Christopher O’Connor,
MD, FHFSA
HFSA President

 

Joseph Hill,
MD, PhD, FHFSA
Advocacy Committee

 

Eileen Hsich, MD
Digital Communications
Committee

 

Ken Margulies,
MD, FHFSA
Education Committee

 

Biykem Bozkurt,
MD, PhD, FHFSA
Finance Committee

 

Kathleen L. Grady,
PhD, APN, FHFSA
Lifetime Achievement Award Committee

 

Bonnie Ky, MD, MSCE
Research Committee

 

Akshay Desai,
MD, MPH, FHFSA
Guidelines/Clinical Positions Committee

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 January 17, 2018

HFSA President’s Blog: HFSA Committees Part One

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

2018 has come rolling in with invigorating weather, excitement, and great hope for Duke Basketball.

Message to members:  we have been made aware of a nationwide shortage of dobutamine. The supply of the premixed bags has been affected by the hurricane’s damage to the power grid in Puerto Rico; and the vials from the EU are in short supply due to regulations requiring a longer autoclaving time. The HFSA leadership is working with the Advocacy Committee and FDA to address this important issue.

HFSA continues to pursue its journey to reduce the burden of heart failure.  An important aspect of this work occurs at the committee level and is not always visible to all members, so I thought I would dedicate this blog and the next edition to the committees, their people, and their goals for 2018.

Let’s start with Advocacy Committee. The Chair, Joseph Hill, MD, PhD, FHFSA, has organized several meetings, appeared on Capitol Hill, and encouraged many of us to contact our Congressional representatives to promote the importance of addressing the healthcare issues facing heart failure patients.  His goals for 2018 include:

• Work closely with Congress to monitor heart failure legislation that HFSA should act on.
• Develop pathways to understand what constitutes reasonable pricing for heart failure drugs and devices for heart failure patients.
• Continue to promote a non-CME think tank day to discuss advocacy efforts and strategies around advocacy.
• Encourage transparency in sodium labeling in restaurants, similar to the labeling of calories.

In addition, we have challenged Dr. Hill to consider advocating for an evaluation of the 30-day metric around readmission penalties and whether this still makes sense in the modern era of heart failure therapy.

The Digital Communications Committee is led by Eileen Hsich, MD. The committee’s goals for 2018 include:

• Update the website and develop new content.
• Using the mitral regurgitation resource page as an example, develop similar pages for other heart failure disease states and components of care such as HCM (LVADs), cardiac amyloidosis pH, and other heart failure issues.
• Create a more robust podcast initiative.
• Look for ways to monetize certain pages on the HFSA website through sponsorship or ads.
• Create podcasts of clinical discussions to educate members and patients.
• Post clinical trials on the HFSA website.

The Education Committee is led by Ken Margulies, MD, FHFSA. The Committee's top priorities for 2018 are:

• Work with the ACC as an active collaborator on MOC.
• Monitor the ERAS process for program adherence.
• Develop education models for patients and providers.
• Leverage the annual meeting and other programs to provide MOC and CME credits.
• Continue to create more direct educational activities for patients.
• Review new programs.
• Work with the Early Career Committee to create a core curriculum.

The Finance Committee is led by Biykem Bozkurt, MD, PhD, FHFSA. Objectives for 2018 are:

• Review HFSA investment policy.
• Create a new process to standardize the review of new program proposals.
• Align finances with HFSA's strategic initiatives.

The Lifetime Achievement Committee is led by Kathleen L. Grady, PhD, APN, FHFSA. The committee's objectives and challenges are:

• Be more specific in targeting potential nominees.
• Increase the number of nominees.
• Highlight the current year awardee on the HFSA website.
• Enhance communication with potential awardees to keep them apprised of the status of the application.
• Reinvigorate the visibility of the award going forward.

The Research Committee is led by Bonnie Ky, MD, MSCE. The 2018 goal is to strengthen their role as a central resource within the heart failure community focused on promotion, advocacy, and research by:

• Having a stronger presence at the 2018 Annual Scientific Meeting.
• Organizing speed mentoring, and research sessions.
• Supporting the ongoing initiative led by Susan Ammon and Dr. O'Connor to create a high-quality heart failure research network.
• Developing a sustainable grant portfolio.
• Formulating a request to the Finance Committee for a 5-year plan for grant funding focused on growth and support for the early career investigator.  The committee recognizes that there is a critical need to grow and revitalize the next generation physician workforce and envisions the HFSA playing a key role in this revitalization.
• Preparing reports of prior awardees' accomplishments to share with industry sponsors.

The Guidelines/Clinical Positions Committee is led by Akshay Desai, MD, MPH, FHFSA.  The committee's 2018 goals are:

• Continue to work on various ongoing collaborations on statements in development.
• Monitor an ambulatory heart failure statement being published independently.
• Evaluate active projects such as the development of obesity and cachexia statements, and help develop projects on right ventricular failure, ambulatory management and treatment of heart failure, and how to set up a heart failure clinic.

And thus, we see the first installment of our look at the underbelly of the HFSA -- working groups; working hard; tackling their goals – on a completely voluntary basis. And this is just part of the picture.  We will highlight the work of the other Committees (Development Committee, Early Career Committee, Membership Committee, Nursing Committee, Program Committee, and the Publications Committee) in the next edition of the blog.  It is our job as leaders of the HFSA to provide resources and leadership and, when necessary, help our innovative and hard-working Committee members navigate through the turbulence to achieve their goals.

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