Ohio-ACC Newsletter, August 2023 |
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Dear Ohio-ACC Colleague,
Mark your calendars for the premier cardiology event in our state - The Ohio-ACC 2023 Annual Meeting on Saturday, September 30 at the Hilton Columbus at Easton.
Our co-chairs, Nathaniel Dittoe, MD, FACC and Ellen Sabik, MD, FACC, have organized an impactful program featuring the esteemed Sharonne N. Hayes, MD, FACC, FAHA as the Richard Lewis Memorial lecturer. Dr. Hayes will present "How (and WHY) You Should Train to Be a Cardiology JEDI* Master" (*Justice, Equity, Diversity & Inclusion).
Other agenda highlights include:
- ACC Incoming Vice President Christopher M. Kramer, MD, FACC presenting "What Is Impacting CV Clinicians in 2023”
- EP topics on the evaluation of ventricular arrhythmias and interventions to improve patient outcomes
- A session on devices in heart failure exploring implantable pulmonary artery pressure monitoring and LVAD placement
- Leading cardiovascular clinicians discussing medical treatments for HOCM and emerging PAH therapies
- The popular Fellow in Training oral abstract competition and a state-of-the-art antithrombotic therapies session
The evening before the meeting, there will be networking get-togethers at the hotel beginning at 6:00 p.m. on Friday, September 29th for women in cardiology and cardiovascular team members. Following, fellows in training will get together at 9:00 p.m.
With acclaimed speakers, shared learning, and abundant opportunities to connect with colleagues, this meeting on Saturday, September 30th is not to be missed. CME, CNE, MOC, and Pharmacy credits will be available.
Register now and join cardiology professionals from across the state for Ohio's premier cardiology meeting! More details can be found on the Ohio-ACC website. We look forward to seeing you on September 30th in Columbus!
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ACC Legislative Conference
Mark your calendar for the American College of Cardiology’s (ACC) 2023 Legislative Conference on October 15-17 in Washington D.C. This annual event enables cardiologists and cardiovascular professionals to engage with health policy and advocate for the specialty.
The conference kicks off on Sunday, October 15 with an exclusive HeartPAC donor event featuring political experts offering insights into Congress and upcoming elections.
On Monday, October 16, educational sessions will cover pressing issues impacting cardiology, with presentations from ACC leaders and advocacy experts.
The highlight of the conference is Capitol Hill Day on Tuesday, October 17. Attendees will join pre-arranged meetings with members of Congress to discuss ways to advance cardiovascular care and health policy.
Ohio-ACC Legislative Day & Smart Heart Sports Coalition Push For Increased AED Access in OH
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The Ohio-ACC Legislative Day was held on May 9th in Columbus. Our mission: to connect with lawmakers face-to-face and advocate for issues impacting cardiologists and the patients we serve across Ohio. Our members met with Senators and Representatives to provide insights on key cardiology concerns. We strived to put a human face on the policies under debate, sharing how proposed legislation could affect cardiovascular care delivery and outcomes statewide.
By building relationships and opening lines of communication with legislators, events like our Legislative Day ensure the cardiology perspective does not get lost in policy debates. We thank all of our members who participated and made our collective voice heard in Columbus! Here were the issues that we addressed.
In follow-up, on June 14, your ACC joined members of the National Football League’s (NFL) Smart Heart Sports Coalition and other stakeholders in Columbus, OH, in support of H.B. 47, a bill that would require AEDs in schools and many municipal sports facilities in the state. The bill also mandates the adoption of emergency action plans and training for staff. ACC’s Advocacy team participated in a press conference and multiple meetings with state lawmakers to drum up further support for the life-saving legislation. The bill sponsors thanked ACC’s Ohio Chapter for their support of H.B. 47 during an ensuing House floor session. Shortly after, the bill passed the Ohio House in an 84-6 vote, moving to the state Senate. Learn more.
Become an ACC Advocate and Be Recognized
Take a look at the new ACC Advocate Checklist to help you stay engaged with advocacy year-round. There are so many ways to get involved in advocacy to help transform cardiovascular care, and the ACC Advocate checklist makes it easy to get started. From engaging with peers to participating in the political process through meetings with lawmakers, this checklist covers all key components that go into a successful advocacy strategy. Checklist activities will be tracked through a form that will be sent out on a monthly basis to individuals who sign up to participate. ACC Advocates who complete the checklist will be recognized for their accomplishment at Legislative Conference and in various ACC publications! Members can click here to participate in this program and start checking items off the list today. For any questions about the checklist, please reach out to Ryan Moore (rmoore@acc.org)
Congratulations to the winners of the 2023-2025 Ohio-ACC Board of Trustees Election!
