Society of Pediatric Cardiology Training Program Directors Fall 2019 Meeting at the American Academy of Pediatrics Conference

October 25, 2019, 12:00 – 1:30 PM

New Orleans, LA

Highlights/action items (details below):

·         Please submit nominations of your interested fellows for the SPCTPD fellow liaison (first or second year fellow only) to Lowell Frank by January 31^st
·         The Workforce Survey may move to being a primary SPCTPD project due to logistical challenges with partner organizations
·         Note that the ACGME Program Requirements as of July 1, 2019 state: “Fellows must have a minimum of 12 months dedicated to research and scholarly activity…”
·         Make plans to attend our next in-person meeting on Saturday, March 28, in Chicago at the ACC
·         Consider attending the ACC CV Training Program Directors session on Friday, March 27, in Chicago
·         Contact Lowell if you would like to speak at our next meeting on a training area you are passionate about, or if you would like to speak at the fellow mentoring session

        I.          SPCTPD Board Update

The SPCTPC welcomes Dr. Susan Etheridge (Primary Children’s Hospital, UT) as the newly elected Secretary/Treasurer.  Dr. Laurie Armsby (Oregon Health Sciences University, OR) is the incoming Vice President and Dr. Lowell Frank (Children’s National, DC) leads the board as President. 

Typically the past president remains an active member of the board and serves as the SPCTPD representative to the Council of Pediatric Subspecialities (CoPS).  However our past president, Dr. Antonio Cabrera, has recently resigned as the fellowship program director at Texas Children’s Hospital to become the director of the Children’s Heart Center at Primary Children’s Hospital.  Dr. David Brown (Boston Children’s Hospital), the outgoing past present of the SPCTPD will continue as past president and CoPs represtentative.  Appreciation was extended to Dr. Cabrera for his service and dedication to the SPCTPD over the past 6 years.

Dr. Josh Kurtz, outgoing SPCTPD fellow liaison, is graduating fellowship.  Appreciation was extended to Dr. Kurtz for his engagement in the society over the past two years.  Nominations for the SPCTPD Fellow Liaison 2019-2021 may be submitted to Dr. Lowell Frank.  This is a great opportunity for fellows to engage in national work and develop relationships with leaders in education across the field.

        II.         AAP Membership:  Tina Morton

Ms. Morton presented information about the value of AAP membership for pediatric cardiology fellows.  This includes opportunities for fellows in mentorship, advocacy, PREP cardiology, Peds in Review.  The cost of membership for trainees is $140/member.  This is less than the cost of PREP cardiology alone.  Membership pays for itself.  Some programs sponsor membership for their trainees.  If a program would like to do this, or for more information about AAP membership, call 630-626-6061.

 

III.        AAP Early Career Physician Workgroup:  S. Menon

The co-chairs of the SOCCS Early Career Workgroup presented information about their work.  The mission of this workgroup is to facility integration of early career physicians and fellows into activities of the AAP and SOCCS. They are creating a clinical guidelines repository, a current list of grant opportunities, developing a mentor-mentee program and collecting information about P&T processes at different institutions.  They are also working on an Early Career Workforce Survey, which will collect information about salary, wRVU issues, work satisfaction, outcome of job searches and aspects of their positions that facilitate their happiness and success within their program. They are looking into opportunities to work together with the SPCTPD.

IV.           AAP Specialty Review Course 2020 Update:  L Armsby

The 2020 AAP Specialty Review Course in Pediatric Cardiology will be held August 17-21, in Chicago, IL.   

The curriculum is outstanding this year, with a number of new faculty and a re-organization of topics.  A Practice Q&A and Study Guide booklet will be provided to the registrants this year.  Please encourage your fellows to attend!

Co-directors and Planning Committee:  Maria Serratto, Laurie Armsby, David Brown, Antonio Cabrera, Shaji Menon, Amy McCammond, John Colquitt.  Admin:  Jane Whitener, Vivian Thorne.

