President's Message

January 2020

Dear Colleagues,

As you know, it is a very busy time for our chapter. I would like to highlight a few activities as we enter the New Year. First, we just finished our most successful winter meeting to date in Orlando that highlighted women cardiologists, fellows in training, and the CVTeam members. Our hope is to have this meeting at different venues across the state each year in order to improve opportunities for more local participation. We are tentatively planning to have the January 2021 meeting in South Florida. Many thanks to Ki Park, Litsa Lambrakos, Tami Jungklaus, and Mustafa Ahmed for putting together an outstanding educational program.

Another important chapter initiative has been the creation of a cardio-oncology section. Under the leadership of Diego Sadler, this section has grown in leaps and bounds. The chapter was the recipient of a national ACC Board of Governors grant to survey both cardiologists and oncologists regarding underlying knowledge of cardio-oncology and to perform an intervention to improve understanding, knowledge, and awareness. This started as solely a Florida initiative however Diego has expanded it to involve over thirty states. In addition, I am very excited to announce that Diego has been appointed to the National ACC cardio-oncology board for a three-year term.

Finally, we have multiple legislative priorities that will affect you and your practice of cardiology. I recently returned from the National ACC legislative conference in Washington DC. We are making significant inroads in helping our legislators understand the importance of issues affecting you every day. Our main priority has been to educate them regarding the importance of reducing the administrative burden of pre-authorizations in order to promote clinician wellbeing. Additionally, there have been some very high-level discussions regarding a successful transition to value-based payments by either reducing or eliminating some of the provisions of the Starke laws for physicians participating in alternative payment models. The conference was a significant success. Your Florida delegation met with Senator Scott and the legislative teams from Senator Rubio and our local representatives. I would strongly encourage everyone to come to this absolutely vital meeting in the future (2020 dates are October 4-6). There definitely is strength and numbers. On the statewide political front, we have just finished the first week of the Florida legislative session. I encourage you to read the weekly updates from our lobbyist Marni George regarding the process and legislation being considered up in Tallahassee by clicking here; updates will be posted on the FCACC Advocacy page each week. This year promises to be very active in the field of healthcare and can have a significant impact on us all. We are scheduled to have a legislative fly-in to Tallahassee on February 4 and 5. We will be meeting with the Florida Surgeon General as well as multiple important legislators regarding bills that will directly affect us. I would strongly encourage you to join us (email jennifer@accfl.org to sign up). I am very grateful to David Kenigsberg for his efforts and dedication in this vital area.

Regards,

David Perloff, MD, FACC