Upon completion of the activity, participants will demonstrate improved competence and ability to: 

For the Certification Examination in Advanced Heart Failure and Transplant Cardiology:

1. Identify gaps in knowledge about advanced heart failure and transplant cardiology
2. Focus study efforts on filling identified knowledge gaps
3. Practice for the certification examination with ABIM-style multiple-choice test questions

For Clinical Practice:

1. Describe the epidemiology of heart failure, including environmental factors, and implement strategies for the prevention of heart failure
2. Describe the pathophysiology of heart failure, including normal physiology and compensatory and maladaptive mechanisms
3. Assess and follow the patient with acute or advanced heart failure, using non-invasive and invasive tests and biomarkers.
4. Implement guideline-based therapy for patients with chronic heart failure, including pharmacologic agents; non-pharmacologic options, such as diet and exercise; and implantable devices
5. Implement appropriate care strategies for patients undergoing chemotherapy or with pulmonary hypertension, heart failure with preserved ejection fraction, or cardiorenal syndrome.
6. Manage comorbidities in patients with chronic heart failure, including sleep disordered breathing, anemia, and depression
7. Implement strategies for effective disease management of the patient with advanced heart failure, including palliative care and transition to outpatient care
8. Provide peri-operative management of heart failure patients undergoing cardiac transplantation or implantation of a mechanical circulatory device
9. Concise presentations by national experts will focus on blueprint content and will be augmented by board-review type questions posed using an audience-response system.