Military Position
Kurian Thomas Maliel, MD, FACC, Wright Patterson Air Force Base (elected for a second term)
District 1 – Cleveland Practicing Community
Saneka Chakravarty, MD, FACC, University Hospitals Portage Medical Center
District 1 – CWRU/University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center
Chantal El-Amm, MD, FACC
District 2 – Toledo
Hemindermeet Singh, MD, FACC, FSCAI, Mercy-Health St Vincent Medical Center (elected for a second term)
District 3 – Akron Practicing Community
Timothy Byrnes, DO, FACC, Mercy Health St. Elizabeth
District 4 – Columbus, The Ohio State University
Salvatore Savona, MD, FACC, FHRS, The Ohio State University
District 5 – Dayton Practicing Community
Anurag Singh, MD, MSHA, FACC, FHRS, Premier Cardiovascular Institute
District 6 – Cincinnati Practicing Community
Santosh G. Menon, MD, FACC, The Christ Hospital
Special thanks to our outgoing trustees:
Cindy M. Baker, MD, FACC; Nathaniel J. Dittoe, MD, FACC; Naim Z. Farhat, MD, FACC; Joseph F. Pietrolungo, DO, FACC; and Timothy D. Smith, MD, FACC
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Contact Us
If Gwen Goldfarb, our chapter executive, or I can be of assistance to you, please let us know.
Sincerely,
Kanny
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CardiOhio Podcast
A Focus on the CV Team: Innovative Programs and Improved Outcomes
Reflections of a Master Clinical Trialist
Something In the Air: A New Risk Factor for Cardiovascular Disease
The New Troponins: A Highly Sensitive Topic
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Fellows in Training News
Brianna French, MD, and Andrew Hornick, MD, Co-Chairs
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Ohio-ACC 2023-2024 FIT Council
Congratulations to the new 2023-2024 FIT Council:
Brianna French, MD, Summa Health-NEOMED, Co-Chair
Andrew Hornick MD, The Ohio State University, Co-Chair
Moaaz Baghal, MD, St Vincent Medical Center
Jennifer Barbadora, MD, Nationwide Children’s Hospital
Hanad Bashir, MD, The Christ Hospital
Eunice Dugan, MD, Cleveland Clinic
Zachary Gilbert, MD, Kettering Health
Abdelmoniem Moustafa, MD, University of Toledo
Mariam Rana, MBBS, University Hospitals of Cleveland
Sneha Sharma, DO, The Ohio State University
Fares Sukhon, MD, MetroHealth
Robert Sibilila, MD, University of Cincinnati
Rachel Wester, DO, OhioHealth-Doctors Hospital
Join the Ohio-ACC on Saturday, August 26, 2023, for case-based panel discussions geared toward incoming general cardiology fellows to help prepare for cardiology fellowship with a special focus on emergent cases & on-call scenarios.
Join your FIT colleagues at the Hilton Columbus at Easton Lobby Bar at 9:00 p.m., Friday, September 29, 2023, the evening prior to the Ohio-ACC Annual Meeting. Catch up with old friends and make new acquaintances!
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CLEAR Outcomes
Kelly M Bartsch, PharmD, BCPS, CLS & Cecelia Jebbia, PharmD
The Ohio State University
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Bempedoic acid is a novel antihyperlipidemic approved in February 2020. It works upstream of HMG-CoA reductase as an adenosine triphosphate (ATP) citrate lyase inhibitor and is expected to lower LDL by 17-28%. It is recommended in the 2022 ACC Non-Statin Expert Consensus Decision Pathway for LDL lowering in adults with ASCVD or LDL >190 mg/dL in addition to diet and max tolerate statin for patients unable or unwilling to take a PCSK9 mAb. This recommendation was based on the CLEAR series of trials, which showed reduction in LDL with regimens containing BPA but lacked cardiovascular outcomes.
