PROGRAM

2015 HFSA ANNUAL SCIENTIFIC MEETING
President’s Message
Dear Colleagues,
Welcome to the 19th Annual Heart Failure Society of America Scientific Meeting. The HFSA
Strategic Plan has articulated that our core purpose is to reduce the burden of heart failure to
patients and society through prevention, treatment, and discovery. We have made major strides
in this purpose in 2015. Following our core values of excellence, multidisciplinary endeavors,
inclusiveness, integrity, innovation, and collaboration, we have continued to improve the things
we did well and have begun a number of new initiatives.
1. HFSA Annual Scientific Meeting. We offer thanks to the Program Committee Chairs—
Gregg Fonarow, MD, Debra Moser, DNSc, RN, Mona Fiuzat, PharmD, and John Burnett, Jr.,
MD, who have done a great job in making the program both exciting and comprehensive. This
year’s program has 75 educational sessions, 280 faculty, 350 posters, and nearly 50 exhibitors,
with an anticipated attendance of more than 1,800 heart failure specialists. The program
reflects the excitement for new medical and device therapies that have been approved in the past
year, and is designed to provide up-to-date summaries of new therapies as well as to stimulate
discussion. We have added a PharmD chair to the program committee to reflect the important
contributions of Pharmacy to the practice of Heart Failure and Transplantation. The entire Program
Committee membership also reflects the HFSA goal to include and encourage young heart
failure practitioners in both clinical activity and research, and we give many thanks to the entire
committee for your hard work.
2. Publication of the Journal of Cardiac Failure and eleven education modules providing
practical information on specific topics that are useful to patients and their families in the care
and treatment of those with heart failure. We thank Gary Francis, MD for his outstanding work
as the recent Editor of JCF and welcome Paul J. Hauptman, MD as our new Editor. Paul has
an exciting vision for the journal and he encourages your ideas and contributions to JCF, and
would love to consider your state of the art manuscripts for publication. The next iteration of
Heart Failure Practice guidelines will be ACC/AHA/HFSA Heart Failure Guidelines and will be
published simultaneously in JACC, Circulation, and JCF.
3. Comprehensive Heart Failure Review Course. The Heart Failure Board Review Course
alternates every other year with a Heart Failure Review Course with the Board Review Course
held the year of the Advanced Heart Failure and Transplantation American Board of Internal
Medicine Examination. The 2015 Comprehensive Heart Failure Review and Update is scheduled
for October 22-25, 2015 in Tampa, Florida. The 2015 HF Review Course is designed
by and for cardiologists, internists, nurses, clinical pharmacists and other health professionals
with a special interest in heart failure. Thanks go to Barry Greenberg, MD for his long-term
leadership spearheading this state of the art program and to his co-chairs, J. Herbert Patterson,
PharmD and Sara C. Paul, DNP, FNP for their work in planning this year’s course.
4. Successful Advocacy Efforts resulting in the approval of a Medicare payment reform bill
that includes the repeal of the flawed Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) Formula. The Advocacy
Committee under Joe Hill’s leadership has been instrumental in the approval of HFSA’s request
for a provider taxonomy code to designate specialists in advanced heart failure and transplant
cardiology by the National Uniform Claim Committee (NUCC). The taxonomy code was
approved July 1, 2015 and will be effective on October 1, 2015. See HFSA’s website for more
information.
SEPTEMBER 26-29 NATIONAL HARBOR, MARYLAND
5