Minutes of ASE Pediatric and Congenital Heart Disease (PCHD ...

Minutes of ASE Pediatric and Congenital Heart Disease (PCHD) Council Board Meeting
April 3, 2011
New Orleans, LA
Chair Wyman W. Lai called the meeting to order at 6 p.m. and read the conflict of interest statement.
Members in attendance included Carolyn Altman, Michael Earing, Ben Eidem, Helen Ko, Mark Lewin, Leo
Lopez, Andrew Powell, and Richard Williams. Peter Frommelt and Luc Mertens called in to the meeting.
Steve Cohen and Tal Geva attended as guests, and Cathy Kerr served as staff.
1. Approval of Minutes: Upon proper motion and second, the minutes of the December 2, 2010
conference call and June 11, 2010 meeting were approved.
2. Scientific Sessions Program Update: Dr. Lewin said that the program is very full, and features
excellent speakers. In the future, the PCHD Council representative will recommend that funding
for the Fireside Chat interview and pathologist for the Congenital Heart Disease Symposium, if
not an echocardiographer, be included in the Scientific Sessions budget at the initial meeting of
the Program Committee.
ACTION ITEM: Dr. Border will present a budget request to the 2012 program committee.
3. Scientific Session Travel Grant: The task force opted to offer a $1500 travel grant to Dr. Jarrod
Knudson. Drs. Matthew Ferguson and Alexander Lowenthal will each receive a $250 mentorship
grant.
ACTION ITEM: Staff will contact the award winners, who will be announced in our Spring
newsletter. The Travel Grant Committee will select mentors for the ASE Annual Scientific
Sessions. Dr. Eidem will present a plaque to Dr. Knudson at the PCHD Council Board Business
Meeting.
4. News from the ASE Board Retreat: Dr. Lai reported that ASE’s finances were strong, and
explained that there were sessions about NBE/ABIM certification programs. He also talked about
a report by a consultant on the potential for fundraising by the ASE Foundation.
5. Pediatric Echocardiography Exam: There was discussion of the pros and cons of a separate
credentialing exam for pediatric echocardiography.
ACTION ITEM: Dr. Mertens will look into the European model for this and report on it at the June
meeting.
6. Voting for Pediatric Council Board members: Dr. Lopez was elected as PCHD Council Board
Chair-Elect; Dr. Mertens was elected as Scientific Sessions Program Co-Chair for the council; Drs.
Piers Barker and Mark Friedberg were elected as Council Board Members-at-Large.
ACTION ITEM: Dr. Lai will notify all of the nominees of the election results. The council needs to
elect a sonographer to sit on the board, and staff will contact Jane Marshall and Joe Kreeger to
assess their interest and get short bios from them to use on an electronic ballot.
7. Spring Newsletter: Coming soon. Dr. Eidem reviewed the lineup:
Message from chair
SS pediatric event preview
Council business meeting and awards announcement: Staff
Founders’ award
Fireside Chat presentation: from Dr. Eidem (already in)
Bios of new pediatric council board members (staff)
Guidelines update
Board list (with notation of new board members for 2011-12)
Article on Connect (already in)
Coding corner (already in)

ACTION ITEM: Staff to work with Dr. Eidem to complete the newsletter.
8. Z –Score Project: Drs. Lopez and Lai led the discussion of this project. Options for collecting data
include using core labs to do all measurements, or having participating institutions do
measurements and enter them into a database. Potential funding avenues include NIH and the
ASE Foundation. Analysis of subsets (gender, race, culture) would be important for applying to
NIH. The project could be thought of as a product rather than as a straight research project, as
revenue could be produced by it. Labs might participate in exchange for access to data, but
would need to know how much time it would take. There was consensus to proceed with a
proposal that could be used to test the waters for funding. Costs would include funding a
repository for images, analysis of data, and quality monitoring of test sites.
ACTION ITEM: Drs. Lopez and Lai will circulate a second draft of the proposal. The goal is for
distribution of the proposal to the potential funding entities prior to the upcoming ASE meeting.
9. Guidelines and Writing Groups
� Echocardiography in the NICU writing group – Drs. Mertens and Lai noted that this
document has been circulated to the council leadership and sent to Guidelines and
Standards, where suggestions for revisions were made. Those changes have been made
and the document is back with Guidelines and Standards. Approval within the next few
weeks is anticipated. The document will be co-published with two European societies
and AAP.
� Multimodality Imaging Guidelines for Repaired Tetralogy of Fallot – an outline for this
paper has been distributed by Dr. Valente. A similar format could be used for this and
the TGA guideline, but there will be some differences, as the TOF document deals with
post-operative patients only.
