Meryl S. Cohen, MD, FASE, FACC, FAHA

The air is getting colder, the days are getting shorter, and the Council on Pediatric and Congenital Heart Disease (PCHD) Steering Committee is looking towards 2017. Plans are already underway for the 2017 ASE Scientific Sessions that will be held in Baltimore, Maryland from June 2–6. Mark Friedberg, MD from the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, Canada is the program chair this year. The co-chair is Craig Fleishman, MD from Arnold Palmer Hospital in Orlando, Florida. Together they have been planning an innovative program that will have broad appeal for the Pediatric and Congenital Heart Disease Community.

As you are aware, the PCHD Steering Committee assisted in the writing of the Multimodality Imaging Guidelines of Patients with Transposition of the Great Arteries in collaboration with the Society of for Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance and the Society of Cardiovascular Computed Tomography. An accompanying webinar was hosted in September with over 900 participants. This webinar is available on the ASEUniversity website ( www.aseuniversity.org/ase ). The next guideline the Council is assisting with will be on the topic of coronary artery imaging in congenital heart disease. Additionally, the Council just received approval to work on updating the guidelines on transesophageal echocardiography in pediatric and congenital heart disease.

Many of you know that there has been consideration from various organizations to develop a pediatric echocardiography certification examination. Such an examination would primarily affect our constituents. Many of you participated in a survey about this issue through ASE. In addition to the survey, your representatives on the PCHD Council Steering Committee have had many fruitful discussions about this topic. I would be very interested to hear from you about whether you think such an examination is a good idea and whether it will benefit our members. Please email your comments to Natalya Read at nread@asecho.org .

The ASE Education and Research Foundation will sponsor two pediatric cardiology trainees to attend the 28 ^th ASE Annual Scientific Sessions in Baltimore, June 2–6, 2017. The travel grants are part of an ongoing effort by the ASE’s Council on Pediatric and Congenital Heart Disease Steering Committee to encourage pediatric cardiology fellows to sub-specialize in the field of pediatric cardiovascular imaging. Pediatric cardiology fellows in the first three years of training with an interest in cardiac imaging are encouraged to apply for the $1,000 grants. The application process requires submission of your CV, along with a brief personal statement about why you want to attend the ASE Scientific Sessions, plus a letter from the echo lab director in support of your application. Previous recipients of a Pediatric Travel Grant are not eligible to apply. Deadline for submission will be April 1, 2017. Applications should be sent to Natalya Read at nread@asecho.org .

I encourage you to get more engaged and involved with ASE. A call for nominations to serve on various ASE committees was sent in early November. Please visit the ASE website— asecho.org , for additional information and deadlines for nominations. There will be much more to report to you in the upcoming months. Until then, have a wonderful Holiday season.

Meryl S. Cohen, MD, FASE, FACC, FAHA is a Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Pennsylvania, Perelman School of Medicine and Medical Director of the Echocardiography Laboratory and Program Director for the Cardiology Fellowship Program at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. She is Chair of the Council on Pediatric and Congenital Heart Disease Steering Committee.