On October 20, 2018, the ASE Foundation is partnering with the Heart and Vascular Institute at West Virginia University for its first domestic outreach event since 2014! A team of volunteers led by Partho Sengupta, MBBS, MD, DM, FASE, and Sanjiv Bhavnani, MD, will participate in a one-day cardiovascular screening and diagnostic triage event that will take place across four clinical sites in the greater Morgantown, WV area. At each site, a primary care team will provide patients with a free health exam, including a point-of-care ultrasound exam under the supervision and training of our team members. Patients with cardiac symptoms will be connected to WVU Medicine for further consultation and follow-up care. If you live in an area within driving distance to Morgantown, WV, and would like to help recruit patients for this free event, please visit this website for more information and to pre-register patients.

While the volunteer application process for this event has closed, there will be new volunteer opportunities to announce for next year. Also, if you have a connection with an underserved population and would like to propose an event, please review the proposal application here. Applications will be considered for events to be implemented in 2020 and later. Please email foundation@asecho.org if you have any questions.

Due to Hurricane Florence, ASE Headquarters will be closing tomorrow, Thursday, September 13, at noon and will remain closed all day on Friday, September 14. To all our members in the affected area, stay safe!

ASE Foundation volunteers who participated in Mexico 2018: Project Chagas returned home last week following the completion of the global health initiative. Held in the city of Mérida, Yucatán, the event focused on pre-identified patients diagnosed with Chagas disease, to investigate the prevalence of Chagas cardiomyopathy, and to detect those individuals previously undiagnosed and connect them with local cardiologists that would provide proper cardiac care within the regional public system.

Chagas disease (CD) is caused by a parasite, Trypanosoma cruzi, that is transmitted through the “kissing bug.” Over the last 10 years, the Mexican Government implemented significant initiatives to extinguish the bug and developed campaigns to detect the blood infection of this disease that is mostly prevalent in rural areas. This situation created a unique opportunity for the ASE Foundation and its partners to build on the previous government initiatives and screen for Chagas heart disease, which occurs in roughly 30% of those infected.

In addition to the ASE Foundation, partners for this event included General Hospital Agustin O’Horan in Mérida, Philips Mexico Commercial S.A. de C.V., Yucatán Health Services, the Mexican National Center for the Prevention and Control of Diseases (CENAPRECE), and the Mexican National Association of Cardiology (ANCAM).  All collaborating organizations had representatives on-site, working side-by-side for three days. Team leaders were Dr. Federico Asch (ASEF), Dr. Pedro Gutiérrez-Fajardo (ANCAM), and Dra. Hilda Peralta (General Hospital Agustin O’Horan). Read about the project and all the volunteers online at ASEFoundation.org/Mexico-2018. You can learn more about imaging patients with Chagas disease in this ASE Guideline (also available in Spanish and Chinese).

The ASE Foundation’s 2018 global health outreach events are supported by donor contributions to the Annual Appeal. Giving to the Foundation to help foster a project like this one can make a world of difference!

The September issue of JASE includes the article, “Left Atrial Function is Associated with Earlier Need for Cardiac Surgery in Moderate to Severe Mitral Regurgitation: Usefulness in Targeting for Early Surgery,” by Liam Ring, MBBS, Yasir Abu-Omar, MBChB, DPhil, Nikki Kaye, BSc, Bushra S. Rana, MBBS, William Watson, MBBChir, BSc, David P. Dutka, MD, and Vassilios S. Vassiliou, MBBS, PhD, FACC. Lead author Dr. Ring said that, “One of the real challenges in managing patients with moderate to severe MR is selecting those individuals who will benefit from early surgical intervention. The assessment of left atrial function helps identify those patients who are more likely to develop clinical or conventional echocardiographic indications for mitral valve surgery during follow-up, potentially allowing clinicians to target early surgery more effectively. We believe that the evaluation of LA function should be routine when assessing patients with moderate to severe MR.” Also in this issue are is “Determinants of Physician, Sonographer, and Laboratory Productivity: Analysis of the Third Survey from the American Society of Echocardiography Committee on Pediatric Echocardiography Laboratory Productivity.” The remaining articles cover two-dimensional cross-sectional anatomy, valvular regurgitation assessing severity, prognosis, and treatment, three-dimensional speckle-tracking echocardiography, cardiac hemodynamic assessments, and three-dimensional echocardiography in children.

The blues pages include Dr. Jonathan Lindner’s President’s Message, “Imaging in Clinical Research” Synergy Not Surrogacy,” a Sonographer’s Communication by Elaine Shea and Keith Collins encouraging all sonographers to get more involved in ASE, a Pediatric and Congenital Heart Disease column by council chair Dr. Greg Ensing about the most recent Scientific Sessions, and a photo spread of the Nashville Scientific Sessions events and awards.

Discount rates for the 7th Annual Echo Florida course expire this Friday, September 7. Echo Florida takes place October 7-9 and is a comprehensive review of cardiovascular ultrasound in clinical practice with an additional offering of a preconference Learning Lab on October 6. Course Director, Gerard P. Aurigemma, MD, FASE and Co-Director Linda D. Gillam, MD, FASE, have created a program with a heavy emphasis on case-based learning that includes fun opportunities for the participants to interact with the faculty. Download the Advance Program, register, and learn more at ASEcho.org/EchoFlorida.

Mark your calendars! Submissions are now open for the 29th Annual Echo Hawaii. Don’t miss out and escape the January gloom. Submit your basic or clinical research for a chance to present in paradise. Submissions are free, and authors chosen to present receive $100 off their conference registration. Visit the website to review all the details for 2019’s Call to Science on the Big Island. Submission closes Thursday, November 1st.

Interact with your colleagues in our next Twitter Journal Club on Tuesday, September 4, from 8:00 – 9:00 PM US EST. From the Journal of American Society of Echocardiography, this month’s Twitter Journal Club will review  Cardiac Point-of-Care Ultrasound: State-of-the-Art in Medical School Education (Amer M. Johri, MD, MSc, FRCPC, FASE, Joshua Durbin, MD, MSc, Joseph Newbigging, MD, CCFP(EM), FCFP, Robert Tanzola, MD, FRCPC, Ryan Chow, BSc, Sabe De, MD, FRCPC, and James Tam, MD, FRCP(C), FACC).

Follow @ASE360, and please plan to join ASE’s journal club, including moderator Dr. Ritu Thamman as she discusses the article, with POCUS expert and co-author, Dr. Amer Johri. Be sure to use the hashtag, #ASEchoJC for all tweets. If you have any questions, please contact us.

Do you have a teacher and/or mentor whose impact you can still feel? ASE is looking for those excellent instructors/mentors to honor them at the 30th Annual Scientific Sessions in Portland, OR, June 21-25, 2019. Please consider nominating your mentor for one of these prestigious awards:

• Richard Popp Excellence in Teaching Award
• ASE Mentorship Award

The deadline for nominations is October 15, 2018.  Please contact awards@asecho.org with any questions. Detailed criteria and a list of former recipients and their topics are available on the ASE Awards Page.

The new and improved ASE Portal has made contributing to the ASEF Annual Appeal easier than ever before. Log on to see for yourself and while you’re there, consider becoming an ASEF monthly sustainer. You now have the ability to set the amount you’d like to donate and the number of months you would like to donate for, or choose lifetime, to provide reliable, consistent funding to the Foundation.

Join the dedicated group of ASE Foundation Sustainers giving back to the field of echo on a monthly basis. If you have any questions, please contact foundation@asecho.org. We love to hear from our donors – you are what makes us successful!