� Multimodality Imaging Guidelines for Transposition of the Great Arteries – Dr. Eidem
said that a writing group has just been formed, and that he will have an outline of the
paper ready to be reviewed in June.
10. Laboratory Productivity Survey: Dr. Lai noted that the final draft of the survey has been
distributed to council leadership. A list of recipients is being compiled and will be circulated so
that council leaders can add names and help insure that the addresses are correct.
ACTION ITEM: Drs. Lai and Allada will work with staff to send out the survey. Results will be
presented at the upcoming ASE meeting.
11. Council Statement on Age cut-off for Pediatric Echocardiography: There was consensus that the
council is unable to make a recommendation at this time, as more data would be needed and
there is no current policy on having pediatric cardiologists see all young patients.
12. JASE Pages:
a. June (due 4/18): Dr Lai to prepare after the ACC meeting.
b. September (due 7/18)
c. December (due 10/18)
13. IPod Application: An application has been developed for ASE guidelines and consensus
documents, and a calculator included. Dr. Powell said that the inclusion of pediatric Z score data
has been delayed, but that Dr. Colan is willing to allow use of the Boston Z score data. We might
want to include more than one set (perhaps Boston, Michigan and Washington data). An ASE
pediatric application that incorporates the top three sets in use would be ideal.
ACTION ITEM: Dr. Powell will discuss this with the IT Committee.
Next Meeting – ASE Council Retreat, Friday, June 10, 7 pm to 10 pm

There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 9:40 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Cathy Kerr, Staff for Dr. Wyman W. Lai, Chair
Attachments: Minutes from June meeting and January conference call

Minutes of ASE Council on Pediatric and Congenital Heart Disease Conference Call
Thursday, December 2, 2010
The call was brought to order by Chairman Wyman Lai, MD at 12 noon EST. Members in attendance were
Drs. Benjamin Eidem, Peter Frommelt, Leo Lopez, Mark Lewin, William Border, Meryl Cohen, Andrew
Powell, Carrie Altman, Luc Mertens, and Richard Williams; and Sonographer Representative Helen Ko.
Cathy Kerr, CAE staffed the call.
1. Quantitative writing group update: Dr. Lopez reported that a project proposal for universal Z
scores is being developed and will need funding (estimated at approximately $1.5M). The holdup
on the project is the statistical justification for the number of patients needed. The proposal will
be shared with the Council Board, and then sent to ASE leadership for approval. NIH will be
approached for funding. The proposal will include M-mode, Doppler and 2D; NIH may be asked
for direction regarding inclusion of 3D.
ACTION ITEM: Drs. Lopez and Lai to finalize proposal and send out to Council Board members for
review in December.
2. Echo in the NICU guideline: Dr. Mertens said that a final version will be circulated to council
board members within the next few weeks. The document has three parts: TNE, including
indications and protocol aspects; conditions; and training/accreditation. Once the council
approves, this will go to the Guidelines and Standards Committee and board. It may then be
shared with other organizations that may wish to sign on to it.
ACTION ITEM: Dr. Mertens and Lai to finalize and send out a draft for Council Board members to
review in December. The approved version will be sent to the Guidelines & Standards Committee
for approval. Following that, the guidelines will be forwarded to the collaborating European
societies and AAP for review, and then to the ASE Board (preferably before the March 17-18
Board Retreat).
3. Multimodality protocols: Dr. Lai led a discussion regarding “lumping” or “splitting” the guideline
topics. An earlier bottleneck had occurred at the formation of the TOF writing group due to slow
interactions with SCMR. The Council Board decided to keep the TOF and TGA topics separate,
with a new strategy of drawing writing group members solely from the ASE.
ACTION ITEM(S): Dr Anne Marie Valente and Dr. Tal Geva will continue working on the writing
group on TOF. Dr. Eidem will head a writing group on TGA. A third document on single ventricle
will be kept on hold for now.
4. PCHD Committee on Laboratory Organization and Productivity: the goal is to gather data on the
number of echos performed, staffing, number of machines, how physician time is organized, etc.
Dr. Lai distributed a document, which is attached.
ACTION ITEM: Council Board members will review the survey and send suggestions to Dr. Lai in
the next two weeks. Drs. Vivek Allada, Lai, Frommelt, and Cohen will produce a new version
incorporating suggestions that will be filled out by the Council Board members as a means of
testing the survey. Once finalized, the survey will be sent out to academic pediatric echo lab
directors.