V.          ACGME Program Requirements GME in Pediatric Cardiology specific to Research:  L Frank

We discussed the ACGME requirements which state “Fellows must have a minimum of 12 months dedicated to research and scholarly activity…”  It isn’t clear to many PDs how this 12 month period is defined, specifically whether research could be combined with call or clinical elective activities.   Some PDs expressed that their fellows felt that 12 months was excessive as it drew them away from clinical educational activities.  We learned that at CoPS some specialities are pushing to move from 3 years to 2 years as they are struggling to attract enough new physicians into their subspecialty.  The ABP is pushing back to require a full year of research.  We also discussed that research requirements are somewhat specific to the individual fellow and to specific types of projects.  Some fellows can integrate research into their clinical work, while others require blocks of time for productive research.  While many PDs were aware of this requirement others learned about it for the first time at the APPD conference.  We discussed appointing a liaison to the ACGME so that we are able to contribute to the discussion about directives early in the process.  It was also suggested that the PDs share information about site reviews with regard to how this research requirement is being assessed during the re-accreditation process.

VI.       CoPS Update:  R Ross, D Brown

Work Force:  Rob and David discussed the pediatric cardiology workforce survey which was completed one year ago.  The reason the survey has not been released is because other pediatric subspecialties are also creating similar surveys, and the AAP is creating common language to be included in all.  This process has been protracted.  Concern was raised over the delays in this process.  Even if the survey data was available today, and programs changed their quotas in response, the impact of these quota changes would not be realized for 3-4 years.  The SPCTPD membership voted to move ahead to send out the survey.

ABP Roadmap project:  Dr. Carole Lannon spoke about the ABP roadmap project “to increase the resilience, emotional and mental health of pediatric patients with chronic conditions and their families.”  The premise is that subspecialists can do more to identify children with these challenges and “provide empathy, intervention and resources for those identified at risk or struggling.” A Toolkit for PDs will be available to guide the education of our fellows and faculty in this area.  The ACC community day in March 2020 will also have a session on the resiliency roadmap. 

Other CoPS updates:  There was agreement regarding the importance of supporting women in leadership positions and through academic promotions.  Also, data was presented on pay discrepancies.  Pediatric Cardiology is one of the top 3 subspecialties.  It was remarked that some subspecialties are relatively poorly reimbursed.  Again, some subspecialties are suggesting shortening training in part to help attract more trainees into their specialty.

       VII.       Treasurer’s Report:  L Armsby

The SPCTPD funds are healthy and have increased slightly. Our balance has risen to $ 20,119.41.  To date we have only collected 55% of 2019-2020 dues collections.  We collected 75% of the dues for 2018-2019.

Organizational updates for 2019: Lindsay Attaway has joined the SPCTPD as an administrative assistant.  She has been extremely helpful this year.  Lindsay maintains the SPCTPD website, manages the collection of dues, handles posts and assists with data collection for the National Fellow Registry and manages the Wild Apricot and Survey Monkey accounts.

       VIII.       Discussion:  Didactic Curricula

Two PDs shared the structure, philosophy and challenges related to their Didactic Curricula. 

Drs. Sonal Owens (Mott, MI) and Thomas Chin (Penn State, PA) presented.  Dr. Lowell Frank suggested that the SPCTPD develop an anonymized survey of pediatric cardiology programs to better understand the didactic curriculum across a wide array of ped cardiology training programs.  This would not only identify current practices but could provide information to PDs to help guide curricular development.

X.        ACC CHD Community Day Preparations:  L Frank

The ACC is scheduled for March 27-30, 2020 in Chicago, IL.  CHD Community Day is on Friday, 3/27.  There is currently a conflict between SPCTPD, CHD Community Day and Adult CVTPD sessions.  The SPCTPD meeting will take place mid-day on Saturday, March 28.  We realize this may impact ease of calling in; however, Friday attendance has been poor in recent years because of the extra day of travel as well as scheduling conflicts.  The fellow mentoring session will be on Sunday, March 29.  Please share this date with your fellows.  We also recommend attending the CV Training Program Director’s Section Meeting all day on Friday, March 27.  Much of the information is relevant to our programs, and Julie Glickstein, PD for Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital/Columbia is an invited speaker.

XI.         President’s Message:  L Frank

• There are many opportunities for engagement with the SPCTPD:
• Volunteer to speak at the SPCTPD meetings during the AAP or ACC
• Volunteer to speak at a fellow mentoring session (at the AAP or ACC)
• Create your own study (funding may be available through the SPCTPD)
• Become a SPIN representative
• FPQM
• Develop an educational curriculum project

Respectfully submitted by SPCTPD Board
December 2019
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