In This Issue:
 President's Message
Help Push the Smoke-free Bill Over the Brink
Chapter Celebrates 20th Annual Conference
Call for Cases and Abstracts
Chiropractors Seek to Expand Scope of Practice
MDCH Forms EMS Task Force
Cut To the Chase with Congress
President's Message
Hank Rosman, MD
Kudos to Stuart Winston, DO
In my year as president-elect, I learned to appreciate more what our Chapter does for its members and the College as a whole. Stuart Winston has represented us extraordinarily well in his three years of dedicated service. The College recognized Dr. Winston and Alice Betz with the Venti HERO Award, the highest honor it can bestow a state Chapter. I thank him for his talented and tireless work, noting here a few of his accomplishments:
Built on the success of the Chapter’s first quality initiative (Heart Failure Discharge Documentation Initiative) with the Cardiovascular Discharge Documentation Initiative.
Enthusiastically embraced ACC’s D2B project and led Michigan to 100% participation
Led a working group to draft Recommendations for the Judicious Use of ICDs.
Led an effort to disseminate competency criteria to hospital administrators and credentialing boards to advocate for ICD implantation by appropriately trained physicians.
Brought ACC’s Diabetes Initiative to Michigan
Successfully garnered many Michigan’s specialty society’s support for the Freedom of Practice in Medical Imaging resolution in the MSMS House of Delegates (HOD) and negotiated with the leaders of the Michigan Radiology Society to arrive at mutually agreeable language. The resolution was passed by the HOD.
Spearheaded changes to the Chapter bylaws that allow for broad representation for the entire "House of Cardiology."
Looking For A Few Good Ambassadors
It is likely that enormous changes soon will take place in the practice, education, and financing of cardiology. Clearly, our statewide community of cardiologists will benefit if we develop excellent means of communication with each other and with the national ACC.
In this light, please help us develop a new Michigan Chapter ACC communication network to ensure that all our members are aware of and can enhance the Chapter's efforts in education, quality, and advocacy. Our experience and expertise can advance the understanding of our legislators, health partners, and major payers. We can help develop educational and quality programs, rather than have them foisted upon us. Even more importantly, the network can provide a vehicle through which members' concerns will be brought to the Chapter Council and the national ACC.
I hope to recruit one "ambassador" at each practice and institution. Utilizing a monthly email briefing from me and Ms. Betz and this bi-monthly E-News, the ambassadors will be asked to speak to Chapter issues at their regularly scheduled practice/staff meetings and to take note of issues and ideas that should be communicated back to the Chapter. It's an ambitious undertaking, but I believe the benefits will be substantial.
If you are interested in serving as the ambassador for your practice or institution, please contact me (hank.rosman@accmi.org) or Chapter Executive Secretary Alice Betz (alice@accmi.org).
Help Push the Smoke-free Bill Over the Brink
In our last newsletter we wrote that the Michigan legislature was “on the brink” of passing smoke-free air legislation, but it seems “the brink” keeps moving. Here the story:
Dec. 5, 2007 -- HB4163 which would make all workplaces smoke-free except casinos, bingo halls, and cigar bars passes the House and is referred to the Senate Government Operations Committee.
May 8, 2008 -- HB4163 is discharged from the Government Operations Committee and goes to the Senate floor where a substitute is introduced that removes all exemptions. The substitute bill passes the Senate and goes back to the House for concurrence.
May 28, 2008 -- The House, reluctant to pass the Senate's version of HB4163 mostly because it prohibits smoking in casinos, passes a new bill that exempts gambling areas of casinos, licensed bingo events, non-food service areas of race tracks, cigar bars, and specialty retail stores. This bill, HB5074, is referred to the Senate Government Operations Committee.
The House still has possession of HB4163 (the bill with no exemptions) and the Senate has HB5074 (the bill that exempts gambling areas of casinos, etc.). The Michigan Chapter ACC and the Campaign for Smoke-free Air support HB4163 and will continue to ask the Speaker of the House to put it up for a concurrence vote.
You can help push HB4163 “over the brink"...
1. Call 1-888-NOW-I-CAN and ask to be transferred to your state Representative’s office to urge quick action to concur with the Senate passed version of HB 4163. The toll-free number is available daily from 9 am to 7 pm.
2. Call Speaker Andy Dillon’s office to urge him to put HB4163 -- a comprehensive smoke-free workplace bill with NO EXEMPTIONS – up for a concurrence vote. His office number is 517-373-0857.
Even if you have called before . . .call again . . . it is the voice of the grassroots that will push this bill "over the brink."
Cardiology Day at the Capitol Boosts Smoke-free Efforts
Eighteen Chapter members came to Lansing in April to ask legislators for their support of smoke-free air legislation. Breaking for lunch are (left to right) Claire Duvernoy, MD, Sanjay Bhojraj, MD, Alan Silverman, DO, David Lanfear, MD, and Frank Pelosi, MD.
MDCH Forms EMS Task Force
The Michigan Department of Community Health (MDCH) has formed a new task force to assess the capacity of Emergency Medical Service (EMS) in Michigan to handle cardiovascular emergencies. The basis of the project, funded by the Centers for Disease Prevention & Control, is a comprehensive assessment of EMS related to heart attack and stroke emergency care.
The task force will include experts in the field of Emrgency Medicine, Ambulance Providers, Medical Control Authorities, Cardiovascular and Neurology Medicine, Public Health and others. The Chapter's representative is Jim McCord, MD, Henry Ford Hospital.
The mission of the task force is to develop recommendations and strategies that will result in a seamless, high functioning EMS that delivers the highest quality emergency CVD care throughout the state.
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20th Annual
Michigan Chapter Conference
Sep. 26-28, 2008
Grand Traverse Resort
Featuring
David R. Holmes, MD
Mayo Clinic College of Medicine
Bruce D. Lindsay, MD
Immediate Past President, Heart Rhythm Society
W. Douglas Weaver, MD
President, American College of Cardiology
Watch www.accmi.org for more details.
Michigan's cardiology fellows are invited to participate in the Michigan Cardiology Fellow Society's Poster and Oral Case Competitions to be held in conjunction with the Chapter's Annual Conference.
$500 first prize and $250 second prize for both competitions.
plus
All presenters will receive complimentary lodging for one night and a $50 credit on the second night's lodging at the conference hotel.
For complete details go to www.accmi.org
Senate Bill 908 would expand chiropractors' scope of practice from the "spinal column" to the entire "musculoskeletal system" and allow chiropractors to order MRI, CT scans, PET scans, and almost any other imaging test. MSMS steadfastly opposes this bill, maintaining that it raises serious concerns about patient safety and overall health care costs.
For more information go to http://educatedontlegislate.org
ACC President W. Douglas Weaver, MD urges every ACC member to call their Senator to urge support for an 18-month positive update in physician payments, while opposing any cuts to physician services such as medical imaging.
Click here to view Dr. Weaver's letter that details the issue.
To place a call to your Senator call the ACC Grassroots Hotline: 1-800-210-7193
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