Akshay S. Desai, MD, MPH, FHFSA

Medical Director, Cardiomyopathy and Heart Failure Program,

Advanced Heart Disease Section

Brigham and Women’s Hospital

Boston, MA

Jonathan Rich, MD, FHFSA

Associate Professor of Medicine

Northwestern University, Feinberg School of Medicine

Medical Director, Mechanical Circulatory Support Program

Program Director, Advanced Heart Failure and Transplant Fellowship

Bluhm Cardiovascular Institute, Northwestern Memorial Hospital

Chicago, IL

Nancy Sweitzer, MD, PhD, FHFSA

Professor of Medicine

Chief of Cardiology

Director, Sarver Heart Center

University of Arizona

Tucson, AZ

Meredith Brisco-Bacik, MD, MSCE

Associate Professor of Medicine

Director, Heart Failure Clinical Research

Advanced Heart Failure and Cardiac Transplantation

The Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University

Philadelphia, PA

Daniel Burkhoff, MD, PhD

Columbia University

New York, NY

Jennifer Cowger, MD, MS

Medical Director of Mechanical Circulatory Support Program

Co-Director of the Cardiac Intensive Care Unit

Henry Ford Hospitals, Detroit Michigan

Associate Professor, Wayne State University

Detroit, MI

Akshay S. Desai, MD, MPH, FHFSA

Medical Director, Cardiomyopathy and Heart Failure Program,

Advanced Heart Disease Section

Brigham and Women’s Hospital

Boston, MA

Mark Drazner, MD, MSc, FHFSA

Clinical Chief of Cardiology

Medical Director of the LVAD and Cardiac Transplantation Program Professor

University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center

Dallas, TX

James Fang, MD, FHFSA

Professor of Medicine

Chief, Division of Cardiovascular Medicine

Executive Director, Cardiovascular Service Line

University of Utah

Salt Lake City, UT

Sadiya Khan, MD, MSc

Associate Professor of Medicine – Cardiology

Associate Professor of Preventive Medicine – Epidemiology

Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

Chicago, IL

Michelle Kittleson, MD, PHD

Professor of Medicine

Director of Post Graduate Medical Education in Heart Failure and Transplantation

Director of Heart Failure Research

Cedars Sinai Medical Center

Beverly Hills, CA

Liviu Klein, MD, MS

Associate Professor of Medicine

Division of Cardiology, University of California San Francisco

Director, Cardiology Clinical Research

Director, Mechanical Circulatory Support & Heart Failure Device Program

University of California, San Francisco

San Francisco, CA

Eric Krieger, MD

Associate Professor of Medicine

Director, Seattle Adult Congenital Heart Service

Director, Adult Congenital Heart Disease Fellowship

Attending Physician, University of Washington Medical Center

University of Washington School of Medicine

Seattle Children’s Hospital

Seattle, WA

Gregory Lewis, MD

Section Head, Heart Failure

Director, Cardiopulmonary Exercise Testing Laboratory

Medical Director, Cardiac Transplantation Program

Massachusetts General Hospital

Boston, MA

Jon Lomasney, MD

Associate Professor of Pathology

Associate Professor of Pharmacology

Feinberg School of Medicine of Northwestern University

Chicago, IL

Anju Nohria, MD, MSc

Associate Physician, Brigham and Women’s Hospital

Assistant Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School

Boston, MA

Sean Pinney, MD

Director, Advanced Heart Failure and Transplantation Program

The Mount Sinai Hospital

New York, NY

Jonathan Rich, MD, FHFSA

Associate Professor of Medicine

Northwestern University, Feinberg School of Medicine

Medical Director, Mechanical Circulatory Support Program

Program Director, Advanced Heart Failure and Transplant Fellowship

Bluhm Cardiovascular Institute, Northwestern Memorial Hospital

Chicago, IL

Joseph Rogers, MD

Chief Medical Officer

Duke University Health System

Professor of Medicine – Cardiology

Duke University

Durham, NC

Sanjiv Shah, MD

Stone Professor of Medicine

Director of Research, Bluhm Cardiovascular Institute

Director, Northwestern HFpEF Program

Division of Cardiology, Department of Medicine

Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

Chicago, IL

Nancy Sweitzer, MD, PhD, FHFSA

Professor of Medicine

Chief of Cardiology

Director, Sarver Heart Center

University of Arizona

Tucson, AZ

Jane Wilcox, MD, MSc, FHFSA

Assistant Professor of Medicine

Director, Myocardial Recovery Program

Associate Director, T1 Center for

Cardiovascular Therapeutics

Bluhm Cardiovascular Institute

Chicago, IL

Clyde W. Yancy, MD, MSc, FHFSA

Vice-Dean, Diversity & Inclusion

Chief of Cardiology

Professor of Medicine

Professor, Medical Social Sciences

Associate Director

Bluhm Cardiovascular Institute

Deputy Editor, JAMA Cardiology

Chicago, IL

Credit Designation

This HFSA Board Review Certification Course has been designed based on the competencies identified with practice in the area of Advanced Heart Failure and Transplant Cardiology.

These competencies include epidemiology, causes and management of patients with HF, management of hospitalized patients, management of comorbidities, cardiac surgery in HF, medical management of the heart transplant patient and patients with mechanical circulatory support, and evaluation and management of patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension.

Physicians

The Heart Failure Society of America is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education to provide continuing medical education for physicians.

The Heart Failure Society of America designates this live activity for a maximum of 19 AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.

Successful completion of this CME activity, which includes participation in the post course evaluation with a passing score of 80% on the posttests, enables the participant to earn up to 19 MOC points in the Maintenance of Certification (MOC) program. 

Participants of the live virtual activity wishing to claim MOC must complete requirements no later than Monday, November 23, 2020. This will allow time for the HFSA, the CME provider, to submit the participant’s completion information to ACCME for the purpose of granting ABIM MOC credit.

The Heart Failure Society of America (HFSA) is committed to ensuring balance, independence, objectivity, and scientific rigor in its educational activities. HFSA has a disclosure policy that requires oral presenters to disclose all relevant financial relationships for themselves and their spouse or partner during the past 12 months with any commercial entity producing, marketing, re-selling, or distributing health care goods or services consumed by, or used on patients and related to the content of the activity, whether or not these commercial entities are supporters of the activity.

Speakers will have a disclosure slide at the beginning of each presentation. All potential conflicts of interests have been resolved in accordance with the ACCME Updated Standards for Commercial Support.

The following faculty and/or accreditors with ability to control content for this activity have no conflict of interest:

• Meredith Brisco-Bacik, MD, MSCE
• Mark Drazner, MD, MSc, FHFSA
• Sadiya Khan, MD, MSc
• Michelle Kittleson, MD, PHD
• Eric Krieger, MD
• Gregory Lewis, MD
• Jon Lomasney, MD
• Joseph Rogers, MD
• Sanjiv Shah, MD

The following faculty and/or accreditors with ability to control content for this activity have listed the below disclosures:

• Daniel Burkhoff, MD, PhD – Research Grant: Abiomed (Education),Ancora Medical, Tenax,Fire 1; Ownership Interest: PV Loops LLC (non-relevant financial relationship); Consultant-Advisory Board: BackBeat Medical, CardioDyme, Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Medtronic, Axon THerapies; Corvia, PVLoops LLC
• Jennifer Cowger, MD, MS – Research Grant: Abbott, Medtronic; Speaker-Honoraria: Abbott, Medtronic; Consultant-Advisory Board: Abbott, Medtronic
• Akshay Desai, MD, MPH, FHFSA – Research Grant: Alnylam; AstraZeneca; Novartis; Consultant-Advisory Board: Abbott; Alnylam; AstraZeneca; Amgen; Biofourmis; Noston Scientific; Boehringer-Ingelheim; Corvidia; DalCor Pharma; Merck; Novartis; Relypsa; Regeneron
• James C. Fang, MD, FHFSA – Consultant/Advisory Board: Novartis, Amgen, Capricor, Johnson & Johnson, American Heart Association, NIH, AstraZeneca, BI/Lily, Abbott
• Liviu Klein, MD, MS – Consultant-Advisory Board: Boston Scientific (Steering Committee); Medtronic (Steering Committee)
• Anju Nohria, MD, MSc – Research Grant: Amgen, Inc.; Consultant-Advisory Board: Takeda Oncology
• Sean Pinney, MD – Speaker-Honoraria: CareDX; Consultant-Advisory Board: CareDx
• Jonathan D. Rich, MD, FHFSA – Consultant-Advisory Board: Bayer
• Nancy Sweitzer, MD, PhD, FHFSA – Research Grant: Merck, Novartis; Consultant-Advisory Board: Myokardia
• Jane Wilcox, MD, MSc, FHFSA – Speaker-Honoraria: Medtronic; Consultant-Advisory Board: Cytokinetics
• Clyde Yancy, MD, MSc, FHFSA – Financial Disclosure: Spousal employment at Abbott, Inc.

OFF-LABEL DISCLOSURE

This CME activity may or may not discuss investigational, unapproved, or off-label use of drugs. Participants are advised to consult prescribing information for any products discussed. The information provided in this CME activity is for continuing medical education purposes only and is not meant to substitute for the independent medical judgment of a physician relative to diagnostic and treatment options for a specific patient’s medical condition.

The Heart Failure Society of America acknowledges the following for providing an unrestricted educational grant to support this year’s HFSA Virtual Board Certification Review Course:

Abbott
Amgen
AstraZeneca

Medtronic
Merck

Relypsa