Ohio-ACC News
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April 2012

Dear Ohio-ACC Colleague,

As our leadership transitions from Dr. Robert Hobbs to Dr. Christopher Cooper, we invite you to read their special messages to you. The common theme is membership involvement -- we invite you to become involved and find your own leadership role within the Ohio Chapter.

 Dr. Hobbs & Dr. Cooper
In This Issue
Incoming President's Message
Outgoing President's Message
April 18th Spring Summit
Incoming President's Message
Christopher J. Cooper, MD, FACC 

Christopher Cooper, MDOver the past year, as President-Elect of the Ohio-ACC, I have had the opportunity to attend meetings of the American College of Cardiology's Board of Governors. These meetings bring together the state governors with ACC leadership and, on occasion, with the ACC Board of Trustees.  It has been a revelation seeing the organization at work for cardiovascular specialists.  Importantly, the ACC is doing what it should be doing in terms of advocating for patients, creating tools for our physicians to learn from and improve practice and informing the public and our governmental constituents. 

 

Appropriate Use Criteria

A good example of these efforts is the recent discussions about Appropriate Use Criteria (AUC).  There is broad recognition that AUCs are an important tool to measure whether our patients are getting the care they need and determine when too much care is being delivered.  These are important and timely issues given the current challenges in health care funding.  However, there is also recognition that our AUC may inadvertently create new problems.  One such challenge is the perception that data ACC collects has been used in publications to highlight potential overuse, and this is sensationalized in the popular press. 

 

Furthermore, there are well-intentioned concerns that AUC may be inappropriately applied to an individual encounter between a patient and his/her doctor. The AUC documents include disclaimers to that effect: "Appropriate use criteria thus should not be considered substitutes for sound clinical judgment and practice experience."  At the core of the ongoing AUC discussion are several key elements:

  • Is the terminology optimal?
  • How do we apply population science to an individual encounter between an expert doctor and his/her patient?
  • What rate of "uncertain" and "inappropriate" use is appropriate?
  • How do we openly and candidly discuss our results without creating a backlash in the popular press?

 

I can assure you that I don't have ready answers to these questions.  However, I am very gratified to see that the American College of Cardiology is engaged in asking difficult questions to really smart and dedicated physicians and scientists with the goal of better arming our cardiovascular specialists with the best tools to take care of their patients.

 

Over the next several years, I hope to meet many of you around the state and, more importantly, get as many of you as possible to become active in the workings of the Ohio and National ACC.  There are a LOT of opportunities for advocacy, science and education that would benefit from your participation.  Please contact me to get involved.

Outgoing President's Message 
Robert E. Hobbs, MD, FACC 
Dr. Robert HobbsOften, as Ohio-ACC Governor, I was asked about the Ohio Chapter.  Who are members? What are the activities?  How can I participate?   This is a good opportunity to answer some of these questions.

 

Membership

The Ohio Chapter has more than 1700 members and is the sixth largest chapter in the ACC.  We represent about 90% of Ohio cardiologists as well as the entire cardiovascular care team. A growing segment of our membership is our Cardiac Care Associates (CCA), consisting of advanced practice nurses, nurse clinicians, nurses, physician assistants, and doctors of pharmacology. We represent all of the cardiology fellows-in-training (FIT) in Ohio and a small group of practice managers. The chapter is managed by an executive director, Gwen Goldfarb, and the Board of Trustees.  The board consists of members residing throughout the state, with specific representatives from cardiac surgery, pediatric cardiology, cardiology fellows, clinical care associates, and practice managers.

 

Education

Education is a top priority for the chapter. Each year we host an annual meeting in Columbus. In addition to the meeting's scientific session, there are special sessions for cardiology fellows and practice managers. This year's meeting will include the First Annual Richard P. Lewis Memorial Lecture in honor of the first Ohio-ACC president. We also host the annual Carl J. Wiggers Memorial Lecture and dinner in Cleveland.  This year is the 49th annual lectureship, attended by physicians and nurses from the Cleveland area.  Ohio-ACC sponsors an annual meeting for Cardiac Care Associates, and this year we will add regional meetings throughout the state.  Finally, we organize annual coding seminars and seminars for registry data managers .

 

Honors

The Ohio Chapter is one of the most highly awarded chapters for excellence.   In 2011, we received the James T. Dove Award for Quality.

 

Advocacy

Each year delegations of Ohio cardiologists, nurses, fellows, and patients travel to Columbus, OH, and Washington, DC, to meet with legislators and healthcare officials to discuss healthcare issues affecting Ohioans. We partner with the Ohio State Medical Association (OSMA), the Academy of Medicine of Cleveland Northern Ohio (AMCNO), and the American Heart Association (AHA) on many of these advocacy issues.

 

Partnerships

This year we welcomed the Mended Hearts Association as a partner and have provided educational speakers for their regional meetings.  In turn, Mended Hearts representatives have joined us at our legislative day at the Statehouse.  We partner with the American Heart Association on Mission Lifeline to improve STEMI care in Ohio. We partnered with the Cleveland Clinic and The Ohio State University on education courses.

 

Initiatives

The Ohio Chapter supports the initiatives of the American College of Cardiology including Door-to-Balloon (D2B), Hospital to Home (H2H), NCDR, FOCUS, PATCH, and Million Hearts. It seems certain that the need for data and the appropriate use of testing and treatments will play a major role in medical care in the future.  Cardiologists are far ahead of other specialties in this area.

 

Leadership Transition

On March 26, 2012, Christopher Cooper, M.D., Chief of Cardiology at the University of Toledo, assumed the duties of Governor for the Ohio-ACC. I know that Chris will be a dynamic and resourceful leader who will steer the chapter to even greater achievements.  The job of governor is most rewarding, and I highly encourage others to become involved with chapter activities.

2012 Spring Summit
2012OHSpringSummitpostcard

 You're invited!

 

2012 Spring Summit

Wed., April 18, 2012

The Ritz-Carlton, Cleveland

 

Register Online

 

Brochure

 

Questions?

614.859.ACC3

[email protected]

 

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