5. Committee reports: council representatives to ASE committees have received an e-mail from
Cathy Kerr asking for their interest in continuing and their assessment of the possibility of
attaining a leadership position on their committees. Members who have not yet done so were
asked to send this information to her.

6. Elections and committee nominations: Drs Lai, Eidem and Lewin will serve as the Council’s
nominating committee. Staff sent the Council Board members a list of open positions.
ACTION ITEM: Council Board members are asked to send any recommendations to the
committee members.
7. Founders’ award: Three nominees were discussed, and the council board members voted and
have chosen Dr. James Huhta as the recipient of the 2011 award. A letter of nomination will be
sent to the ASE Awards Committee for approval.
ACTION ITEM: Dr. Lai will contact Dr. Huhta, and will draft the letter of nomination.
8. 2011 Annual Scientific Sessions: Dr. Mark Lewin described the pediatric and congenital heart
disease program. Drs. Stephen Sanders will participate in the echo-path-surgery correlation
sessions of Saturday. Dr. Norman Silverman will be interviewing Dr. Abe Rudolph for the fireside
chat. Since there will be a need for continued funding of faculty who are not echocardiographers
(surgeon, pathologist, and pediatric cardiology luminary), the Council Board will seek an avenue
for the funding these guest speakers.
ACTION ITEM: Drs. Lewin, Lai and Eidem to draft a letter to ASE leadership requesting annual
funding for non-echocardiography faculty.
9. 2011 Travel Grant review committee: As last year, there will be a single 2011 travel grant award.
We will select one grant winner and two awardees for mentorship during the ASE meeting.
ACTION ITEM: Drs Cohen, Altman and Williams will review applicants for 2011 travel grants.
10. ICAEL and lab accreditation: new ICAEL guidelines have been posted, and are slightly different
from those recommended in the ASE Pediatric Guideline.
11. FASE for board members: Dr. Lai reminded the board of the importance of applying for the FASE
credential.
There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 1:40 p.m
Respectfully submitted,
Cathy Kerr, CAE
For Wyman Lai, MD, FASE, Chair
Minutes of Pediatric and Congenital Heart Disease Council Board Retreat
June 11, 2010, 6-10 p.m.
Marriott San Diego Hotel and Marina
Dr. Wyman Lai called the meeting to order and reviewed the conflict of interest statement at 6 p.m.
Members in attendance included Drs. Nancy Ayers, Leo Lopez, Carolyn Altman, LuAnn Minich, Mark
Lewin, William Border, Richard Williams, Gregory Ensing, Ben Eidem and Anne Marie Valente;
sonographer representative Helen Ko; and staff Cathy Kerr and Adrienne Coats. Dr. Andrew Powell
attended by conference call.
Approval of Minutes: upon proper motion and second, minutes of the March 14 meeting were approved.
Dr. Lai welcomed incoming board members: Michael Earing, MD; Meryl Cohen, MD, FASE; Andrew
Powell, MD; and Richard Williams, MD. He thanked outgoing Council Board members Lloyd Tani, MD;
Anne Marie Valente, MD; LuAnn Minich, MD; Nancy Ayres, MD for their service, and expressed
appreciation for Mark Lewin, MD becoming program chair; Leo Lopez, MD becoming SOPE representative;
and William Border, MD becoming program co-chair. He also noted that Dr. LuAnn Minich is a newly
elected member of the ASE Board of Directors; Dr. Greg Ensing is an outgoing ASE Board member.

Committee Updates: In reports to the Council Board, committee liaisons provided the following updates:
Awards Committee
Dr. Peter Frommelt reported that the Awards Committee proposed a system for recognition of
sonographer excellence by mimicking the pediatric council—an award will be given yearly to a
sonographer in ASE, with a lifetime achievement award alternating with a distinguished teacher award.
This was prompted by a large contingent of excellent sonographer nominees for the teacher award this
year, including a pediatric representative; the lifetime achievement award will be vetted and a nominee
put forth by the sonography council.
Finance Committee
Dr. Gregory Ensing reports that because of ASE's conservative investment strategy, and reasonably
aggressive cost cutting over the last 2 years, ASE remains in a favorable financial status with total assets
similar to those before the economic decline of the last several years. Cuts made were in the areas of
meeting "extras", limited funding of some grants (including travel grants), controlling other CME meeting
costs, and increasing income from revenue generating projects such as posters. The exception to ASE's
conservative financial expenditures has been a very substantial increase in the advocacy budget to
support lobbying efforts to limit the very major proposed cuts in echocardiography reimbursement. The
multiplying of the advocacy budget was strongly supported by the Finance Committee.
