The Midwest ACC 6th Annual Women in Cardiology (WIC) Symposium took place in early June in Milwaukee, WI. This symposium takes place annually and brings together female cardiovascular professionals from all levels of training to provide an educational platform and opportunity to present research posters and strengthen their professional support system through networking.

The evening prior to the symposium, attendees gathered at a restaurant to network and to hear from Toniya Singh, MD, FACC. Her talk, titled "How to Survive and Thrive as WIC," encouraged listeners to be their authentic self; a message that deeply resonated with first-time attendee and poster presenter, Cali Clark, DO, MBA. Dr. Singh also emphasized importance of "having a seat at the table" as well as important points on leadership missteps.

The symposium began with a welcome note from ACC Vice President Cathleen Biga, MSN, RN, FACC, who shared an important message for success stating, "Never say no, but never say yes unless you can deliver." The morning Continuing Medical Education session reviewed sex differences in coronary artery disease, updates in multimodal imaging and scoring tools for heart failure with preserved ejection fraction. Later, Deidre Mattina, MD, FACC, presented "Cardiovascular Risk Stratification Throughout A Woman's Lifecycle," a talk that resonated with poster presenter Sruti Prathivadhi-Bhayankaram, MD, who shared that Dr. Mattina's talk opened her eyes to the importance of addressing women's contraception needs, earlier assessment of risk of cardiovascular disease in midlife and the importance of coronary calcium scoring.

The afternoon session was packed with career promotion and leadership sessions such as "The Importance of Building Your Brand" by Poonam Velagapudi, MD, MS, FACC, who spoke on the power of social media to connect with people, promote work accomplishments, and broaden reach to others in the field. Laxmi Mehta, MD, FACC, led a moderated session on strategies to improve work-life balance and combat imposter syndrome through letting go of perfectionism and being kind to yourself. Then, a session called "The 'F' words – Family and Flexibility" moderated by Dr. Singh highlighted two books: Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World and Distraction.

The late afternoon breakout sessions featured talks on personal finance by Stanley Liu, MD, FACC, who encouraged listeners to consider investing 20% of their income and to shift their focus on investing for independence, not retirement. A powerful session on addressing microaggressions was moderated by Vidhu Anand, MD, FACC, who also served as a mentor to several poster presenters. Finally, the symposium concluded with a 70+ poster session and cocktail hour where the top three winners were announced for research and case reports.

This article was authored by Lauren Spaeth, DO, a first-year Internal Medicine Resident at OhioHealth Riverside Methodist Hospital, Columbus, OH, and a member of ACC’s Ohio Chapter.