ACC conference among the first to go digital

The pressure was on for Giselle Statz, MD, second-year resident, as she attempted to “stump the professor” during her oral presentation at the American College of Cardiology 2020 and World Congress Cardiology Virtual Conference. During their session, “Stump the Professor: A 31-Year-Old Man with Angina,” Statz and her mentor, Milena Gebska, MD, clinical associate professor in Cardiovascular Medicine, highlighted the benefits of treating angina using a multidisciplinary team. With most viewers watching her virtual presentation from all around the world, Statz was able to “stump” the panel of judges, which included Rick Nishimura, MD, and Carole A. Warnes, MD.

“Although I was initially disappointed conferences had to be cancelled this year, the ACC staff put together an excellent virtual platform,” Statz said. “I was honored to be part of one of the sessions chosen to stream. The moderators put together a fun, interactive discussion, and I was able to share our patient case with worldwide experts and a global audience from my own computer screen!”

Statz was among the many UI Cardiology Interest Group attendees at the ACC.20/WCC. While originally scheduled for an in-person conference in Chicago, the ACC.20/WCC International Conference was moved online from March 28–30 in response to COVID-19.

Emmanuel Akintoye, MBBS, second-year cardiology fellow, also presented a study on the correlations between geographical location, heart transplantation waitlists, and heart transplantation survival rates. Titled “Geographical Variations in Waitlist and Transplantation Outcomes in Patients Listed for Heart Transplantation in the United States,” Akintoye’s study proved heart transplantation waitlists and survival rates are dependent on which US state they live in.

UI participants and attendees included other cardiology fellows, Internal Medicine residents, hospitalists and faculty in the Divisions of Cardiovascular Medicine, Immunology, and Hematology and Oncology. One fourth-year medical student and a winner of onSe of this year’s Internal Medicine M4 Student Awards, Vivian R. Sardone, also attended virtually.

Internal Medicine Residents

• Giselle M. Statz
• Aziz Hammoud
• Adil Hassan
• Nagalakshmi Nagarajan
• Matthew D. Soltys
• Noah N. Williford

Cardiology Fellows

• Emmanuel Akintoye
• Shubha Deep Roy

Faculty

• Paulino Alvarez, MD, Cardiovascular Medicine
• Zuhair K. Ballas, MD, Immunology
• Alexandros Briasoulis, MD, PhD, Cardiovascular Medicine
• Georgios Christodoulidis, MD, Cardiovascular Medicine
• Kimberly Delcour, DO, Cardiovascular Medicine
• Svjetlana Dolovcak, MD, Immunology
• Milena A. Gebska, MD, PhD, Cardiovascular Medicine
• Donald Macfarlane, MD, PhD, Hematology, Oncology and Blood & Marrow Transplantation
• James Rossen, MD, Cardiovascular Medicine
• Ernesto Ruiz, MD, Cardiovascular Medicine
• Suchith Shetty, MD, MPH, General Internal Medicine (Hospitalist)

All 3200+ poster presentations are available through ACC’s On Demand eAbstracts System. Videos, abstracts, slides and industry expo presentations are available and free through June 2020.