Below you will find a complete listing of the ILACC Board of Councilors. All new members have been indicated so that you will be able to notice any changes in your district.

OFFICERS
President
Diane E. Wallis, MD, FACC

President-Elect
Jerome L. Hines, MD, FACC

Immediate Past President
David J. Hale, MD, FACC

Past Presidents
Alan S. Brown, MD, FACC
James T. Dove, MD, FACC
Joseph V. Messer, MD, FACC
Morton F. Arnsdorf, MD, MACC

Secretary Treasurer
(new) David L. Fishman, MD, FACC

CHICAGO DISTRICT:
(new) Vera H. Rigolin, MD, FACC
Clifford Kavinsky, MD, FACC
Bradley Knight, MD, FACC
Issam Mikati, MD, FACC

Alternates
James E. Calvin, MD, FACC
Lloyd W. Klein, MD, FACC
Payman Sattar, MD, FACC
Matthew J. Sorrentino, MD, FACC

SOUTH SUBURBAN DISTRICT:
(new) Paul A. Freier, MD, FACC
(new) Marc A. Silver, MD, FACC
(new) Robert C. Lichtenberg, MD, FACC

Alternates
Thomas E Bump, MD, FACC
Peter W. Kakavas, MD, FACC
Paul R. Silverman, MD, FACC

NORTH SUBURBAN DISTRICT
John T. Barron, MD, FACC
Robert C. Hendel, MD, FACC
Thomas J. McKiernan, MD, FACC

Alternates
Jay H. Kleiman, MD, FACC
Parag V. Patel, DO, FACC

NORTHWEST DISTRICT:
(new) Darrel C. Gumm, MD, FACC

Alternate
Peter P. Toth, MD, FACC

CENTRAL DISTRICT:
(new) Marc E. Shelton, MD, FACC

SOUTHERN DISTRICT:
(new) Cesar E. Coello, MD, FACC

Alternate
Naeem A. Khan, MD, FACC

CCA Representative
Julie Benson, NP

FIT Representative
Priya Kansal

Practice Management Representative
Cathie Biga

Executive Director
Bill Monn

Assistant Executive Director
Andy Shelp

ACC Chapter Relations
Kristin Try

The June STEMI meeting in Peoria was a successful collaboration with the Public Health Service and the American Heart Association to improve quality of care and outcomes by focusing on getting the patient to the right “door” as quickly as possible (“E2B” as opposed to “D2B”). We are indebted to Dr. Darryl Gumm, FACC; Jeff Shelton, CEO, Heart Care Midwest, and their associates at HeartCare Midwest and OSF Saint Francis Medical Center who sponsored the faculty dinner and hosted the event. More than 100 physicians, nurses, EMT/paramedics, administrators and allied health care professionals attended the conference. There were also many exhibitors who demonstrated products pertinent to STEMI care. We heard from William French, MD, to see how successes in urban L.A. might work in Chicago, as well as from Mayme Roettig, RN, MSN, the North Carolina RACE coordinator, to hear how such a system might work in rural Illinois. We then heard from local individual successes from physician champions in Downers Grove, Peoria, and Springfield/Carbondale who didn’t just stop at D2B but reached out to the community to develop systems beginning with activation of EMS to transfer to primary PCI hospitals. Breakout groups identified and studied EMS issues in the urban and rural setting, QA data collection tools and certification standards.

One result of the conference was the crystallization of our mission: to create a system for every Illinois citizen, not just those lucky to live near a center of excellence, for the rapid triage to either primary PCI or thrombolysis with appropriate transfer.

Comments provided by participants were overwhelmingly positive and expressed a strong desire for us to move forward to build on the tremendous momentum felt at the conference. To do this we have identified the need for the following: A field ECG in every EMS rig, protocols and policies allowing transfers to appropriate PCI centers, a system wide data tool for quality measurement and improvement, criteria for STEMI PCI centers, regional plans for rapid response based on the geographic area, and fully engage team members including patient, EMS, ED, Cardiology and other organizations.

The next steps for the “Illinois Mission Lifeline Team” are to communicate conference summary to key stakeholders with a steering committee meeting, bring the larger task force together to work through the details of our call to action and develop specific workgroups to clearly identify our goals and needs.

Healthcare IT News (6/17, Manos) reported that "the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has thrown another wrench into the already difficult transition to using National Provider Identifiers" (NPI). "According to a June 11 CMS announcement, doctors will have to reconcile their NPI data with their" Internal Revenue Service (IRS) "legal name data in order to get paid." Billing experts say this policy "is a disaster waiting to happen. Every aspect of the data must match, including the exact spelling of names, the use of initials and even blank spaces in the data." Even "[t]he slightest discrepancy could send Medicare claims back to the drawing board." Consequently, CMS is instructing some physicians "to start over with a new NPI enrollment," which "could take months."  Click here to read more: Healthcare IT News.