Public Relations Committee
Grace Kung, MD, FACC, FASE reported that she was able to help select interesting and noteworthy
abstracts that will be presented at this year's meeting as part of her work on the Public Relations
Committee. Many people in the general public do not realize that children are afflicted by cardiac disease,
they assume all cardiac disease is atherosclerosis and I think it is very important that we educate the
public on the importance of congenital and acquired heart disease in the pediatric population. Special
reports such as the one included in the committee report help a lot. Most, if not all, of the congenital
defects can be detected by ultrasound, most even in utero. Dr. Kung would be honored to continue
serving on this committee and to participate in general awareness of pediatric cardiac disease. She will be
unable to attend the meeting this year as newborn twins are keeping her quite busy!
IRT Committee
Dr. Adel Younoszai reports that there has not yet been a meeting of the IRT Committee within his term as
liaison; they will meet in San Diego.
Bylaws and Ethics Committee
Dr. Claudio Ramaciotti reports that during the last meetings of the Bylaws and Ethics Committee the
emphasis has been on discussions about Conflicts of Interest. Changes were made to ASE’s Conflict of
Interest statement based on ACCME requirements/recommendations. These were intended to address
conflicts for Board and Education Committee members with input in planning ASE’s educational portfolio.
More specifically the emphasis was on separation of commercial interest from education. The approved
document was sent to the Executive Committee for approval.
ASE Research Committee
Dr. Colin Phoon reports that he was struck most by the paucity of pediatrics / congenital heart
submissions and was led to wonder how we as a Committee might try to bolster interest from the
pediatric cardiology community. However, a follow-up problem would be that even if there were more
pediatric / congenital grant proposals, there is a limited number of pediatric cardiologists on the
Committee (one out of 20, this year). This need for qualified reviewers raises the question of whether the
option of ad hoc reviewers, as recommended by the primary assigned reviewer, would be feasible or
desirable. Although he does not know the numbers, it is probably desirable to have representation on the
Committee in relative proportion to either membership in ASE, or research activity in ASE (e.g.,
proportion of pediatrics / congenital heart abstracts at ASE Scientific Sessions). He would argue that a

minimum of 2 pediatrics representatives should sit on the Research Committee, and preferably 3, which
would then comprise 10-15% of the Committee membership.
Serving on this committee and reviewing non-pediatric / non-congenital heart grant proposals was
extremely worthwhile and educational, even though Dr. Phoon’s clinical and research focus is on
congenital malformations and heart development. Because echocardiography shares a common
foundation, these proposals were not beyond his “comfort zone”. He hopes that his perspectives from
pediatric cardiology provided a slightly different “angle”, and the addition of 1-2 additional pediatrics
representatives would likely strengthen this aspect of committee work, even if the number of pediatric/
congenital heart submissions remains low. We may wish to reach out more to the Pediatric Council.
Membership Steering Committee
Dr. Craig Fleishman noted that the committee discussed that sonographer schools need to increase the
pediatric content of their curriculum, potentially increasing the number of schools seeking accreditation in
pediatric echo. This is an opportunity for ASE to reach out to schools and make them aware of the
professional and educational benefits of membership as the schools train their instructors and develop
teaching materials. We discussed planning outreach to instructors and students, pointing out benefits
such as access to review courses, core curriculum, and educational products.
They also discussed that full-paying members do not have an option of online-only access to JASE.
Currently, contract with Elsevier does not allow online-only access to full-paying members. When the
contract comes up for renegotiation, we hope an online-only option or option to decline print version can
be included.
International Relations Committee
Dr. Seda Tierney reported because ASE’s emphasis in international relations has shifted to making ASE’s
guidelines and related educational products available to the international echocardiography community,
an International Relations Task Force has been formed to determine the best approach in establishing ASE
as a worldwide leader in these products. While the Task Force is working toward this goal, the
International Relations Committee will cease to exist.
Education Committee
Dr. Reenu Eapen reports that there are a couple of items of interest from a pediatric perspective. ASE has
a new Learning Lab course, titled Fundamentals in Echocardiography: A Road to Comprehensive
Quantification Using ASE Guidelines. This 1.5 day course was well attended and will be offered again in
August. If there is interest for a pediatric learning lab course, this may be a venue for it.
One of ASE’s strategic plan goals states that “ASE will be its members’ primary resource for education,
knowledge exchange and professional development.” One objective is to “Strategically position ASE as
the place to get education related to training for taking the physician exams or sonographers
credentialing exams.” ASE also has the ASE University for online CME courses. If you have ideas for
Pediatric related CME courses, please let me know.
