AMERICAN SOCIETY OF ECHOCARDIOGRAPHY NEWS
2
AMERICAN SOCIElY OF ECHOCARDIOGRAPHY NEWS President's Message WHAT HAVE WE ACCOMPLISHED? WHAT REMAINS TO BE DONE? lbis is my last message as president of the American Society of Echocardiography (ASE).lt is appropriate to sum up the ASE's accomplishments during the past 2 years and also to review our challenges and priorities for the future. Let's begin with our accomplishments-and they are many. We have continued to grow. Our society's member- ship has increased to approximately 5600 members. Our current budget is $1.7 million, and we project for 1999 a surplus of over $250,000. This may seem a comfortable cushion, but because this surplus could be consumed quickly, especially with our legislative and regulatory chal- lenges and uncertainties (which I discuss below), it is important to have a solid reserve on hand.lbis need led us to adopt an investment program designed to increase our retum while we remain prudent in the face of market uncertainties. Our scientific sessions also continue to grow. We set records last year in San Francisco with over 2500 attendees and 222 faculty, and with 630 abstracts submitted and 261 presented. lbis meeting generates an important part of our annual budget, especially through exhibit space pur- chased by our industry/commercial colleagues. At the 1998 meeting 39 commercial exhibitors purchased space. Our net revenue from the meeting was about $400,000.We expect even bigger and better meetings in 1999 in Washington, DC (where our program chair will be Dr Pamela Douglas, who is hard at work preparing a fantastic program), followed by our meetings in Chicago in 2000 and in Seattle in 2001. A major part of our activity continues to be legislative and regulatory issues. We have dealt with proposals on practice-expense reimbursement, supervision of echocar- diography by physicians, reimbursement of contrast echo- cardiography, and most recently, new proposals for ambu- latory payment classifications. In addition, we are monitoring state legislative as well as federal regulatory initiatives. A major budget item supports the work of our savvy legislative council, Diane Millman. The Legislative and Regulatory Committee, under Alan Pearlman's capable chairmanship, remains very active and effective. Educational activities are another important part of our mission.The first review course for the National Board of Echocardiography Examination (ASEeXAM) was held in April 1999. It was extremely successful. We are a full CME- granting organization and can sponsor and cosponsor meetings. Dr Art Labovitz chairs our very active Educa- tional Committee. We have undertaken a major new development effort in conjunction with our Industry Roundtable partners under the able supervision of Dr David Sahn. This partnership with industrywill support outcomes research and our edu- cational efforts. More than $700,000 has been pledged by our Industry Partners for 1999. Our own membership has been asked to participate; all of you have received your dues renewal invoices with a suggested voluntary contri- bution. We know that you will want to continue to sup- port our important educational and research goals. Finally, our Internet Web page and computer develop- ment activities continue apace. Drs Bijoy Khandheria and Andy Keller have leading roles in these undertakings. An exciting new effort is our Laboratory Database Project (LDP), which will gather data from participating echocar- diographic laboratories to enable us to judge how they function. The LDP will also provide us and other organiza- tions with data on echocardiographic practice and perfor- mance. But we have many challenges.We must continue to grow. How many physicians and sonographers perform echocar- diography but are not members of the ASE? We don't know the answer to this question, but we do know that we can and should continue to recruit such persons to represent the entire field of cardiac ultrasonography. We need to further define the roles of our 3 councils: the Council on Cardiac Sonography, the Council on Intra- operative Echocardiography, and the Council on Pediatric Volwne 12 Nwnber 6 Journal of the American Society of Echocardiography 27A
Transcript of AMERICAN SOCIETY OF ECHOCARDIOGRAPHY NEWS
AMERICAN SOCIElY OF ECHOCARDIOGRAPHY NEWS
President's Message
WHAT HAVE WE ACCOMPLISHED? WHAT REMAINS TO BE DONE?
lbis is my last message as president of the AmericanSociety of Echocardiography (ASE).lt is appropriate to sumup the ASE's accomplishments during the past 2 years andalso to review our challenges and priorities for the future.
Let's begin with our accomplishments-and they aremany. We have continued to grow. Our society's membership has increased to approximately 5600 members. Ourcurrent budget is $1.7 million, and we project for 1999 asurplus of over $250,000. This may seem a comfortablecushion, but because this surplus could be consumedquickly, especially with our legislative and regulatory challenges and uncertainties (which I discuss below), it isimportant to have a solid reserve on hand.lbis need led usto adopt an investment program designed to increase ourretum while we remain prudent in the face of marketuncertainties.
Our scientific sessions also continue to grow. We setrecords last year in San Francisco with over 2500 attendeesand 222 faculty, and with 630 abstracts submitted and 261presented. lbis meeting generates an important part ofour annual budget, especially through exhibit space purchased by our industry/commercial colleagues. At the1998 meeting 39 commercial exhibitors purchased space.Our net revenue from the meeting was about $400,000.Weexpect even bigger and better meetings in 1999 inWashington, DC (where our program chair will be DrPamela Douglas, who is hard at work preparing a fantasticprogram), followed by our meetings in Chicago in 2000and in Seattle in 2001.
