ACC Scientific Session 2022 to Prominently Feature Smidt Heart Institute Experts

Experts from the Smidt Heart Institute at Cedars-Sinai, home to California’s top-ranked cardiology and heart surgery programs, will present an array of innovative research data and lead discussions on medical breakthroughs during the American College of Cardiology (ACC) Annual Scientific Session & Expo, taking place in person and virtually April 2-4.

“This annual meeting is an opportunity to share and celebrate the latest advances in cardiology and cardiac surgery,” said Eduardo Marbán, MD, PhD, executive director of the Smidt Heart Institute and the Mark S. Siegel Family Foundation Distinguished Professor.

Marbán is participating in a panel discussion on pacing technologies—specifically, how cardiac rhythm management devices have evolved. Other Smidt Heart Institute experts will participate in some 60 late-breaking presentations, on-demand discussions and poster sessions taking place at the conference.

Smidt Heart Institute experts also will be available to comment on late-breaking science stemming from the conference.

Joanna Chikwe, MD, founding chair of the Department of Cardiac Surgery and the Irina and George Schaeffer Distinguished Chair in Cardiac Surgery, will lead several sessions, including a panel discussion comparing transcatheter edge-to-edge repair (TEER) to mitral valve surgery for primary mitral regurgitation. Chikwe also will steer a discussion on the latest evidence in valvular disease and surgical repair for primary mitral regurgitation. 

Christine M. Albert, MD, MPH, professor, chair of the Department of Cardiology and the Lee and Harold Kapelovitz Distinguished Chair in Cardiology, will present “Minority Report in Arrhythmia Care: Can We Identify Disease Before It Develops?” on Saturday afternoon. Albert also will be a panelist on “Sudden Unexplained Cardiac Arrest and Death: How Do I Evaluate the Patient and Family?”

From ACC, Albert will participate in the jointly sponsored European Society for Cardiology annual meeting in Copenhagen, happening from April 3-5. Albert will participate in sessions about precision medicine, and screening recommendations for atrial fibrillation, and new insights into the risk of sudden cardiac arrest.

John Gordon Harold, MD, MACC, a clinical professor of Medicine, will receive the American College of Cardiology 2022 International Service Award. The recognition celebrates Harold's decades-long commitment to enhancing the ACC's global footprint and strengthening collaborations between the ACC and global health organizations and societies. Among his many contributions, Harold, who served as president of the college in 2013, established the first "twinning" program between individual ACC State and ACC International chapters and has played an integral role in the College's efforts to meet the United Nation's global targets for reducing noncommunicable diseases.  He also testified in the United Nations General Assembly in New York on noncommunicable diseases in 2014 and met with then-Israeli President Shimon Peres in Jerusalem. 

Other notable Smidt Heart Institute faculty presentations include:

• Florian Rader, MD, associate professor of Cardiology and co-director of the Clinic for Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy and Aortopathies, will present a late-breaking presentation on Sunday, April 3, at 9:45 a.m. EDT, spotlighting the interim, longer-term effects of mavacamten—an oral treatment option—in patients with obstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.
• Noel Bairey Merz, MD, director of the Barbra Streisand Women's Heart Center and professor of Cardiology, will receive the Simon Dack Award for Outstanding Scholarship. Named for the founding editor of JACC, the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, the Simon Dack Award both honors Dack and recognizes the contributions and accomplishments of outstanding peer reviewers who assist the journal in its mission of publishing important new clinical information.
• Jae Hyung Cho, MD, PhD, a physician-scientist in the Department of Cardiology, is a finalist for the ACC Young Investigator Award—a competition that encourages and recognizes young scientific investigators of promise. Cho’s research, “MicroRNA-16 mediates anti-fibrotic effects of Cardiosphere-derived Cells in Rats with Heart Failure and Preserved Ejection Fraction,” will be presented Saturday at noon EDT.
• Raj Makkar, MD, Cedars-Sinai’s vice president of Cardiovascular Innovation and Intervention and the Stephen R. Corday, MD, Chair in Interventional Cardiology, will participate in six sessions on transcatheter procedures.   
• Sumeet Chugh, MD, director of the Center for Cardiac Arrest Prevention and the Pauline and Harold Price Chair in Cardiac Electrophysiology Research, will present on delayed intrinsicoid deflection as a marker for sudden death.
• Natalie Ann Bello, MD, MPH, director of Hypertension Research in the Smidt Heart Institute, will present “The 4th Trimester Hand-Off: Post-Partum Preventive Clinics,” and serve as an expert for a case of chronic hypertension in pregnancy in the session “Challenges in Hypertension Management: A Case Based Discussion with the Experts.”

Additional experts available to speak on original research being presented at the conference include Susan Cheng, MD, MPH, director of the Institute for Research on Healthy Aging in the Department of Cardiology and the Erika J. Glazer Chair in Women's Cardiovascular Health and Population Science; Michelle Kittleson, MD, PhD, director of Heart Failure Research and professor of Medicine; Joseph Ebinger, MD, a clinical cardiologist and director of Clinical Analytics at the Smidt Heart Institute; Eugenio Cingolani, MD, associate professor of Cardiology, director of Preclinical Research and director of the Cardiogenetics Program; Jennifer Van Eyk, PhD, professor of Cardiology and the Erika J. Glazer Chair in Women's Heart Health; and Janet Wei, MD, assistant professor of Cardiology, assistant medical director of the Biomedical Imaging Research Institute and co-director of the Stress Echocardiography Lab. 

Follow the meeting live on Twitter using the hashtag #ACC22 and follow Cedars-Sinai on Twitter at @CedarsSinaiMed.