Dr. Eapen has an idea which he would like to pursue but would like the Pediatric Council’s input and
advice. We may be able to use the ASE University to develop a course for fellows in training. The course
would actually be a test of their echo knowledge. The goal would be to separate it into a beginner and
advanced test, one for the end of the first year and one during the second and third year of fellowship.
The test would give a numerical score of their echo medical knowledge and can be used as part of the five
competencies involved in the evaluation of a pediatric cardiology fellow. It can be accessed by
echocardiography lab directors and incorporated into the curriculum of all training programs. Each
individual program can set their benchmarks as to what they think is adequate. This would be in line with
ASE’s mission and also give fellowship programs and evaluation tool. She would be interested in
developing this but would like the council’s input.

IT Committee
Dr. Andrew Powell reports that the ASE Information Technology Committee focused on several projects
this year. EchoShare is a proposal to create a regional information system for the sharing of
echocardiographic images in a health information exchange model. This may lead to improved patient
care and outcomes by facilitating comparison to prior studies and reduce studies done unnecessarily
because technically adequate echocardiograms were not available for review. Echo ToolBoxTM is a Webbased
application to help labs meet ICAEL standards and efficiently undergo the accreditation process.
Input was also provided toward creating an “appropriateness point-of-order echo guidance” tool to
replace precertification of echocardiograms by private payers and promote more appropriate ordering of
echocardiographic studies. The Committee continued to maintain and improve the ASE Website. The
perspective and needs of pediatric echocardiographers and sonographers were highlighted throughout
the year.
Advocacy Committee
A report that Dr. Ben Byrd gave to the Executive Committee was reviewed. It was noted that there have
been few pediatric issues in advocacy this year, and that the calls are too early for participation from the
west coast. Precertification of echocardiography is an important issue and will affect everyone in private
practice.
ASE Committee Representation: The council would like to add Dr. Charles Williams as a second
representative to the Research Committee. Drs Carolyn Altman and Leo Lopez would like to volunteer for
the Education Committee. Staff will submit their names to Dr. Kaul for his consideration.
OLD BUSINESS
Scientific Sessions Program Update: Dr. Lopez noted that joint sessions with EAE are being offered, and
that Dr. Richard Van Praagh will be interviewed by Dr. Parness on Monday. The August program planning
meeting is the council’s opportunity to make recommendations for 2011. Dr. Mark Lewin is the council
representative on the Program Committee; Dr. Susan Wiegers is the chair. It was noted that the council
would be happy to be involved in planning sessions on adult congenital heart disease, and that an extra
day for an adult congenital symposium might be worth considering. A joint conference with SMFM might
also be a possibility. In San Diego, there were two joint sessions with SMFM: “Frontiers in Fetal
Cardiology” had 220 attendees, and “The Perinatologist-Pediatric Cardiologist Relationship” had 159
attendees.
Drs Lewin and Border will discuss this with the SS planning group.
Survey on FTE time for pediatric studies: There was discussion about this project, for which a number of
conference calls have been held. Purpose is to define how RVUs are used in pediatric cardiology labs by
collecting data on how FTE are defined, and the number of physicians, sonographers and machines used
per study. Data might be available from ICAEL. The council will send a letter to the ASE Executive
Committee to request formation of a task force to finish the RVU survey. A data collection element might
be added, and data collected annually. Data could be shared with contributors.
Normative Database: Dr. Lopez noted that the pediatric quantification guideline and poster are finished
and are being distributed. There is a need for geographically and racially diverse Z scores. These need to
be gender and race specific, and there must be a way to analyze and evaluate the data and include both
2D and 3D. Gail Pearson at NIH has asked for a summary so that she can provide guidance on seeking
funding. A committee, led by Dr. Lopez, will be formed to work on this, Drs. Lai, Frommelt, Ensing, Border,
and Altman expressed their interest in participating. Kathy Kendall (Dr. Ayres’ sonographer), The names of
Steve Colan, Rick Humes (Detroit), and Craig Sable (DC Children’s) were also brought up as potential
nominees to the committee.

Guidelines and Writing Groups:
Echocardiography in the NICU writing group has been discussed on three conference calls and at a faceto-face
meeting, and a second draft of the paper is underway. The committee is international and multispecialty
in scope, and is trying to establish guidelines for the training of neonatologists in the use
echocardiography for a targeted examination.
Multimodality Imaging Guidelines for Repaired Tetralogy of Fallot: Dr. Valente said that six of eight
invited members of the writing group had confirmed their willingness to participate, and that they
anticipate a draft by later in the year and a finished product in time for ACC.
