Spring 2021 Newsletter
President’s Message May 2021
Our first few months of 2021 have been productive and energizing! Anchored by our strategic map, we continue to move the Society forward and advance our Mission. I invite you to review the full Strategic Map on our website, however below I’ve included some of the high-level portions of it. Mission To empower a diverse…
Read MoreEditor-in-Chief’s Message: Is DEI just the flavor of the month?
PCICS created a Diversity & Inclusion committee in June 2020 in response to national events in the United States, as a way to raise awareness about diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) issues in our field. In addition, the December 2020 international conference had a great panel of invited speakers on this topic. This was followed…
Read MoreVice President’s Message May 2021
“The promise of spring’s arrival is enough to get anyone through the bitter winter!” — Jen Selinsky Well, folks, we have made it through winter and the light at the end of the COVID-19 pandemic tunnel appears to finally be at hand. Thanks to science!! Despite all of this though, PCICS has remained a vibrant,…
Read MoreDiversity, Equity, and Inclusion Advisory Committee May 2021 Update
The current climate has brought to the forefront issues of discrimination, inequality, and disparities within our society as a whole. Not only does it permeate our societies globally but infiltrates healthcare, from disparities in access and quality of care received to disparate outcomes disproportionately impacting minority populations. The current literature demonstrates that outcomes in patients…
Read MoreAdministrative SIG May 2021 Update
The PCICS Administrative Special Interest Group (SIG) continues to provide a forum for networking and provide opportunities for sharing perspectives and information among administrative leadership across the PCICS community. This December, the Administrative SIG welcomed a new co-chair, Sherri Kubis, who will co-lead along with Justin Yeh, to achieve 2021 goals. Many thanks to Alexis…
Read MoreConnections Committee May 2021 Update
The Connections Committee has welcomed several new members this year: Francis Kim, Meghna Patel, Robyn Puente, Kriti Puri, Claire Rizk, Vamsi Yarlagadda, Matthew Pizzuto and Amy Romer. We are looking forward to the excitement and new ideas each new member brings. We have also had a few new leaders step up to lead the Podcast…
Read MoreThe Quest to Reduce Health Disparities in Congenital Heart Disease: Moving beyond Descriptions of Race-Based Outcomes
Despite medical and surgical advances in congenital heart disease (CHD), recent data has shown that racial/ethnic disparities in CHD mortality continue to persist throughout the lifespan.[1] For many years, the focus of health disparities in pediatric cardiology, particularly in the cardiovascular ICU, has been looking at differences in post-surgical hospital-based mortality for racial/ethnic minority populations.…
Read MoreCall to Action: Examining Health Disparities at the Institutional Level
“Yeah, but do you really think we treat kids differently because of their race?” It was a common question interviewers would ask me as I navigated subspecialty fellowship interviews across the country just a few years ago. Despite the Healthy People 2000 goal of reducing health disparities among Americans, we have made woefully little progress…
Read MoreWomen in Leadership
As I gathered my thoughts for this newsletter, I reflected on my experiences as a woman (and now a woman leader) in pediatric cardiac critical care. Although pediatric training has had a female preponderance for decades, pediatric critical care medicine and pediatric cardiology have lagged behind. CCM only crossed the 50% threshold for female trainees…
Read MoreEvery Rainbow Requires A Spectrum
I cannot think of another profession where it is of the utmost importance to have a thorough understanding and active participation in diversity, equity, and inclusion than healthcare. Each shift, we not only care for patients and families from all walks of life, but there is also a spectrum of diversity amid the team of…
Read MoreSawubona
Nearly ten years ago, my family and I spent about two weeks in South Africa during the Christmas and New Year holiday. We traveled to Johannesburg, Durban, and Cape Town. South Africans greeted us with the common Zulu salutation, “Sawubona!” We learned that the term literally meant, “I see you. You are important to me,…
Read MoreImplicit Bias in the Pediatric Cardiac Intensive Care Unit
“Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health care is the most shocking and inhumane.” – Martin Luther King, Jr As we cross the 1-year mark of living through the COVID-19 pandemic, it is hard not to mourn everything and everyone we have lost this past year. This global pandemic has affected all of…
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