn CardioSmart points and spend them in our CardioSmart Store.  I encourage you to look around the new site, and let us know what you think! Congrats to the teams who have worked tirelessly over the past year to make CardioSmart even more beneficial to our patients.

What an exciting time for the ACC! I never thought attending New York Fashion Week would be an activity I’d do as ACC’s President (in addition to carrying the Olympic torch), but it goes to show to always expect the unexpected. I’m thrilled to have been a part of it and am excited for the future!

Photo Captions:
Top: ACC Board of Trustees Member Mary Walsh, MD, FACC, myself, and CardioSmart Chief Medical Expert JoAnne M. Foody, MD, FACC before the first-ever Women’s Cardiovascular Health Symposium.
Middle: Million Hearts Executive Director Janet Wright, MD, FACC, my daughter Roula, and myself ready for the start of the Red Dress Fashion Show.
Bottom:  Cardiovascular experts spoke during the ACC Women's Cardiovascular Health Symposium ahead of the fashion show.

February is American Heart Month, a month dedicated to raising awareness of the leading cause of death in the U.S. Since working to combat cardiovascular disease is at the core of the ACC’s mission, this year the ACC is taking part in several Heart Month activities and initiatives with its members, partners and the cardiovascular community at large.

Kicking-off American Heart Month today, CardioSmart and The Heart Truth have teamed up with Surgeon General Regina Benjamin, MD, and Centric TV, a part of Black Entertainment Television Networks, for a special Heart Month Twitter chat today from 1 –2 p.m. ET. During the chat, CardioSmart Chief Medical Expert JoAnne Foody, MD, FACC, and other experts will discuss heart disease health disparities, prevention, how patients can talk to their doctors about heart disease, and how to stay motivated in making and sustaining healthy lifestyle changes. To participate, follow @CardioSmart and use the hashtag #myheartchat. Also, check out a photo of ACC staff showing their support for National Wear Red Day® on ACC’s Facebook page.

Another exciting activity taking place next week is The Heart Truth® Red Dress CollectionSM 2013 Fashion Show on Feb. 6 as part of Fashion Week in New York City. Through a public-private partnership, the ACC and the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) have joined together to support women's heart health through the fashion show. The Heart Truth is a national campaign for women about heart disease created by the NHLBI, part of the National Institutes of Health and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The Heart Truth created and introduced The Red Dress as the national symbol for women and heart disease awareness in 2002, and The Red Dress® reminds women of the need to protect their heart health and inspires them to take action to lower their risk for heart disease.

Also on Feb. 6 the ACC will host a pre-show symposium before the Red Dress Collection Fashion Show moderated by ACC Board of Trustees Member Mary Walsh, MD, FACC, and CardioSmart Chief Medical Expert JoAnne Foody, MD, FACC. Invited speakers will discuss how their personal and/or organizational activities support the mission of The Heart Truth Campaign and how, collectively, we should advance the fight against heart disease. Be sure to check out coverage from throughout the day on CardioSmart.org/HeartTruth.aspx or via the CardioSmart Facebook page.

Continuing with Heart Month activities, the Seventh Annual Heart of Women’s Health Symposium will be held Feb. 8-9. This two-day educational program is designed to help health care professionals provide better treatment for their female patients in the ongoing battle against heart disease, the number one cause of death and disability among American women.

Plus, this year for the first time ever, on ACC will host CardioSmart Heart Health Awareness Day. Held Feb. 14, CardioSmart will partner with hospitals nationwide to provide free heart health screenings and educational materials to the public. In addition, screenings will be held at the U.S. House on Feb. 7, and Senate on Feb. 14, in partnership with Sister to Sister.

Finally, below you can view the first of a video vignette series with the theme “What Motivates You to Stay Heart Healthy?” My fellow female ACC colleagues will be featured in the coming weeks here on the blog, and you can get to know a little more about what they do in their free time. I hope you enjoy!

Cheers to a successful American Heart Month and I urge you to join the national heart health awareness movement that is being embraced by millions who share the common goal of better heart health for all women!

The good news is between 1999 and 2009, the rate of deaths from cardiovascular disease fell 32.7 percent. Unfortunately, cardiovascular disease still accounted for nearly one in three deaths in the U.S., and the sobering statistics continue.  According to the American Heart Association’s “Heart Disease and Stroke Statistical Update 2013,” published Dec. 12 in Circulation, cardiovascular health may only improve by six percent if current trends remain.

