The ASE Workflow and Lab Management Task Force is working to summarize guidelines to improve implementation of the guidelines in all echo labs. We are pleased to offer the first Guideline Summary Document: ASE’s Recommendations for Cardiac Chamber Quantification in Adults: A Quick Reference Guide from the ASE Workflow and Lab Management Task Force. We would love to hear any comments or suggestions you may have to improve the format or content. Please contact us here.

ASE is accepting applications for Board Officers and Directors for service beginning June 2019 as well as several other Society awards. Check out the links below to see how you can nominate someone for the Board or an award. New Officers and Board members will be inducted at the 30th Annual Scientific Sessions in Portland, OR, June 21-25, 2019. Awards will also be presented during the Awards Presentations and Edler Plenary Session during the Annual Scientific Sessions in June.

Call for Officers and Directors
Feigenbaum Lecturer
Richard Popp Excellence in Teaching Award
ASE Mentorship Award

Do you, or someone you know, qualify for one of these prestigious honors? Make sure you do not miss the upcoming deadline of October 15, 2018. If you have any questions about ASE’s awards or nomination process, please feel free to contact madilday@asecho.org.

It’s time to plan ahead and join us for the 29th Annual Echo Hawaii, January 21-25, 2019, on the beautiful Kohala Coast at the newly renovated The Westin Hapuna Beach Resort. Expert U.S. and international faculty will discuss state-of-the-art technologies with a particular focus on how they can be effectively applied in the clinical setting. Echo Hawaii Abstract Submissions will open September 1. Visit the website to review all the details for 2019’s Call to Science on the Big Island. Download the Advance Program and register today.

The ASE Foundation is now accepting nominations for the 2019 Alan D. Waggoner Student Scholarship Awards, the UltraEcho, Ltd. Cardiovascular Student Travel Grant, and the Feigenbaum Cardiovascular Student Travel Grant! Click the links to learn about each award’s nomination criteria and deadline. CAAHEP accredited DMS and CVT cardiac sonography program directors should start thinking of the students they will nominate today.

The ASE Foundation proudly offers numerous travel grants and scholarships to support the training and educational conference participation of the next generation of cardiovascular ultrasound professionals. This is one way in which ASEF is ensuring that echocardiography continues to play a prominent role in the future of healthcare.

Consider allocating your next donation to Travel Grants & Scholarships as #YourPriority so the ASE Foundation can continue its quest to foster the next generation of cardiovascular ultrasound professionals!

The ASE Echo Image Calendar has become a very popular member renewal gift over the past four years. Members are encouraged to upload images for the 2019 Image Calendar Contest by Monday, August 13. Voting for the favorite images to be included in the colorful, 12-month calendar will begin on August 15 and close on Friday, September 14. The 2019 calendar will be mailed to all members who renew by December 31, 2018.

To upload your images, head to the ASE 2019 Calendar Contest Library on Connect@ASE:

1. Login to Connect@ASE using your username (email address) and password.
2. Using the top navigation, scroll to Libraries.
3. Click on Image Library.
4. Click on the folder called ASE 2019 Calendar Contest.
5. Click “New” under Folder Contents on the right hand side of the menu and upload your image. Image files need to be no larger than 30 MB.
6. You are able to upload as many images as you would like.

Please note this is a membership competition and is open to members only. If you have any questions, please contact Arissa Cooper at acooper@asecho.org.

ASE is pleased to partner with the Society of Critical Care Medicine (SCCM) to provide the inaugural Critical Care Echocardiography Review Course. Many ASE leaders helped develop this two-and-a-half-day course which will educate attendees in all aspects of echocardiography in critically ill patients and help physicians prepare for the critical care echocardiography board examination offered by the National Board of Echocardiography in January 2019. We encourage our ASE members to share this information with their critical care peers. The deadline for early registration is September 12. Click here for more information and to register.

We are thrilled to announce that CASE, ASE’s cardiovascular imaging online case reports journal, is now live in PubMed Central back to Volume 1, Issue 1 that was published in February 2017. There are many people to recognize for their efforts to attain this achievement including the CASE Co-Editors-in-Chief Karen G. Zimmerman, BS, ACS, RDCS, RVT, FASE, and L. Leonardo Rodriguez, MD, FASE, FACC, and the entire CASE Editorial Board who worked tirelessly to publish this exemplary peer-reviewed journal. We would also like to extend our heartfelt gratitude to the authors who have submitted to and published in CASE as well as CASE publisher Elsevier. This is a great accomplishment for everyone associated with the journal and our Society.

The August issue of JASE, now online, includes the article, “Impact of Diabetes and Increasing Body Mass Index Category on Left Ventricular Systolic and Diastolic Function,” by Arnold C.T. Ng, MBBS, PhD, Francesca Prevedello, MD, Giulia Dolci, MD, Cornelis J. Roos, MD, Roxana Djaberi, MD, Matteo Bertini, MD, PhD, See Hooi Ewe, MBBS, Christine Allman, MSc, Dominic Y. Leung, MBBS, PhD, Nina Ajmone Marsan, MD, PhD, Victoria Delgado, MD, PhD, and Jeroen J. Bax, MD, PhD. Lead author Dr. Ng said that, “Diabesity, the combination of type 2 diabetes and obesity, is a growing worldwide epidemic that contributes to cardiovascular disease. This multicenter study demonstrated the concurrent additive detrimental effects of diabetes and increasing body mass index on left ventricular (LV) myocardial systolic and diastolic function, with increasing obesity associated with greater LV myocardial dysfunction than diabetes. Therefore, future clinical studies on diabetes should also focus on obesity in this patient population.”

Also in this issue is a state-of-the-art review, “Transcatheter Mitral Valve Implantation in Degenerated Bioprosthetic Valves,” as well as papers on coronary artery disease, pulmonary hypertension, cardiometabolics, appropriate use of echocardiography, cardio-oncology, and pediatric cardiomyopathies. The blue pages include ASE President Dr. Jonathan Lindner’s message exploring ASE’s international relations and a COPE column by Drs. G. Burkhard Mackensen and Alina Nicoara on improving the quality and reporting of perioperative echocardiography.

Registry Chair Dr. Sherif Nagueh (center in picture) and ASE staffers, Sarah Beth Bdoyan and Robin Wiegerink traveled with their ASNC partner representatives to CMS Headquarters in Baltimore, MD, on Thursday, July 26, to advocate for the inclusion of echocardiography in physician-established QCDR performance measures. These performance measures will help members facilitate meeting reporting requirements under MIPS through involvement in ImageGuideEcho™, a module under the ImageGuide Registry® platform. ImageGuideEcho is the first echo-specific clinical data registry. For more information about this registry and other efforts in ImageGuideEcho, contact info@imageguideecho.org.