I am excited to announce that this year, we are celebrating an important.
In 1995, with the recognition of the emerging effective treatment strategies for heart failure, a group of academic cardiologists gathered in New York to discuss the formation of a society that would focus on heart failure. This group recognized that there was a critical need for development of a platform for scientists, clinicians and trainees to address treatment strategies and practice needs for heart failure.
With these thoughts, Heart Failure Society of America was registered as an incorporation on January 11, 1995, and held its first meeting on April 4 of the same year.
The story behind the birth of the HFSA as the first multidisciplinary specialty society for heart failure is narrated by these inaugural founders in this video. In the following 25 years, HFSA became the home of the heart failure clinicians, where the existence of heart failure as a specialty and practice was recognized, solidified, supported and enhanced.
We are now ready for the next phase of the HFSA. In addition to being the trusted home of heart failure clinicians, we are growing with an aim to provide increased value to our members, become the trusted authority for our heart failure community and be the driver of care and discovery in heart failure.
Board of Directors
With these in mind, the HFSA board held its strategic planning meeting in Houston on January 30-31 2020. It was a very productive meeting where we developed a consensus for new, exciting initiatives such as enhancing the value of the HFSA for our heart failure community, developing an innovation hub, and developing new programs and strategic alignments in addition to our existing initiatives in HFSA Certification, International, Awareness, Research and Educational programs.
We are proud to announce that in 2019, compared to 2018, we had a 13% increase in our revenues, 21% increase in expenses related to our new and existing initiatives, a 7% increase in our reserves, a 10% increase in membership, and a 28% increase in annual scientific meeting attendance. We are thriving as an association and growing. The board will continue the strategic planning meetings in May and August of this year followed by the final strategic plan that will be incorporated into the development of the 2021 budget later this year.
Membership Diversity
We are also enhancing our mission in assuring diversity and inclusion in
With these in mind, we have restructured our membership categories. We now have over 2,000 members from 28 countries, with a strong foundation in the U.S. We are also forming a Women in Heart Failure Task Force to address representation and support of women in heart failure; and a Leadership Development Task Force to address mentorship and development of a pipeline for leadership for trainees and early career clinicians in heart failure. These task forces will develop strategies for increased participation and success of our trainees, early career clinicians and women in heart failure.
Leadership Strategies
Our Board and committees are hard at work. We hold monthly Board conference calls, bimonthly Executive Committee calls, and quarterly committee calls. Following our committee reform, committee reports to the Board are shared through the CEO Weekly Update and with other Committee Chairs so they are informed of work of other committees. Our Board will now have four in-person meetings which will further enhance our board engagement and strategic oversight.
New Systems and Technology
We are excited to share that the new HFSA Member Portal is now available! The new portal makes it even easier for you to access your membership information, update your professional designations and credentials, apply for volunteer opportunities and more! If you have not updated your profile, please follow these instructions, as it will assure our ability to reach you for many newer opportunities.
HFSA is preparing to release a new Learning Management System, called the HFSA Learning Center, which will allow you to access CME, webinars, conferences at your own pace and convenience.
As part of our existing strategic initiatives, our first HFSA Certification program will be offered in October 2020. This certification program is separate from the existing Fellow of the HFSA (FHFSA) designation, and is an exciting new initiative to recognize and certify competencies in heart failure management for heart failure practitioners.
Research News
Our HFSA Research Network has an expanded and diversified portfolio of
2020 HFSA Annual Scientific Meeting
Our 2020 HFSA Annual Scientific Meeting committee chair Javed Butler MD,
Global Outreach
We are expanding our global outreach and recently renewed our agreements with our international partners. HFSA will have a joint session with Canadian Heart Failure Society on the topic of Heart Failure with Preserved Ejection Fraction at their meeting in Montreal on April 18 2020. HFSA will also hold a joint Session with the Heart Failure Association (HFA) and Japanese Heart Failure Society (JHFS) in Barcelona on May 25, 2020; host the Trilateral Cooperative Meeting on the topic of “Universal Definition of Heart Failure” with HFA and JHFS in Cleveland in in October 2020; and joint sessions with the Inter American Society of Cardiology (IASC) in Cartagena, Colombia in November 2020.
Optimal Medical Therapy Initiative
We are excited to announce that we have launched the Optimal Medical Therapy Initiative to provide education on guideline directed therapies in heart failure for heart failure clinicians including nurses, nurse practitioners, pharmacists, ER physicians, hospitalists, internists, family medicine practitioners, general cardiologists as well as heart failure specialists. We formed a working group and hired a consultant to complete the needs analysis of an Optimal Medical Therapy Certificate Program.
Faces and Phases of Heart Failure
We are in the early planning phases of another new initiative titled “Faces and Phases of Heart Failure.” This initiative aims to increase awareness and recognition of different presentations or phenotypes of heart failure, different stages of heart failure and that heart failure is preventable and treatable. We plan to create patient stories with pictures, videos, brochures, online education to provide description of definition, symptoms, diagnostic, prevention and treatment strategies for phenotypes and stages of HF and close the gaps in recognition of different faces and stages of heart failure.
Heart Failure Community Loses a Prominent Member and Leader
Finally, heart failure community is very saddened to hear about the passing
Best regards,
Biykem Bozkurt, MD, PhD, FHFSA
HFSA President
Twitter: @BiykemB