Multimodality Imaging Guidelines for Transposition of the Great Arteries (nuclear, CT,
echocardiography, MRI): The names of Drs. Lai, Dorfman, Powell, Minich, and Sable, and sonographers
Kay Berdusis, Scott Doucett and Kathy Sundbeck were brought up for consideration in the formation of
the writing committee. Dr. Lai will propose a leader for this writing group after the meeting.
ASE Sponsored Conferences: Drs. Lai and Cohen will coordinate sessions on adult congenital heart disease
at E3. An adult congenital session may also be added to the Learning Lab series. There was discussion of
ASE sponsoring a pediatric echocardiography course in the Northeast, and of possibly co-sponsoring a
multi-modality course in congenital heart disease. Board members were asked to let Dr Lai know if they
are interested in participating.
SOPE: Dr. Lopez noted that SOPE is now in good shape, and has planned a mini-symposium for Monday
night during the Scientific Sessions. He noted that SOPE met with ASE leadership last year about
coordinating efforts, and that they ran into scheduling problems this year. The council still seems to want
SOPE to remain an independent organization, as it is a repository for information and education with a
strong value in networking, especially for fellows. Dr. Lewin will talk with the Scientific Session planning
committee about scheduling a SOPE event next year.
Bylaws revisions: a number of changes to the draft revised bylaws for the council were noted. Staff will
circulate a copy with the changes tracked for council board approval.
REMINDERS: Committee members were reminded that there will be a conference call in November (in
place of meeting at AHA)
There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 9:40 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Cathy Kerr, CAE for Dr. Wyman Lai, FASE, Chair

Pediatric Council ballot
Chair-elect:
Dr. Leo Lopez _____
Leo Lopez is currently the Director of Pediatric Cardiac Noninvasive Imaging at the Children’s Hospital at
Montefiore in New York City and Associate Professor of Clinical Pediatrics at the Albert Einstein College of
Medicine. He obtained his BA in Biophysics at the Johns Hopkins University and his MD at the University
of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. He trained as a pediatric resident and pediatric cardiology fellow at
the Children’s Hospital in Boston where he served as the chief fellow in his last year. Leo moved to New
York City three years ago after serving as the Director of Noninvasive Imaging at the Congenital Heart
Institute at Miami Children’s Hospital and Arnold Palmer Children’s Hospital in Orlando for nine years. He
is the current president of the Society of Pediatric Echocardiography and has been a member of the
American Society of Echocardiography Pediatric and Congenital Heart Disease Council since 2006. In
addition, he is an active member of the International Society for Nomenclature of Paediatric and
Congenital Heart Disease, the physician advisor for the Congenital Cardiac Sonographer Registry Task
Force of Cardiovascular Credentialing International, and an Executive Board member of the Intersocietal
Commission for the Accreditation of Echocardiography Laboratories.
Dr. Meryl Cohen _____
Meryl S. Cohen, MD, FACC, FASE is an associate professor of pediatrics at The University of Pennsylvania
School of Medicine and medical director of the echo lab at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. She is
associate director of the Cardiology Fellowship Program at CHOP as well. Presently, she serves as codirector
of the Cardiology Core of the NIH-funded Clinical Translational Science Award and actively
participates in echocardiographic and other research projects through the NIH-funded Pediatric Heart
Network. She has served on the NHLBI Working Group: Obesity and Other Cardiovascular Risk Factors in
Congenital Heart Disease. She is co-editor of the recently published textbook (2009) entitled
“Echocardiography in Pediatric and Congenital Heart Disease: From Fetus to Adult”. She served as a
member-at-large of the ASE Pediatric Council from 2004 to 2008, was co-chair of the pediatric and
congenital heart disease sessions of the Scientific Sessions of the ASE in 2007, and was chair of those
sessions in 2008. Past national committee participation includes membership on the Congenital Heart
Disease and Pediatric Cardiology Committee of the ACC from 2007 to 2010. Within ASE, she has returned
to serve as a member-at-large of the ASE Pediatric Council (starting in 2010) and is a member of the ASE
Awards and Education Committees. Presently she also serves on the Program Planning Committee of the
American Heart Association, Cardiovascular Diseases in the Young (three year commitment). She is
secretary of the Society of Pediatric Echocardiography. Presently, she serves as an editorial board
member on Pediatric Ultrasound Today and Pediatric Cardiology and was a member of the editorial board
of the Journal of the American Society of Echocardiography from 2005 to 2009. She has been on the
organizing committees of several scientific meetings over the last six years, including most recently cochairing
the ASE-supported E3 Summit to be held as a pre-conference at the ACC Scientific Sessions. She
has been an invited lecturer at many national scientific meetings including ASE, ACC, AHA and EuroEcho.