After many years of thoughtful discussion, mandatory Chapter dues will be proposed to the Board of Trustees (BOT) this August in Vancouver.  The Mandatory Chapter Dues Workgroup includes Illinois Chapter and ACC Past President Dr. James Dove; CMC who has been meeting weekly with his workgroup since April to discuss Chapter and National member concerns, communication strategy, work processes and an ideal dues model.  Mandatory Chapter dues would not undermine Chapter autonomy and individuality.  Rather, it seeks to increase member engagement, tracking and invoicing, and help Chapters have the resources and support they need to accomplish their important work.  Mandatory dues can strengthen the Chapters through collecting stable revenue to fund a fulfilling Chapter membership experience, which could include things such as networking opportunities, a website resource, and advocacy and quality improvement programs.  As Chapters act as both the harbinger of cardiology’s tomorrow and the medium of today’s grassroots work, they are the cornerstone of the College and ACC family.  Many thanks those who work to bridge national and grassroots membership, and represent diverse voices and experiences in cardiology across Illinois and the United States.  Your involvement has a tremendous impact on the cardiology community.

Don't miss the ACC’s 2008 Legislative Conference in Washington, D.C. on Sept. 14-16 at the Fairmont Hotel. Registration for the 2008 conference is now open. FITs and CCAs are encouraged to attend this event and help ensure the voice of the entire cardiovascular care team is heard on Capitol Hill. The ACC has made a select number of travel awards available to cover up to $1,000 in airfare, hotel and other expenses. To apply for these awards, interested FITs and CCAs should send an email with their full name, address and a brief explanation on why they would like to attend. CCAs should send their email to sbailes@acc.org, and FITs to kventura@acc.org. Award recipients will be announced in July. Click here to learn more about the 2008 Legislative Conference.

The ACC would like to thank all the Governors, Chapter Executives and Advocacy Committee members for their hard work this past week on H.R. 6331, the Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act of 2008.  Attached are the 800 number phone call totals as well as the number of members that have emailed their members of Congress.  These totals are from June 6 through July 3 and the numbers are incredible -- more than 3,000 emails to Capitol Hill and more than 800 phone calls using our 800 number to the Senators alone.  You can check to see how your state did by opening the spreadsheet that is attached to this email.  Thank you again for all your assistance in ensuring your colleagues make their calls to the members of Congress.

Read one politician's response to a query from ILACC leadership as to why an initial vote against H.R. 6331 was changed to a vote to override the President's Veto.

Only two days remain to register for theCertification Board of Cardiovascular Computed Tomography (CBCCT)'s first examination for certification in CCT. Qualifying ACC members are encouraged to apply for the exam, at a cost of $1,095.00, before the July 25 deadline.

The exam, which will be held on Sept. 22, is offered in Prometric testing centers across the country and will consist of up to 200 multiple-choice questions, lasting 4.5 hours. Each question will include four choices, only one of which is the correct or best answer, and some questions involve the interpretation of images and figures. The questions are based on a fall 2007 analysis of the practice of CCT, which was intended to define the responsibilities, tasks and knowledge necessary for physicians to practice in the CCT field. A tutorial that includes sample questions is available online here. The Candidate Bulletins and application forms are available at the CBCCT Web site here.

Under its proposed 2009 Physician Fee Schedule, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is proposing to require that physicians and non-physician practitioners (NPPs) who furnish diagnostic testing services enroll in Medicare as Independent Diagnostic Testing Facilities (IDTFs) and meet most of the quality and performance standards required for IDTFs. The ACC highly encourages its members to comment on this provision. To read the proposed IDTF rule in full, click here and view pages 33-34. To submit comments electronically, visit www.regulations.gov and follow the instructions for "Comment or Submission." Enter the filecode (CMS-1403-P) to find the document accepting comments.

Cardiosmart.org is a fantastic resource for patients who are ready to take charge of their health.  It is a place where patients can assess their own risk for heart disease using interactive tools and calculators, connect with other heart patients in an on-line community, use an “Ask a Cardiologist” forum to answer questions about cardiovascular disease, and create their own personal “Heart Health Tracker.” 

This site centers on empowering cardiology patients, and dovetails with this year's major themes of professionalism and the importance of the patient/physician relationship. If you are interested in helping spread the word at the grassroots level, please contact Ana Fullmer (afullmer@acc.org). This site can be linked to Chapter websites, and anticipates 2009 as “The Year of the Patient.”  If you are interested in linking websites, please contact Helen Smith (hsmith@acc.org).

This patient-centered tool is excellent, and I hope that you will take a moment to explore it: www.cardiosmart.org.

Best regards,

Diane Wallis, M.D., FACC
Governor, Illinois Chapter of the ACC