Christopher O’Connor,
MD, FHFSA
HFSA President

Committee
Chair/Co-Chairs:

Development Committee

 

Early Career Committee

 

Membership Committee

 

 

 

Nursing Committee

 

 

Publications Committee

 

Program Committee

 

 

 

 

 

 

February 11, 2018

HFSA President’s Blog: Heart Failure Awareness Week & Committees Part Two

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

This is the beginning of National Heart Failure Awareness Week – the week within American Heart Month dedicated to promoting heart failure awareness and prevention. I am proud to note that this week came about as a result of a declaration in 2001 by HFSA through the US Senate that the week of Valentine’s Day be designated as National Heart Failure Awareness week, to increase national awareness about the severity of this disease. This is an excellent time for all of us to take a step back and recognize the amazing contributions and the opportunities for advancing care for our patients with heart failure, and the role our Society plays in these efforts through its focus on patient advocacy, research and education.

And what better time to continue our efforts to highlight the work of our outstanding HFSA committees. In the last edition of the blog we focused on the work and goals of seven of the thirteen HFSA Committees: the Advocacy, Digital, Education, Finance, Lifetime Achievement, Research and Scientific Statements Committees. It is my great pleasure to continue the salute to the working groups that make our society such a powerful force in the battle to reduce the burden of heart failure, by dedicating this edition to the work of the remaining six committees, their goals, and their key initiatives for the coming year.

 

The Development Committee is being led by John Chin, MD, FHFSA. Their goals for 2018 include:

• Create an HFSA elevator pitch for members to easily articulate at any time
• Make connections with new companies and strengthen existing relationships
• Make connections and create relationships with Heart Failure Clinics across the US

Additionally, we challenged the Development Committee to select high level spokespersons who could be strong advocates for the society.

 

The Early Career Committee is chaired by Payman Zamani, MD, FHFSA. Their goals for 2018 are:

• Expand the number of Hands-on Workshops at the Annual Scientific Meeting and increase the number of early career members serving as faculty
• Reinvigorate the mentoring program and build more accountability into the process
• Launch a career fair at the 2018 Annual Scientific Meeting
• In partnership with the Education Committee, develop a clinical curriculum on the basics of heart failure to incorporate into Advanced Heart Failure and Transplant Cardiology Fellowship programs

 

Martha Biddle, PhD, APRN, CCNS; Mark Munger, PharmD, FHFSA; and Mitchell Saltzberg, MD, FHFSA, FACC, FAHA are Co-Chairs of the Membership Committee. Their goals for 2018 are:

• Create a multi-year membership for new and renewing members
• Recruit AHFTC program directors and discuss options for benefits that would encourage them to join
• Engage retail pharmacists through partnership with APhA and recruit pharmacists in general through a relationship with ACCP
• Continue development of FHFSA designation and identify further opportunities to add value

 

The Nursing Committee is led by Diane F. Gauthier, MS, RNP-BC and Judith E. Hupcey, EdD, FAAN. Goals for 2018 include:

• Survey HFSA members to get more engagement from bedside nurses
• Build on the Hands-on Workshops created by the Nursing Committee and submit proposals for Annual Scientific Meeting sessions
• Explore the possibility of providing troubleshooting training with LVADs and CardioMEMS through Hands-on Workshops at the Annual Scientific Meeting
• Expand and identify pharma credits for AP nurses through the HFSA

 

The Publications Committee, chaired by Kathleen A. Dracup, RN, PHD, CNSc, FNP, FAAN, FHFSA, is working with the Journal of Cardiac Failure (JCF) to concurrently review the following documents for publication suitability:

• HFSA/SAEM/ISHLT Clinical Expert Consensus Document on the Emergency Management of Patients with Ventricular Assist Devices
• Remote Monitoring of Patients with Heart Failure: A White Paper from the Heart Failure Society of America Scientific Statements Committee
• Genetic Evaluation of Cardiomyopathy - A Heart Failure Society of America Practice Guideline
• The Committee is also working with the JCF and the Scientific Statements Committee to expand the proposed SOP document originally provided by Dr. Mehra to include SOPs for the Committees and the JCF to follow for handling of
• Peer review white papers and consensus statements written by the Scientific Statements Committee
• Co-publish papers written in conjunction with other societies
• Review papers to be endorsed by HFSA but written/published by other societies

 

Finally, Program Committee Co-Chairs, Douglas L. Mann, MD, FHFSA, G. Michael Felker, MD, FHFSA, Colleen McIlvennan, DNP, ANP, FHFSA, Orly Vardeny, PharmD, FHFSA, report that plans are underway for a stimulating and exciting meeting in Nashville.  Working groups are currently reviewing session proposals to begin to developing the 2018 Annual Scientific Meeting program. Keynote speakers for the meeting will be chosen soon. Among the Committee’s goals for the meeting are:

• Increase and improve upon the innovation and content delivery through various multimodality methodologies
• Invigorate speaking methodology with talks, TED talks, talks by abstracts and other engaging opportunities to stimulate dialogue and participation
• Confirm high level speakers for the plenary session under the theme of healthcare delivery and innovation

 

On behalf of all HFSA members, I thank the Committee Chairs, Co-chairs and committee members for all you do to support the mission of our society. I’m looking forward to seeing the results of these important initiatives in the year ahead.

Sincerely,
Chris

Christopher O'Connor, MD, FHFSA
President HFSA
@coconnormd
Vision: To Significantly Reduce the Burden of Heart Failure