She has authored over 50 peer-reviewed articles and over 30 book chapters and review articles. She has
developed the pediatric reporting templates for the syngo Dynamics system (Siemens).
SS Program Co-chair
Dr. Luc Mertens _____
Dr. Mertens graduated from Medical School the University of Leuven, Belgium in 1992. He was a research
fellow for the Belgian Fund for Scientific Research at the Laboratory of Physiology at the University of
Leuven from 1992 until 1995 and obtained a PhD in Medical Sciences and Molecular Biology in 1995. He
was trained as a Pediatrician and Pediatric Cardiologist at Leuven University Hospitals. During his training

he did a research fellowship from 1997-1998 at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN, USA. From 1999-2007
he worked as a staff Pediatric Cardiologist at the University Hospitals Leuven and was appointed as
Associate Professor at the University of Leuven. His professional interest focused on echocardiography,
interventional cardiology, heart failure and pediatric heart transplantation. He was also appointed as
Clinical Researcher for the Belgian Fund for Scientific Research and directed the pediatric cardiac imaging
research laboratory in Leuven. His research interest are on developing and validating new
echocardiographic techniques for assessing cardiac function in children. Dr. Mertens has contributed to
more than 116 peer reviewed papers. He has served as on the Council of The Association for European
Pediatric Cardiology (AEPC) and as an co-opted Board member for Congenital Heart Disease in the
European Association for Echocardiography (EAE). In February 2008 he became Section Head
Echocardiography at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto and Associate Professor at the University of
Toronto. Within ASE he has been member of the Pediatric and Congenital Heart Disease Council since
2008 and has chaired a writing group on Neonatal Echocardiography.
Dr. Carolyn Altman _____
Carolyn Altman, MD, FASE, FACC, completed undergraduate work at the University of Pennsylvania and
then attended the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. After completing pediatric residency at
Pittsburgh, she moved to Houston for her pediatric cardiology fellowship at Baylor. She is now an
associate professor of pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine and the associate director of the echo lab
at the Texas Children’s Hospital. She is currently acting chief of the cardiology clinic at Texas Children’s
Hospital, as well as medical director for the cardiac nurse practitioners. Her interests center on fetal
cardiology, echocardiography, cardiac auscultation, Kawasaki disease, quality improvement, and
education for fellows, residents, medical students, and NPs. She is one of the core physicians
instrumental in creating and developing the Fetal Center at the Texas Children’s Pavilion for Women,
which fosters a multi-disciplinary approach to fetal medicine and intervention. She is also active in
developing the Heart Center wide quality improvement initiative. She has served on the residency and
fellowship curriculum committees at Baylor. She was elected as a member at large on the Pediatric
Council for ASE in 2009, and is an active member of the ASE FASE Committee. As well, she participates in
the Quality Metrics Working Group for the ACC.
Council board members-at-large (select 2):
Dr. Piers Barker_____
Piers Barker, MD is an associate professor of pediatrics and obstetrics/gynecology at Duke University
Medical Center. He has served as director of fetal cardiology since 2005 and is a member of the Duke
Cardiac Magnetic Resonance Center faculty for congenital CMR imaging. Dr. Barker is currently the
director of noninvasive imaging and the medical director of the pediatric echocardiography laboratory.
Born in England but raised in Canada, Dr. Barker has been in the United States since his undergraduate
and medical school training at Cornell University. He completed his pediatric residency at the Johns
Hopkins Hospital, cardiology fellowship at the University of Michigan, and had his first faculty
appointment at SUNY Upstate Medical University in Syracuse before joining Duke University in 2004. Dr.
Barker’s research interests include the refinement of non-invasive assessment of physiology, changes in
myocardial function with exercise, and the assessment of myocardial mechanics in different animal
species (in collaboration with the North Carolina State University College of Veterinary Medicine). In
addition, Dr. Barker has research interests in the non-invasive assessment of ventricular function in
infants with single ventricle as a co-investigator in the NHLBI funded Pediatric Heart Network. Clinically,
Dr. Barker is developing a standardized approach to perinatal management of infants with prenatally
diagnosed heart disease that balances infant stability with family bonding. A current member of the ASE
Education Committee, Dr. Barker is investigating methods to deliver echo training to remote practitioners
using web-based and social media technology.
