President’s Message

Dear Members of the WSOPC,

The 27th Annual Western Society of Pediatric Cardiology Conference was a tremendous success. Congratulations once again to our hosts, the Primary Children’s Heart Center at Intermountain Primary Children’s Hospital.

Below is a summary of the excellent discussion held at the WSOPC Business Meeting on Saturday, May 14th 2016.

Before the general discussion, Dr. Grace Kung, Treasurer of the WSOPC, presented a financial summary for the current fiscal year. After this I thanked a number of people who have provided their time and effort to the administration of the WSOPC over the past year, including:

Dr. Bill Evans and Jennifer Kelley of the Children’s Heart Center Nevada for providing ongoing administrative and IT support for the re-designed WSOPC website (www.WSOPC.org). Dr. Stafford Grady for providing content and editing of the re-designed website. Liz Pena, WSOPC Coordinator, Dr. Grace Kung, Dr. Troy Johnson and the Delegates and Officers of the WSOPC. And of course Drs. Mike Puchalski, Lloyd Tani, David Bailly, Aaron Eckhauser, Susan Etheridge, Arvind Hoskoppal, Shaji Menon, Nelangi Pinto and Kimberly Simon, Sahar Ameri and L. Jonell Murray – the planning committee of this year’s annual conference.

We then took nominations and voted on the hosting program for the 28th Annual WSOPC Conference in 2017. Seattle Children’s Hospital was the uncontested victor! And Rady Children’s Hospital in San Diego has requested consideration to host the following year.

Key points from the open discussion that followed include:

  1. The WSOPC Membership Roster is currently available on the re-designed website without security measures. It was agreed that moving forward the Membership Roster will be accessible to all WSOPC Delegates and Officers through a secured pathway. Any member of the WSOPC may request access to the Roster through their program or regional Delegate. It was agreed that programs within the WSOPC may use the Membership Roster to announce conferences or CME activities.
  2. To facilitate communication a Membership Program List will be added to the WSOPC Website, including contact information for the Delegate representing that program.
  3. We discussed the importance of engaging private practice groups in the WSOPC. To this end we agreed that all Delegates will provide information to the President regarding private practice groups in their region. The President will then reach out to these practices with information and an opportunity to be listed as a Member Group, as well as to identify a Delegate to represent their program.
  4. With regard to supporting fellows and junior faculty/professionals we agreed to incorporate a Bulletin Board within the WSOPC Website, which will list 4th year Fellowship and Job Listing opportunities. Listings will be dated and will fall off the site at a specified interval, though they may be renewed. Jennifer Kelley will help with Website design and Dr. Grace Kung will provide ongoing oversight.
  5. It was widely agreed that it would be advantageous to involve the Adult Congenital Heart Disease community into the WSOPC. We agreed to include a listing of ACHD programs within the region. Dr. Joseph Kay was named WSOPC Delegate for ACHD programs and will compile a registry of ACHD programs and providers to be included on the website.
  6. We discussed the merits of including a registry of QI Projects and Practice Guidelines on the website. Dr. Nelangi Pinto volunteered to organize this and will work with Jennifer Kelley on website development, and with Program Delegates to populate the registry.
  7. There was enthusiasm for developing a patient/family component to the Annual Conference. It was suggested that parent volunteers work with a Delegate and the hosting conference to explore this idea further. Dr. Anthony McCanta volunteered to bring this idea to the Seattle Children’s Hospital Planning Committee.
  8. While we agreed the Society should be cautious not to take on too many new projects at once, as the infrastructure of the WSOPC Leadership and Membership Services develop we envision an expansion of the Delegate role as leaders of work-groups. Ideas for projects in the future included:

a. Clarification of the WSOPC Mission Statement
b. Development of an Advocacy Work Group
c. Opportunities for collaborative research
d. Opportunities for Family/Patient Activities including Summer Programs

It’s been an honor to serve as President this past year and I look forward to working on behalf of the Society in the year to come. Please don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any questions, ideas or suggestions as to how the WSOPC can better serve its members. I will include this message on the website (www.WSOPC.org) and will send out an update on our progress in the months to come.

Best wishes,

Laurie Armsby, MD
President of the Western Society of Pediatric Cardiology, 2016-2017
WSOPCpres@gmail.com

Associate Professor
Interim Division Head, Pediatric Cardiology
Oregon Health Sciences University

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On June 3, 2016   /   News   /   Leave a comment

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