ASE, along with its WRMSD Grand Challenge Alliance partners, is pleased to present a LIVE webinar on the Journal of the American Society of Echocardiography article “Characteristics and Consequences of Work-Related Musculoskeletal Pain among Cardiac Sonographers Compared with Peer Employees: A Multisite Cross-Sectional Study.” Please plan to join us on May 27, 5:30 – 6:30 PM EDT. Sergio Barros-Gomes, MD, first author of the article, will provide a comprehensive review of this article and discuss the prevalence, magnitude, and impact of work-related musculoskeletal disorders. Dr. Barros-Gomes will describe this problem from an epidemiologic standpoint, and discuss risk factors and what we can do to help promote our specialty and prevent injuries.

Registration is FREE for everyone. You can claim 1 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit™ within 24 hours of watching the webinar. The webinar will also be posted for on demand viewing and claiming CME.

Specific questions regarding webinar registration can be sent to Jenn Goss at JGoss@ASEcho.org.

This webinar is sponsored by the WRMSD Grand Challenge Alliance, a pioneering alliance of leading ultrasound organizations that has come together in an effort to stop work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WRMSD) resulting from the performance of diagnostic medical ultrasound.

Applications are now being accepted for the 2nd cohort of the ASE Leadership Academy. This program provides a unique opportunity for ASE members to increase their knowledge and develop a skill set that will help them in their careers and personal life. During this 19-month program, participants will be matched with a senior adviser, acquire a personalized evaluation of their leadership aptitude, and receive high-quality, online tutorials on leadership topics valued at over $5000. The 2nd cohort is limited to 15 people. Applications and recommendation letters will be accepted until August 1, 2020. Learn more and apply at ASE Leadership Academy.

Questions? Email LeadershipAcademy@ASEcho.org.

Echo During COVID-19? New Advice Weighs Doctor Safety, Patient Needs

Practitioners performing echocardiography during the current COVID-19 pandemic should change their practice to limit their exposure, a precaution that will ultimately increase patient safety, according to a new statement from the American Society of Echocardiography. Read more here.

Review Course

The April JASE contains, “Recommendations for Echocardiography Laboratories Participating in Cardiac Point of Care Cardiac Ultrasound (POCUS) and Critical Care Echocardiography Training.”  Lead author James N. Kirkpatrick, MD, FASE, of the University of Washington Medical Center said, “This guideline arose out of the foresight of ASE Past President Jonathan Lindner and the ASE Executive Committee, who recognized the importance of providing guidance to echocardiography laboratories serving as partners with point of care ultrasound and critical care echocardiography clinicians.” In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, cardiac POCUS and Critical Care Echo (CCE) may play an important role in the bedside assessment of ill patients. A podcast on this guideline is available online.

Beginning March 26, 2020, in compliance with the Durham County North Carolina order to “Stay at Home” due to the spread of coronavirus, the entire ASE staff will be working remotely through May 25. We are not suspending or closing operations; our employees will remain working and providing excellent customer service to our members and the cardiovascular ultrasound community. However, ASE will slightly modify its official open hours to 9 AM – 4 PM Eastern Time, Monday-Friday. Should you need to get in touch with a staff person, call our main office at 919-861-5574 and a phone list by department will be available. A staff directory is also available here. All general questions can also be sent through ASE@ASEcho.org. Thank you and our best wishes for your continued safety.

ASE Statement on Protection of Patients and Echocardiography Service Providers During the COVID-19 Outbreak

Review Course

The health, well-being, and safety of our live course attendees is of the utmost importance, and to that end ASE is closely monitoring the coronavirus (COVID-19) situation. On March 17, 2020, the ASE Executive Committee decided to cancel the live ASCeXAM/ReASCE Review Course in Boston, MA, on May 9-12 and offer it as a virtual online course. For more information on registering to attend this meeting virtually, click here.

ASE Scientific Sessions

The ASE Executive Committee held a special call on Tuesday, March 31, and made the decision to cancel the ASE 2020 Scientific Sessions scheduled to be held in Denver, CO, on June 19-22, 2020.  The decision to cancel our Scientific Sessions was difficult, but the health, well-being, and safety of our members, staff, exhibitors, and attendees is of utmost importance during this COVID-19 pandemic. With the majority of our ASE members on the front lines, it was in the best interest of everyone that we cancel the meeting to ensure the safety of everyone.  We know that our Annual ASE Scientific Sessions are a time that our community, from all over the world, looks forward to every year. We greatly appreciate the effort our Program Planning Committee, led by course chairs Theodore Abraham, MD, FASE, and Sue Phillip, RCS, FASE, have put into creating the content for ASE 2020. We are currently working on a plan to deliver elements of the program and provide access to innovation, resources, and information that will advance your ability to improve patient care. We are also developing ways to recognize our award winners.

If you have any questions, please contact us at Registrar@ASEcho.org.

We  have created a COVID-19 Resources page for our members.

The March JASE contains, “Recommendations for Multimodality Assessment of Congenital Coronary Anomalies” Lead author Peter Frommelt, MD, FASE, of Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin and the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee said, “Congenital coronary artery anomalies, both in isolation and associated with other forms of congenital heart disease, have been recognized as having significant potential morbidity and mortality, including sudden cardiac death in children and adolescents. This document outlines specific strategies for imaging of each of the known congenital coronary anomalies, providing cardiac imaging specialists with a valuable resource to improve patient care and foster responsible utilization of diagnostic imaging modalities.”

“Sinus of Valsalva Aneurysms: A State-of-the-Art Imaging Review” from Bo Xu, MB BS (Hons) FRACP, FACC, FASE, et al. is also in this issue. Clinical investigations explore contrast echocardiography, predicting heart failure risk from echocardiograms of coronary artery disease patients, topics in valvular heart disease, normal echocardiographic values in specific populations, and echocardiography in children. A pre-clinical investigation looks at how blood stasis imaging predicts cerebral microembolism during acute myocardial infarction.

Listen to the podcast by JASE social media team member, Amer M. Johri, MD, FASE, discussing “Association of Machine Learning-Derived Phenogroupings of Echocardiographic Variables with Heart Failure in Stable Coronary Artery Disease: The Heart and Soul Study” with co-author Geoffrey H. Tison, MD, MPH.

The President’s Message by Madhav Swaminathan, MD, MMCi, FASE, explores what differentiates ASE from other societies. Sue Phillip, RCS, FASE, writes in the Sonographers’ Communication about the Annual Scientific Sessions in Denver, and a special article by Drs. Ritu Thamman, Tejas Desai, David Wiener, and Madhav Swaminathan explores ASE’s Twitter Journal Club and how it is part of the changing paradigm in cardiology education.