The report notes that the biggest barriers to improvement are projected increases in obesity and diabetes, and only modest improvements in diet and physical activity. However, smoking, high cholesterol and high blood pressure rates are projected to decline.

Additional statistics include:

• More adults age 20 and over are obese (34.6 percent) than normal or underweight (31.8 percent); 68.2 percent are overweight or obese.
• Among children ages 2-19, 31.8 percent are overweight or obese.
• Thirty-two percent of adults report no aerobic activity; 17.7 percent of girls and 10 percent of boys, grades 9-12, report fewer than an hour of aerobic activity in the past week.
• 13.8 percent of adults have total cholesterol of 240 mg/dL or higher.
•  Thirty-three percent of adults have high blood pressure; African-Americans have among the highest prevalence of high blood pressure (44 percent) worldwide.
•  8.3 percent of adults have diagnosed diabetes, and 8.2 percent have undiagnosed diabetes; 38.2 percent have prediabetes.

Working to improving these statistics is the root of the College’s mission: to transform cardiovascular disease and improve heart health. The College has partnered with national initiatives like the Million Hearts Campaign, which is jointly managed by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and has a goal of preventing 1 million heart attacks and strokes the by the year 2017.

In addition, the ACC’s CardioSmart initiative plays an important role in educating consumers about how to partner more effectively with their provider to improve heart health. CardioSmart has a number of tools available to help curb these statistics, including a smoking cessation text message program, a text message program to prevent cardiovascular disease, mobile Apps to help patients remember to take their medications, and much more.

However it is also important to keep in mind that these problems go well beyond the U.S., and the College has been working with other health organizations to put non communicable diseases (NCDs) as a top priority. Our recent efforts have paid off and have led to the adoption of targets to stem preventable death from cardiovascular disease (read more in a previous blog post here).

By working together, and with more education, awareness, preventative measures and efforts, we are one step closer to changing the statistics and improving the care of our patients.

This post is authored by Kathy Jenkins, MD, MPH, FACC, chair of the Adult Congenital and Pediatric Cardiology Council and Section.

In our profession it is always pleasing when years of efforts and advocacy pay off and we finally get a “win.”  In this case, the win is for congenital heart disease (CHD) providers and patients since the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) has announced it will create a physician certification in the Adult Congenital Heart Disease (ACHD) subspecialty (read more about the announcement here).

CHD is the number one birth defect in the U.S., affecting nearly 40,000 of the nearly 4 million live births each year. Thanks to advances in treatment in care, the number of children with CHD living into adulthood is rapidly growing. Adult CHD patients, who have surpassed the number of pediatric patients, generally require life-long specialized care due to their complex anatomic and physiologic outcomes.  As the US  ACHD population is estimated to exceed one million adult congenital heart disease (CHD) patients, it is crucial to ensure these patients receive appropriate care from adult congenital cardiologists as they transition out of pediatric care.

For more than a decade, the ACC has been spearheading a multi-society effort to establish a subspecialty certification in ACHD. At the ACC’s 32nd Bethesda Conference in Oct. 2000, the development of an exam and corresponding certification in ACHD administered through the ABIM became a goal and participants outlined a need for a comprehensive strategy for ensuring an adequate and appropriately-trained ACHD workforce given the rapidly increasing ACHD patient population.

Establishing a nationally recognized training pathway and a certification will ensure ACHD patients seeking ACHD care will be able to seek out care from a specialty trained cardiologist. Likewise, by standardizing the training, knowledge and competencies needed, cardiologists specializing in ACHD will have a defined training curriculum and a nationally recognized board examination to validate this certification.

Moving forward, the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) is in the process of developing accreditation standards for training programs with the expectation that the certification exam will be available within the next three years.

This is great news for the College and the CHD community at large and we should all be proud of the role we have played to date and should be excited about what future opportunities will hold.  On behalf of the Council I am grateful to the many ACC members and the multi-society stakeholder partners who contributed countless hours to this effort. We especially thank pediatric and adult congenital cardiology leaders Gerard Martin, MD, FACC, who spearheaded the effort to petition ABIM and ABP, and Michael Landzberg, MD, FACC, Curt Daniels, MD, FACC and Thomas Graham, MD, FACC who co-chaired the petition writing groups and were true stewards of this effort.

For more information about ACC’s CHD activities and efforts, visit CardioSource.org/ACPC. Also be sure to check out the recent JACC President’s Page “The ACC: Taking on Congenital Heart Disease and Winning!” which I co-wrote with ACC President William Zoghbi, MD, FACC.