President's Page: The year in review

One year ago you granted me the extraordinary honor of serving you as your President. To me, this represented not a stepping-stone in a career but the capstone–the finishing touch to a happy and rewarding career in invasive/interventional cardiology. No, I’m not ready to retire! It’s just that I can image no finer or greater compliment or satisfaction than serving our Society and you in this fashion. Whatever comes next, this will still feel like my chance to stand on the mountaintop and advance our profession. Last year, at the annual banquet, I spoke of five areas where I hoped we could make tangible progress during the subsequent twelve months: fiscal enhancement; increased advocacy; improved inter-societal relationships; broadened educational activities; and information system integration. Previous President’s pages have expanded on these areas and presented some of the opportunities and challenges each area held. My objectives in those pages? To inform, to question, and above all to challenge us all to pick up the baton and join the effort. Now it’s time to reflect and assess. The end of a Presidential year is a good time to take stock and evaluate our efforts. Let’s do that with these five areas. Intersocietal relationships. The goal I set in my first President’s page: “In the United States, it is paramount that we have functional partnerships with ACC, AHA and with our fellow subspecialty organizations. Moving beyond the U.S., we have a unique opportunity to facilitate interaction among international interventional societies.” How have we done in enhancing our intersocietal relationships at home and abroad? There is no question that our previously good relationship with ACC has become even stronger. ACC President Doug Zipes and I have begun an excellent dialogue about the importance of strengthen our ties. For the first time, the President and President-elect of ACC (Drs. Zipes and Bruce Fye) met with the President and President-elect of SCA&I (myself and Dr. Ted Feldman) along with our executive directors to strengthen this growing relationship. The outcome was very positive, with both sides agreeing that increased communication, mutual respect and heightened cooperation are essential. Tangible proof of this increased recognition: At ACC’s request, SCA&I representatives took the lead in representing invasive/interventional cardiologists at the March AMA Practice Expense Advisory Committee (PEAC) meeting. The PEAC is a key player in the reimbursement process, and the goal is to gain increased, fair payment for cath codes. Additionally, ACC now routinely includes SCA&I in all discussions regarding invasive cardiology and requests input from us accord-