This post was written by Pamela S. Douglas, MD, MACC, a past president of the ACC and a member of ACC’s Women in Cardiology (WIC) Section.

I choose to specialize in cardiology because it combined a great mix of direct patient contact, therapeutic procedures, imaging and internal medicine. Medicine is a calling for me, and I love the breadth of cardiology and how all the components relate to each other and make each other richer.

I have spent much of my career focused on imaging. Our ability to see a heart beating in real time, watch valves opening and closing, is still awe inspiring and wonder-filled for me today. I’ve been a champion of quality in imaging and have worked to change the paradigm from quantity to quality in our guidelines and standards documents, regulatory processes and everyday practice. One of the important accomplishments of my ACC presidential year was to lead the College and the profession towards defining and adopting broad quality measures in imaging, developing appropriate use criteria and imaging outcomes metrics. The recent PROMISE randomized trial, the highlighted plenary presentation at ACC.15 and published in the New England Journal of Medicine, is an example of how this work is continuing and has been translated into real-world data regarding imaging outcomes. Further insights from the PROMISE trial will be presented at ACC.16 and will be published in a special issue of JACC: Cardiovascular Imaging focused on imaging in women on April 4.

I have also been fascinated by how cardiovascular physiology and clinical care differs in specific populations, from ultra-endurance athletes, to women to cancer survivors. Although each population is different, because the principles and approaches can be similar, it has been possible to make contributions in each of these. Being able to work in these different areas has given my career a richness that would otherwise be missing; I am very grateful.

As the second female president of ACC and for much of my life one of the few senior women in cardiology, I have been honored to serve as a mentor and role model for many. I believe that the future success of our profession rests on our continuing ability to attract the best of the best – men and women – and to ensure that our workforce is as inclusive as our increasingly diverse patients. To this end we need to ensure that women and minorities feel welcome in cardiology, that there is a level playing field, equal opportunity for subspecialty training and job opportunities and fair compensation. Recent studies of mine suggest that we have not yet fully achieved these goals. I hope that I am able to partner with the ACC in addressing these issues in the coming years of my career.

This post is part of a series on the ACC in Touch Blog from members of ACC’s WIC Section for Women’s History Month. Join the conversations on Twitter with the hashtag #ACCWIC.

ACC’s WIC Section is working to provide resources for women to help them steer successful careers and enjoy work/life balance. Efforts have included the professional life survey conducted every 10 years, the annual WIC Leadership Workshop and a new pregnancy survey. Learn more about the Section at ACC.org/WIC.

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