The CLEAR Outcomes trial by Nissen, et al, was published in the New England Journal of Medicine in Spring 2023. This double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial enrolled 13,970 patients in 32 countries and compared the use of bempedoic acid 180mg daily versus placebo. Included patients were adults with a baseline LDL-C >100 mg/dL and either a history of cardiovascular disease or at high risk for cardiovascular disease. All patients also had a history of statin intolerance, defined as an inability to tolerate two or more statins, and patients were on their maximum tolerated dose of statin at enrollment (~22.5% of patients on some dose of statin). Significant exclusions included experiencing a cardiovascular event within 90 days of study entry, chronic kidney disease stage 4 or worse, and NYHA Class IV heart failure. Baseline characteristics were similar between groups, with a mean age of 65.5 years, >90% Caucasian, and significantly, 48% female patients. Additionally, 30% of enrolled patients were primary prevention and approximately 45% of patients had concomitant diabetes.
The primary outcome of the study was four-component MACE, and BPA was found to have a statistically significant 13% reduction over a mean 40.6-month follow-up (see image below). Secondary outcomes were evaluated in a hierarchical fashion, with BPA also significantly reducing risk from three-component MACE (15% reduction), risk of fatal or non-fatal MI (23% reduction), and incidence of coronary revascularization (19% reduction). In a sub-group analysis of the primary endpoint, there was a trend towards favoring BPA across most subgroups, with a statistically significant benefit in the primary prevention population, patients with diabetes, and patients not on ezetimibe or statin.
An evaluation of adverse events found no significant difference in muscle-related adverse events between the BPA group and the placebo group. However, patients in the BPA group had a higher incidence of elevated hepatic enzymes, gout, and cholelithiasis. While noted in the previous CLEAR trials, there were not observed occurrences of tendon rupture in CLEAR Outcomes.
Overall, bempedoic acid represents a novel oral therapeutic option for patients with a history of statin intolerance both with and without a history of cardiovascular disease. Patients should have uric acid levels and hepatic enzymes assessed at baseline, and risk of tendon rupture should be assessed before prescribing. In addition to its availability as a monotherapy tablet, it is also available in a combination tablet with ezetimibe, allowing for additional risk reduction without an increase in pill burden.
Citation: Nissen, et al. CLEAR Outcomes: bempedoic acid and cardiovascular outcomes in statin-intolerant patients. N Engl J Med. 2023;388(15):1353-64.
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Practice Cost Survey Awareness |
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The American Medical Association (AMA) is undertaking a new national study, supported by 173 health care organizations, to collect representative data on physician practice expenses. The Physician Practice Information Survey (PPIS) will collect data on overhead costs of today’s physician practices to support physician payment advocacy.
The study is an opportunity to communicate accurate financial information to policymakers, including members of Congress and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). The AMA has contracted with Mathematica, an independent research company with extensive experience in survey methods as well as health care delivery and finance reform, to conduct the study.
Clinicians should monitor their email for important surveys on practice costs and work hours. It is important that individuals or practices who are randomly selected to complete a survey do so thoroughly and accurately. For some surveys, members will need to rely on financial experts in the practice to complete an online financial information survey. Other members will be asked to report hours spent actively providing patient care.
The input from physician practices and individual physicians that are randomly selected to participate in this study is critical for its success. Participation will ensure that practice expenses and patient care hours are accurately reflected.
The Medicare physician payment schedule, maintained by CMS and used by many other payers, relies on 2006 cost information to develop practice expense relative values, the Medicare Economic Index and resulting physician payments. As the U.S. economy and health care system have undergone substantial changes since that time, including staffing costs, team-based care, inflation, new practice arrangements, and the wide-spread adoption of electronic health records and other information technology systems, practice expense payments no longer accurately reflect the relative resources that are typically required to provide physician services.
Invitations and reminders about the costs survey will be sent by Mathematica from the email address PPISurvey@mathematica-mpr.com with the subject line: “American Medical Association requests your input on physician practice expense and patient care hours.” Invitations and reminders about physician hours worked will come from the email address PhysicianHoursSurvey@mathematica-mpr.com with the subject line: “Please help to update accurate physician payments.” Surveys will be in the field in waves through the spring of 2024. All cardiologists, regardless of ACC or AMA membership status are eligible to receive these surveys.
