The Fetal Heart Society, Program Leaders' Group comprises about 120 members from 36 states in the USA and 13 other countries. We aim to build a community, share experiences, gather benchmarking data, and facilitate QI collaboratives. The current group comprises 73 fetal cardiac program directors, 42 QI leaders, and 31 others. If you would like to join the group, please fill out the interest form (takes < 2 min) using the QR code, or this link.

	Sheetal R. Patel, MD, MSCI, FAAP Chair | Contact Dr. Patel Dr. Patel is a Medical Director, Fetal Cardiology Program; Fetal Cardiac Co-Director, The Chicago Institute for Fetal Health; Attending Physician, Cardiolog yAssistant Professor of Pediatrics, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine
	NELANGI PINTO, MD, MS Co-Chair | Contact Dr. Pinto Dr. Nelangi Pinto is a Professor of Pediatrics at Seattle Children’s Hospital and the University of Washington. Her research, clinical and advocacy efforts focus on improving early diagnosis of CHD and improving family centered care particularly in low resource settings.
	Erik "rick" Michelfelder, MD Quality Improvement Subcommittee Lead | Contact Dr. Michelfelder Dr. Michelfelder is Professor of Pediatrics at Emory University School of Medicine and Director of the Fetal Cardiology Program at the Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta Heart Center. He has been practicing cardiology for 25 years. Dr. Michelfelder’s primary clinical and academic interests are fetal cardiology, congenital heart disease and non-invasive cardiac imaging in children.
	Ann Kavanaugh-McHugh, md, bs Quality Improvement Subcommittee Member | Contact Dr. Kavanaugh-Mchugh Dr. Kavanaugh-McHugh is Director of Fetal Cardiology at The Monroe Carell Childrens Hospital at Vanderbilt, Her research efforts have focused on the understanding and treatment of fetal congenital heart disease and fetal arrhythmias both in projects at Vanderbilt and as a collaborator in multicenter research projects.
	Miwa Geiger, MD Combined Protocols Subcommittee Lead | Contact Dr. Geiger Dr. Geiger is Associate Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Pediatric Cardiology in the Jack and Lucy Clark Department of Pediatrics at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and Mount Sinai Kravis Children's Hospital and Director of the Fetal Heart Program at the Mount Sinai Kravis Children's Heart Center. She specializes in the diagnosis and perinatal management patients with fetal cardiovascular pathology. She also manages these patients after birth and follows them throughout their childhood.
	joyce johnson, md, ms Combined Protocols Subcommittee Member | Contact Dr. Johnson Dr. Johnson is the director of the Fetal Heart Program in the Heart Institute at Johns Hopkins All Children’s. She joined the hospital team in 2021. She was previously a pediatric cardiologist at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago and an assistant professor of pediatrics in the Division of Pediatric Cardiology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.
	Nitin Madan, md Combined Protocols Subcommittee Member | Contact Dr. Madan Dr. Nitin Madan is Associate Professor of Pediatrics at University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Medicine and Associate Director of the echocardiography laboratory at Children’s Mercy Hospital. His primary clinical and academic interests are in pediatric and fetal cardiac imaging.
	Jacqueline Shuplock, MD Benchmarking Subcommittee Lead | Contact Dr. Shuplock. Dr. Shuplock is a board-certified pediatric cardiologist. After graduating from the San Diego State University, Dr. Shuplock received her medical degree from The Ohio State University College of Medicine and completed a general pediatrics residency in Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. She went on to complete a pediatric cardiology fellowship at Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital and a non-invasive cardiac imaging advanced fellowship at Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt. She specializes in treating fetal cardiology patients.
	Angela mcbrien, md Benchmarking Subcommittee Member | Contact Dr. McBrien. Dr. McBrien is the Director of the Fetal and Neonatal Cardiology Program at the Stollery Children's Hospital. She is currently appointed as Associate Professor in the Department of Pediatrics in the Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry at the University of Alberta.  She was previously a Fetal and Pediatric Cardiologist at Freeman Hospital, where she directed the Fetal Cardiology Program
	Shubhika Srivastava , md Benchmarking Subcommittee Member | Contact Dr. Srivastava. Dr. Shubhika Srivastava is a pediatric cardiologist and chief of the cardiology department at Nemours/Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children. She was previously a professor of pediatrics in the Division of Pediatric Cardiology and an attending physician at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York, N.Y., where she was also director of the Non-Invasive Imaging Laboratory.

Subcommittee Initiatives:

1. Fetal Cardiology Benchmarking Survey

(Sheetal Patel, Angela McBrien, Nelangi Pinto, Shubhi Srivastava, Jackie Shuplock)

The fetal cardiology benchmarking survey is an international survey of academic and non-academic fetal cardiology practices. The information gathered will be critical for programs to plan appropriate resource allocation, design QI initiatives, and advocate for an adequate workforce.

Since its launch in mid-February, we have received >90 responses already. The survey will remain open till April 30th and accepts one entry per program to be completed by the program director, QI leader, or representative assigned by the program director and takes 10-15 min to complete. The participant would have the option to be acknowledged in the resulting publication. Before publication, we plan to review the information gathered with the PLC / FHS community through a webinar. There is still time to participate, and here is the survey link.

THANK YOU for your participation!

Click here to view our recent webinar presentation of our findings.

2. QI Subcommittee Update

(Rick Michelfelder, Ann Kavanaugh-McHugh, Sheetal Patel)

The QI subcommittee organized a QI Webinar for the FHS Webinar Series, entitled "Getting Better Together: Practical Approaches to Quality Improvement in Fetal Cardiology,". You can view this webinar by clicking here.

The committee also developed QI-specific survey items for the Program Leaders Committee fetal cardiology program benchmarking survey. We look forward to seeing the data from the benchmarking survey, as these data will help to steer our efforts moving forward. We have assembled a QI committee working group and are currently in the process of developing a Fetal QI coaches program, as well as planning an initial multicenter study of diagnostic errors in fetal cardiac diagnosis.

3. Combined Protocols Update

(Miwa Geiger, Joyce Johnson, Nitin Madan, Sheetal Patel)

The protocols subcommittee is in the process of selecting working group members. The initial protocols in focus include "Early Pregnancy Fetal Echocardiography Protocol" and "Maternal Hyperoxygenation Protocol."