The past year has been a busy time for the Society for Cardiac Angiography and Interventions. In the spring, The Board of Trustees via Dr. David Clark decided that the best solution to our current and future management was to purchase management services from the American College of Cardiology. As a result of this arrangement, the Society now has our own executive director and staff, which are dedicated solely to the Society and report to our Officers and Board of Trustees.
Norm Linsky, formerly with the American College of Cardiology, has been selected as our new Executive Director. As a result of this transition, the SCA&I headquarters have moved from Raleigh, North Carolina to the ACC Heart House in Bethesda, Maryland. Last year's annual meeting in Charleston was a huge success, attended by the largest number of cardiologists to date. A great deal of credit goes to Dr. Barry Uretsky for putting together such a fine meeting and setting a high standard for future meetings. As a result of the efforts of Dr. Jeff Popma, the Society co-sponsored ACCIS at the ACC annual meeting. Similarly, for the second year, the SCA&I has co-sponsored the highly successful Interventional Board Review Courses to help prepare interventionalists for the new ABIM subspecialty examination.., The Society has sponsored the Bench to Bedside Interventional Cardiology Symposium in conjunction with the American Heart Association, to be held at the AHA annual meeting. Members of SCA&I graded abstracts for the TCT meeting. Recently an updated Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory Directory has been compiled and distributed through the efforts of Dr. William Sheldon, and an updated edition of the SCA&I monograph, Quality Assurance in the Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory has been compiled.
It is my hope to broaden the scope and mission of the Society. The Society faces a major challenge to become more pro-active regarding legislative health care issues. The SCA&I is in the process of developing a mechanism for advocacy. Many of the legislative issues that concern our membership occur at the state and local level which will involve the participation of our Governors and Members in identifying these issues and contacting local legislators. On the national level, issues such as reimbursement, quality of care, and dealing with the Federal Government and its agencies will need direction and Governmental access. I hope to develop a Legislative Committee for the SCA&I to develop strategies and interact with a professional lobbyist who will help us gain access.