Dr. David Brown _____
Dr. Brown is currently an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School and Director of the
Cardiology Fellowship Training Program at Children’s Hospital Boston. He attended Williams College and

Harvard Medical School, followed by a pediatric residency and pediatric cardiology fellowship at
Children’s Hospital Boston, including a senior fellowship year in non-invasive imaging. His primary
interests include transthoracic, transesophageal, and fetal echocardiography in the management of
congenital heart disease, with special interest in the evaluation of patients with single ventricles. He is
also interested in medical education, and has completed two additional fellowships in medical education
at Harvard Medical School; he serves as an inpatient cardiology ward attending and directs the Harvard
Medical School third and fourth year medical student cardiology rotations. Within ASE, Dr. Brown has
served on the Advocacy Committee and Publications Committee, and is interested in promoting multicenter
collaborative research.
Dr. Mark Freiberg _____
Dr. Friedberg received his medical degree with honors from the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
Medical School in Beer-Sheba, Israel and underwent pediatric residency at the Rambam Medical Center in
Haifa, Israel. He completed his pediatric cardiology fellowship and sub-specialty training in pediatric
echocardiography at Stanford University in California, where he was awarded a Glaser Pediatric Research
Network fellowship. Since 2006 he has served as a staff cardiologist at Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children
and as an assistant professor at the University of Toronto. His current clinical and research interests
include echocardiographic assessment of cardiac function in children with congenital and acquired heart
disease, assessment of mechanical dyssynchrony and cardiac resynchronization therapy in children and
fetal echocardiography.
Dr. John P. Kovalchin _____
Dr. Kovalchin is an associate professor of pediatrics at the Ohio State University College of Medicine and
director of echocardiography at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio. He completed his
fellowship in pediatric cardiology at Texas Children’s Hospital and Baylor College of Medicine. He then
completed an additional fourth year of training in advanced noninvasive cardiac imaging at the University
of California, San Francisco. He subsequently returned to Texas Children’s Hospital as faculty in
echocardiography for ten years, and also served as the associate director of cardiac MRI. In 2006, he
moved to Columbus to join the heart center at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, where the imaging
program has excelled in telemedicine, fetal and adult congenital imaging, interventional
echocardiography and cardiac MRI. He is the program director of a fourth year funded fellowship in
advanced noninvasive cardiac imaging. His research has focused echocardiographic morphometric and
hemodynamic factors as indicators of outcome in patients with congenital heart disease. He has been an
active member of ASE and the Society of Pediatric Echocardiography since 1993, and has been a fellow of
ASE since 2003. He serves on the editorial board of the journal Pediatric Cardiology. He is also a member
of the Noninvasive Imaging Quality Metrics Work Group of the American College of Cardiology.
Dr. Anita Moon-Grady _____
Anita Moon-Grady is currently an associate professor of pediatrics at the University of California San
Francisco, Director of the UCSF Fetal Cardiovascular Program and a member of the UCSF Fetal Treatment
Center Faculty. After graduating from Stanford Medical School in 1993, she completed a residency in
Pediatrics and fellowship in Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine at the University of California Davis. She then
completed fellowship training in Pediatric Cardiology at UCSF, after which she took a position as the
Director of Pediatric and Fetal Echocardiography at UC Davis in Sacramento while holding a joint
appointment with UCSF. She joined UCSF as full-time faculty in the fall of 2008, where her particular
clinical expertise is in intraoperative imaging and fetal echocardiography. Dr. Moon-Grady is an active
clinical researcher whose interests are in fetal cardiovascular assessment and treatment. Her research has
focused both on prenatal diagnosis and on the development of echocardiographic profiles for riskstratification
of fetuses with structural or functional cardiovascular abnormalities, helping to guide
prenatal and postnatal therapy and predict outcomes of congenital anomalies. She has participated in the
ASE writing group regarding Guidelines and Standards for echocardiography in the neonatal intensive care
unit. Dr. Moon-Grady has published over 30 peer-reviewed research papers, chapters, and editorials.
Within ASE, she is interested in advancing awareness and education regarding prenatal detection of

congenital heart disease. Also within ASE, she would like to work toward promoting multi-center
collaborative efforts in the areas of non-invasive fetal cardiovascular assessment and long-term
cardiovascular system responses to therapy.
Pediatric Council reps to ASE Committees:
ACCME -- Nancy Ayres
Bylaws -- Claudio Ramaciotti
Finance -- Greg Ensing
IT -- Andrew Powell
Membership --- Craig Fleishman
Research: Frank Cetta
Foundation TF: Carolyn Altman
Sonographer Rep: Helen Ko