A major part of our activity continues to be legislativeand regulatory issues. We have dealt with proposals onpractice-expense reimbursement, supervision of echocardiography by physicians, reimbursement of contrast echocardiography, and most recently, new proposals for ambulatory payment classifications. In addition, we aremonitoring state legislative as well as federal regulatoryinitiatives. A major budget item supports the work of oursavvy legislative council, Diane Millman. The Legislativeand Regulatory Committee, underAlan Pearlman's capablechairmanship, remains very active and effective.
Educational activities are another important part of ourmission. The first review course for the National Board ofEchocardiography Examination (ASEeXAM) was held inApril 1999. It was extremely successful.We are a full CMEgranting organization and can sponsor and cosponsormeetings. Dr Art Labovitz chairs our very active Educational Committee.
We have undertaken a major new development effort inconjunction with our Industry Roundtable partners under
the able supervision of Dr David Sahn. This partnershipwith industry will support outcomes research and our educational efforts. More than $700,000 has been pledged byour Industry Partners for 1999. Our own membership hasbeen asked to participate; all of you have received yourdues renewal invoices with a suggested voluntary contribution. We know that you will want to continue to support our important educational and research goals.
Finally, our Internet Web page and computer development activities continue apace. Drs Bijoy Khandheria andAndy Keller have leading roles in these undertakings. Anexciting new effort is our Laboratory Database Project(LDP), which will gather data from participating echocardiographic laboratories to enable us to judge how theyfunction. The LDP will also provide us and other organizations with data on echocardiographic practice and performance.
But we have many challenges.We must continue to grow.How many physicians and sonographers perform echocardiography but are not members of the ASE? We don't knowthe answer to this question, but we do know that we canand should continue to recruit such persons to representthe entire field of cardiac ultrasonography.
We need to further define the roles of our 3 councils:the Council on Cardiac Sonography, the Council on Intraoperative Echocardiography, and the Council on Pediatric
Volwne 12 Nwnber 6 Journal of the American Society of Echocardiography 27A
Echocardiography. Should the councils initiate ASE documents and task forces? Should they develop educationalprograms and meetings separate from the parent ASE organization?
We need to develop our excellent Web page further.Plans for this are well underway with important links toother organizations. The LDP is a model for suchWeb pageundertakings.
We need to continue to expand our educational activities. Working in concert with the American College ofCardiology (ACC), sonography organizations, and theSociety of Cardiovascular Anesthesiology is an importantpriority.
Public relations activities are essential. We need to tellother organizations and the public who we are, what wedo, and why echocardiography is important. We need tomarket our society better. I have appointed Dr RandyMartin of Emory University to chair a revitalized PublicRelations Committee.
We need to continue to cooperate closely with the ACCon legislative and regulatory activities. Because they are amuch larger organiZation, we increase our clout by working closely with them. Similarly, our educational activities,as I have already noted, need to be expanded and coordinated with the ACC. Our members will be interested toknow that the ACC plans to work with subspecialty organizations such as theASE to jointly organize portions of theACC's annual scientific sessions beginning in the year2000. You will be hearing much more about this in thefuture.
Contrast echocardiography is a rapidly expanding area ofechocardiography, and reimbursement for it has becomean issue. To secure just and reasonable reimbursement forthe technical and professional portions of our contrast
echocardiography examinations, it is important to have anunderstanding of the currently accepted indications forcontrast echocardiography. A task force led by Drs SharonMulvagh and Anthony DeMaria is developing a documentthat addresses this area and will provide convincing evidence of the utility of this technique.
Another task force I appointed deals with the issue ofstandardized reporting for echocardiography. Most laboratories follow a reasonably standardized sequence for performing transthoracic echocardiography, but no generallyaccepted reporting systems for echocardiographic examinations exist. A task force under Dr Julius Gardin is working on this and is also cooperating with Dr Bijoy Khandheria's Computer Application and Technology Committeeto adopt a standardized vocabulary for reporting echocardiographic findings.
Finally, we are convening a strategic planning meetingthis summer to develop long-range plans for our society.All health organizations periodically review their long- aswell as short-term goals, plans, and strategies, and we willdo the same.
It has been a pleasure and a privilege to serve as yourASE president for the past 2 years. I was on the originalboard of directors and was the second national secretaryof the society, so I look back on 23 years of continuousinvolvement with the ASE. I have enjoyed working withmany previous ASE officers and our dedicated staff; I particularly want to take this opportunity to thank Ms SharonPerry, our superb ASE executive director. I look forward tojoining the ranks ofASE past presidents and to continuingmy involvement with the premier echocardiographic society in the world!
Richard E. Kerber, MDPresident
American Society ofEchocardiograpby
28A Journal of the American Society of Echocardiography Volume 12 Number 6
