President's Message

may 2022

Dear Colleagues,

Aspirin for Primary Prevention

I am honored to be your new chapter President and am looking forward to us collaborating to improve heart health for Floridians. In that spirit, I would like to share some “hot off the presses” information with you and your patients. The US Preventative Services Task Force (USPSTF) issued a new set of recommendations recently regarding the use of aspirin, specifically for the prevention of a first cardiovascular event. While their press release clearly indicates that their recommendation against aspirin applies only to a small subpopulation of patients without known CVD, that message did not get clearly communicated to a number of patients. We have already heard stories from you on the front lines about patients calling for advice or to say that they are going to stop taking aspirin. To help support you in communicating with your patients, the links below goes directly to the USPSTF press release and another release from the ACC. Please let us know if the chapter can do anything else to support you.

Links:

USPSTF Press Release: https://tinyurl.com/2p9ckjp7

ACC Press Release: https://tinyurl.com/2p85v3kn

Florida Society of Thoracic and CV Surgeons

This year, the Florida Chapter has kicked off a new collaboration with our surgical CV team members. We are excited to be exchanging faculty for our respective meetings. I will be attending their annual scientific meeting in July, along with Dr. Abdallah El Sabbagh who will be discussing Minimally Invasive Valve Therapies. Then in August, we will be hosting one of the surgeons, Paul DiGiorgi, MD, at our annual meeting in Orlando. We are looking forward to this ongoing relationship with greater collaboration over the next few years.

Florida Society of Thoracic and CV Surgeons: https://www.fstcs.org/

Interamerican Congress of Cardiology

Another collaboration the Florida Chapter will be participating in this year is the Annual Congress of the Inter-American Society of Cardiology. This organization represents international cardiology societies all throughout North, Central, and South America and will have their meeting next month in Miami. The Florida ACC has been invited to give a panel discussion on Cardiology Practices in the United States and we have a fantastic group of talented cardiologists representing Florida at the meeting. If you are able, we encourage you to join us in Miami for our panel discussion on June 8.

Inter-American Society of Cardiology: http://www.siacardio.com/english/

Best regards,

David Winchester, MD, MS, FACC

President, Florida Chapter ACC