Introduction
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Committee History
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Committee Charge and
Listing of Committee Members
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Committee Initiatives
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Recent Publications and Talks
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Activities
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How to Get Involved in the ACC
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Since
its inception in 1994 the ACC Committee on Women
in Cardiology has sought to undertake activities
that would benefit the College membership as a
whole, provide support to the ACC President, address
the professional needs and concerns of women cardiologists
and work toward the improvement in the quality
of cardiovascular care for women.
The
Committee was formed as an Ad Hoc committee in
June 1994 at the direction of then President,
Dr. Dan J. Ullyot. It became a standing committee
of the College in 1998. The Committee’s
first action was to expedite a change in ACC policy
designating leadership at the committee and program
level from the former gender-specific to the application
of gender-nonspecific title designations. We have
also actively promoted increasing the number of
women representatives to the College’s committees
and task forces.
The
Committee developed the 1996 ACC Professional
Life Survey to learn how career
decisions of women and men in cardiology impact
their professional and personal lives. This
survey was published in the Journal of the
American College of Cardiology (#31:892-913,
1998) Women reported a number of differences,
including higher concentration in non-invasive
and academic practice, more child and elder care
responsibilities, altered training and practice
to reduce radiation exposure, more discrimination,
less advancement and less satisfaction with their
overall career.
The
Committee played a strategic role in the development
of the Radiation
Safety in the Practice of Cardiology Expert Consensus
that was also published in JACC (#32:827-35,
1998).At
the March 2001 ACC Annual Scientific Sessions
the Committee hosted a joint meeting of women
cardiologists representing other national and
international cardiology societies. In attendance
were representatives from the AHA Councils, European
Society of Cardiology, Association of Black Cardiologists,
North American Society of Pacing and Electrophysiology,
American Society of Nuclear Cardiology and Society
of Cardiac Angiography and Intervention.The
Committee has been active in responding to all
matters, including legislative issues, related
to quality of cardiovascular care for women. We
have also sent representatives to the AMA Women
Physicians Leadership Summit, the Society for
the Advancement of Women’s Health Research,
WomenHeart, The National Coalition of Women with
Heart Disease as well as NIH-sponsored conferences
on women’s health research.Ours
was one of several ACC committees that worked
together with the Florida Department of Citrus
to develop an educational booklet, “The
Heart of the Family: A Woman’s Guide to
Keeping the Entire Family Heart Healthy.”
Most
recently the Committee worked on the Bethesda
Conference on Workforce under the direction of
ACC Past President Dr. Bruce Fye addressing the
issue of “How to Encourage More Women to
Choose a Career in Cardiology.”
Mary Norine Walsh, MD, FACC |
