With bittersweet emotion, I am writing my last President’s letter to all of you. I feel truly honored to have been given the opportunity to lead this amazing group for the past 8 years. The Society and all it represents has become such a part of me. Looking back, I continue to be astounded over all we have accomplished together. Watching this Society grow from an idea between friends into what it is today has truly been the highlight of my career. I feel privileged to have been a part of what will outlive me, and all of us. Though I am stepping down as President, I know that we are all in great hands. Anita has been my partner since the beginning, and I am certain she will lead us into a future of success. I assure you, I will still be around, serving on the Board as your “Past President”, inventing yet another new position for us. So, for the last time, here is my report to all of you on behalf of the Fetal Heart Society Governing Board, on a very successful year for our Society.
In 2021, I reported our success in publishing our first FHS study manuscript in Circulation. Since this first paper, we have been very active in the Research arena with a total of 9 scientific abstracts (3 presented at ACC, 3 at AHA, and 3 at ASE) and 14 manuscripts (2 scientific papers published/3 submitted, 4 opinion pieces, and 5 collaborative guidelines/statements with other Societies) including the American Society of Echocardiography, the American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine and the Neonatal Cardiac Care Collaborative Consortium. We are currently supporting 18 projects that are at various stages of development including design, data gathering, data analysis, and writing. This is truly phenomenal and shows the benefit of collaboration, and as I have said before, “the Power in Numbers”. Working together is most definitely the way forward!
Our education initiatives have also continued to flourish. This past year we hosted our 2nd Annual Fetal Heart Society Scientific Session. This full-day conference was held in person, another first for us. Thank you to the team at Phoenix Children’s for supporting us! We have also continued to host engaging monthly webinars that are well attended by an international audience and remain available to all for viewing on our website. I’d like to thank Shadawn from my home institution, Children’s National, for always being there to support these meetings no matter how long we run over!
In addition, our Education Committee has been incredibly busy creating Physician Information Sheets (13 in total thus far), a Parent Information Booklet (based on the Edmonton booklet), and multiple Education Modules on Fetal Cardiac Disease with creation of approximately 200 test questions that will soon be available for review. Finally, an announcement. Please join us in Washington DC on August 27th for the 3rd Annual Fetal Heart Society Scientific Session that will be part of the Preconference for the World Congress in Pediatric Cardiology and Cardiac Surgery being held from August 27th – September 1st.
I’d like to finish by thanking the Board, past and present for their dedication, insight, patience, and grand thinking, as we all worked tirelessly together to support this Society. Thanks to Nelangi Pinto, our VP and past Treasurer, Bhawna Arya our current Treasurer, Chris Lindblade our Secretary, Shaine Morris our RCC Officer finishing her second term, Lisa Hornberger our Publications Officer just elected for a second term, Terri Tacy our Education Officer, Lindsay Freud and Lynn Simpson our Members at Large, and Anita Moon-Grady our incoming President after completing two terms as Vice President. I’d also like to thank our Committee Chairs and Committee Members for all they do to envision, create, and maintain our programs, services, and mission.
So with that, I graciously bid all of you farewell…. All 876 members from 33 countries! Thank you for making us what we are today and I look forward to many more years of sharing of ideas and successful collaboration.
– Mary
