Executive Message February 2022

Happy holidays and new year to all – I hope that everyone had a nice holiday season and was able to spend time with family and friends.  The recent COVID surge has certainly added additional stress to an already challenging healthcare environment and ensuring time away from work to decompress and rejuvenate is so important.

As we enter 2022, I am excited about the year ahead and the ongoing growth of PCICS.  In late 2021, the Executive Committee met to review our accomplishments in the past year and look forward to 2022 and beyond.  As we reflected, I was reminded of the tremendous year we had in 2021 – we were able to pull off an incredibly successful virtual meeting which was initially planned as the PCICS session for the postponed World Congress and launched additional Special Interest Groups (SIG) to provide expanded professional outlets and networking for important members of the pediatric cardiac critical care team.

The new SIGs added include nutrition, pharmacy, OT/PT/child life/music therapy, and fellow/early career.  All new SIGs have generated tremendous early interest and have launched with introductory meetings and exciting plans.  Since their inception, the SIGs have been some of the most productive and active member-led initiatives in our society.  Ashley Moellinger and I co-lead the SIGs and each SIG is co-chaired by volunteers within each discipline.  Anyone interested in joining a SIG, please check out the SIGs on our website or click the following link https://pcics.org/special-interest-group-form/ to express interest in joining a specific group.

I am also very excited to announce the launch of a total website redesign for the Society.  On January 4, Jill Zender chaired the launch of the website redesign committee.  After an RFP, Redstart Creative, a branding, digital marketing company, with a focus on non-profits was chosen to lead the work and partner with us in the build of our new website.  Data from the membership survey made it clear that a website makeover needed to be a priority as we continue to grow.  We are certain the new website will allow for expanded digital content (podcasts, talks), increased member-only benefits, broadened educational offerings, and increased global reach and accessibility for PCICS.  Our goal is to launch the new website in advance of our planned 2022 (in-person) meeting on December 14-18 at the Loews Hotel in Miami.

None of this work and growth is possible without an engaged and active membership.  If you are interested in being more involved, there are always opportunities, and we hope to continue to grow and meet the needs of our growing membership.

Here’s to an exciting 2022!

Darren