The mission of the American College of Cardiology Section on Congenital Heart Disease and Pediatric Cardiology is to advocate for quality cardiovascular care in congenital heart disease – through education, research promotion, development and application of standards and guidelines- and to influence health care policy.

Section Objectives
Following an intensive effort to obtain input from the ACC congenital heart disease members, the following objectives were developed:

• To improve quality of care
• To strengthen advocacy efforts for the recognition of congenital heart disease-related specialties and their role in patient care, and for improved access to care
• To increase the opportunities for congenital heart disease education
• To develop a national patient database
• To enhance opportunities for mentoring and career development

With the assistance of many volunteers, working groups have been formed to develop initiatives to address these objectives.

Many activities are underway as described on this website. We welcome your suggestions and participation.

Governance

The Section is governed by ACC’s Congenital Heart Disease and Pediatric Cardiology Committee.

Work Groups have been formed and are actively developing new initiatives and programs. If you would like to participate in any of the activities below, please email the Work Group chair.

Adult Congenital Heart Disease Work Group has taken as its goal the implementation of the recommendations of the Bethesda Conference #32 on the Treatment of Adults with Congenital Heart Disease. The following activities have been undertaken or are underway:

• Development of ACHD curriculum materials for Adult Cardiology trainees, led by Carole Warnes, M.D, F.A.C.C.. A needs analysis has been completed in collaboration with the Fellows in Training Committee (Chair, Grace Chen, M.D.) and an effort is now underway to develop innovative educational models with the ACC Digital Educational Products department.
• Exploration of funding for the development of national patient database.
• Exploration of funding for a multicenter ACHD training grant to help address the shortage of trained ACHD cardiologists. A group of young investigators has been organized to develop multi-center ACHD research. The group meets regularly by phone and at national meetings, most recently on November 11, 2006 in Chicago.
• Co-sponsorship of the Adult Congenital Heart Association’s Passport booklet, distributed in 2008. To obtain copies, please go to the ACHA website at http://www.achaheart.org/.
• Endorsement (with the AHA CVDY and the AAP) of the ACHA Lobby Day on 2/8/2006. The ACC has provided staff support and financial resources to this effort. The 2007 Lobby Day is on February 13, 2007. A limited number of travel grants will be made available to ACC members. Please contact Shane Osborne at sosborne@acc.org if you are interested.
  

Pediatric Cardiology Work Group charge is to develop initiatives to augment ACC CME offerings, to increase opportunities for mentoring early career members and to enhance advocacy efforts. The following activities are underway:

• A Career Development Workshop was developed and held for the first time at ACC.06 for trainees and junior faculty. This was a very successful session attended by 50 over people. Additional time was provided for networking at a reception immediately following the program. The 2007 Workshop will be held on Monday, March 26, 2007 in New Orleans.
• An online mentoring program has been developed for CHD at acc.org. This is a great way to assist younger colleagues nationally and internationally in a time efficient and collaborative way.
• Collaboration with CardioSource Editors to increase congenital heart disease content on that site.
• Two travel awards are offered to trainees to attend the ACC Annual Meeting.
• A donation of $3,500 was given in support of the International Nomenclature Project.

The Quality in Pediatric Cardiology Work Group focuses on local and national quality initiatives. For 2006, the following goals were developed:

• Continue participation in the Joint Council on Congenital Heart Disease performance indicator project
• Develop a description of a catheterization data registry
• Develop true quality indicators for pediatric cardiology care.

Progress to date includes:

• A survey was conducted of pediatric cardiology hospital divisions on quality improvement initiatives.
• Two workshops were held on November 11, 2006 in Chicago. One explored the development of a national pediatric data registry in pediatric interventional cardiology and electrophysiology. This workgroup will meet again on March 24, 2007, in New Orleans. The second discussed opportunities for quality improvement in the ambulatory setting.
  

Section Governance Work Group, made up of the CHD/PC Committee chair, past chair and current pediatric cardiology Board of Trustee members, has developed a proposed governance structure for consideration by the Board when they determine next steps for member Sections. A decision will be made in July 2007.

Other Resources

CHDPC Section - Homepage
ACC 08 Events
Clinician's Corner
ACC Adult Congenital Heart Disease Passport
Pediatric Online Mentoring Program
Find a FACC Pediatric Cardiologist
McNamara Endowment
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