If you are selected for the survey and have questions regarding your response, contact ACC’s Director of Regulatory Affairs James Vavricek.
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More Than 200 Open Positions on 65+ ACC Committees: Apply Now!
Nominations are being accepted for more than 200 positions within ACC’s Member Section Councils, Assembly of International Governors, National Cardiovascular Data Registry (NCDR), Accreditation Services and more, through Friday, Sept. 1 at 9 p.m. ET. *Additionally, note that new this nominations cycle is the Reproductive Health and Cardio-Obstetrics Section Leadership Council. The Reproductive Health and Cardio-Obstetrics Section Leadership Council will develop an overarching strategy for the College’s reproductive health and cardio-obstetrics initiatives, while serving as the global home for reproductive health and cardio-obstetrics within the College, partnering with other reproductive health and cardio-obstetrics related societies, councils, and working groups worldwide, as needed and per ACC guidance.
Interested applicants or nominators are encouraged to review the open positions and may self-nominate or nominate a colleague. Applicants will be notified of the results by the end of 2023. The Nominating Committee strongly encourages applicants from a diversity of backgrounds, cultures, specialties, practice settings, and career stages.
ACC Launches NEW DocMatter Member Community
The ACC has partnered with DocMatter, a global medical community platform, to provide a new benefit for ACC members. This partnership, which joins two organizations dedicated to improving patient care and outcomes, provides members with a private, online collaboration forum. With DocMatter, ACC members can discuss cases and clinical developments, ask questions and build connections with peers easier than ever before. ACC members have access to the community and can access their account using their ACC.org credentials. The DocMatter community is designed to make connecting easy for busy clinicians, with a mobile app and clinician advocates on staff to provide technical support, personalize notifications and enhance the overall experience.
“The ACC has always been proud to offer a variety of important and valuable member benefits, including access to premier education opportunities, quality tools and resources, and more,” said Richard Kovacs, MD, MACC, American College of Cardiology Chief Medical Officer. “The ability to connect with fellow cardiovascular care team members has always been a vital part of ACC membership, which is why the addition of DocMatter is particularly exciting as it will increase opportunities for networking and connection among peers and experts around the world, on an individual member’s terms and needs. This new and exciting forum will bring collaboration, knowledge, and mentorship from across the spectrum of cardiology right to your phone.”
Members can select from more than 30 discussion channels to focus their learning, and conversations will be moderated by ACC advisors representing each Member Section, ensuring expert input into all cardiology subdisciplines. Learn more and start connecting in the community here.
Call for Applications: ACC’s Internal Medicine Cardiology Program
ACC is now accepting applications for all five cohorts in ACC’s Internal Medicine Cardiology Program. The program is designed to introduce internal medicine interns, residents, and cardiology fellows to a career in cardiology by connecting them with mentors, a peer network, and education on career opportunities in the field. Applications are being accepted through Sept. 15 for the following cohorts: African American/Black; Women; Hispanic/Latinx; LGBTQ+; and the newest addition of Indigenous Peoples. The cohorts will launch virtually beginning in October. Learn more.
Restrictive Covenants and Non-Compete Clauses
You have choices when it comes to meeting your maintenance of certification (MOC) requirements. If you’re due for an MOC assessment soon, the Collaborative Maintenance Pathway (CMP) is an MOC assessment option that helps meet ALL your needs! ACC’s Collaborative Maintenance Pathway (CMP) is an MOC assessment option that allows you to stay 100% certified by focusing on just 20% of the field each year. Delivered through ACC's Self-Assessment Programs, the CMP includes all the comprehensive educational material, annual updates and CME credits/MOC points you need. Participation is simple: purchase the relevant SAP, score 70% or better on the practice question for the topics of the year, and take the 60-question performance assessment during a Performance Assessment Window. Enroll in the CMP today — and be sure to mark your calendar with the 2023 Performance Assessment windows!
Attention NPs and PAs
Demonstrate your clinical knowledge and commitment to cardiovascular excellence by taking and passing ACC's Certified Cardiovascular Knowledge Examination (CCKE). Find out more.
CardioSmart is the ACC’s dedicated home for patient tools and resources, including infographics, shared decision-making aids, and more. Find information on specific clinical conditions, health lifestyle choices and more at CardioSmart.org.
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