ASE’s ASCeXAM/ReASCE Review Course: Virtual Experience is specifically designed for physicians sitting for the ASCeXAM® or the ReASCE® examinations, but it is also a great course for physicians and sonographers interested in a broad review of cardiovascular ultrasound.

You can register now, and online access to pre-recorded presentations of the entire course, including physics, will be available beginning Monday, May 8, 2023. Registrants will have unlimited on-demand access to the content through August 6, 2023. The expert faculty, led by Vera Rigolin, MD, FASE, and Muhamed Saric, MD, PhD, FASE, will also lead two live two-hour Q&A sessions on Saturday, July 8, 2023, from 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM ET and 12:30 PM – 2:30 PM ET. Earn 28.75 AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™ (pending approval).

Happy Spring, happy Women’s History Month, and happy March Games from the ASE Foundation!

In the spirit of friendly competition, ASEF is hosting a March Games fundraiser to kick-start our 2023 Annual Appeal. This donation competition runs through April 2. We encourage you to support your team of choice AND celebrate Women’s History Month by donating in honor of the important women in your life on the ASEF website.

Does your team have what it takes?! The competition is starting to heat up. The Interventional Echocardiography (IE) Council Steering Committee recently took the lead with $320. The Cardiovascular Sonography Council Steering Committee is not too far behind with $270. The Circulation & Vascular Ultrasound Council Steering Committee and Emerging Echo Enthusiast (E3) Specialty Interest Group have yet to make a basket but there’s still time!

Donations will be accepted online until April 2, and remember, make your donation in honor of an important woman in your life. Include a tribute message and send their picture to Foundation@ASEcho.org, and we’ll post it online!

The Alliance for Physician Certification and Advancement (APCA) administers the Registered Physician in Vascular Interpretation (RPVI®) examination to allow physicians, fellows, and radiologists to test and demonstrate their knowledge of echocardiography based on an objective standard. ASE’s new Registered Physician Vascular Interpretation Online Review Course will help individuals prepare for the RPVI exam by providing access to expert-led lectures featuring cases and practice exam questions. The course covers a variety of vascular ultrasound physics and concepts that will help participants understand how to read and interpret vascular imaging. It also highlights diagnostic criteria to identify the appropriate lab imaging.

The online review course costs $500 for ASE members and $600 for nonmembers. To receive member pricing, remember to log in to your ASE Member Portal before accessing the Learning Hub. Participants can earn 9.75 AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™.

The latest issue of CASE, ASE’s open access case reports journal, is now available with some insightful reports, including “Rupture of Sinus of Valsalva Causing Fistula Between Left Coronary Sinus and Left Atrium” by Sachiyo Igata, PhD, ACS, RDCS, FASE, Calvin T. Hang, MD, PhD, Andrew Y. Lin, MD, et. al. CASE Editor-in-Chief, Vincent L. Sorrell, MD, FASE, remarked, “In a beautifully written CASE report, which includes a sonographer lead-author and a past-ASE president senior author, Journal readers are able to travel along with the authors as they demonstrate the value of echo even when an incorrect interpretation of the image initially occurs. This patient has a very rare fistula between the aorta and the LA which was not readily apparent. Given the discrepant clinical and imaging findings (e.g., physical exam, echo, and cardiac cath), you learn along with the authors as they carefully present how to re-evaluate your initial interpretation by including additional relevant clinical and hemodynamic findings. This paramount approach is obligatory to enhance your success in the echo lab and this CASE dutifully reiterates this mantra. In total, this is another must-read CASE that I am certain you will enjoy.”

This issue contains several other reports including a second paper in the Congenital Heart Disease category highlighting the importance of serial TTEs in navigating the evolution of a congenital aneurysmal ventricular septum. Additionally, there are two Infections in the Heart cases on endocarditis and two in the Cardiac Tumors and Pseudotumors category, featuring a study of cardiac masses in dizygotic twins, and two Valvular Heart Disease reports. Dr. Sorrell’s editorial revisits December’s Should Doppler Always be Capitalized?, with stimulating commentary and historical perspectives on Doppler and BART/RABT color displays by Alan S. Pearlman, MD, FASE and J. Geoffrey Stevenson, MD, FASE.

Topics from March’s issue are as diverse as its contributors — Dr. Sorrell notes that 50% of this issue’s reports featured sonographers as lead or contributing authors. Be sure to check out the latest Sonographer Sound-Off and Unlock the CASE features on the CASE Homepage to engage off the page.

Looking for a journal with the best author experience to submit your case report? CASE has received rave reviews from recently published authors, one of whom noted, “I have published in other journals before but never had such an efficient and responsive editorial team.” Another author remarked, “The Editor’s questions and comments prompted us to delve deeper into the subject matter and produce something that was very unique.” Email us with questions or submit your report today!

Support the ASE Foundation in its first ever March Games fundraiser! This donation competition runs until April 2. Support your team of choice by donating online.

The March Games teams are:

• Cardiovascular Sonography Council Steering Committee
• Circulation & Vascular Ultrasound Council Steering Committee
• Emerging Echo Enthusiast (E3) Specialty Interest Group
• Interventional Echocardiography Council Steering Committee

These four ASE groups are competing to see who can raise the most money. Does your team have what it takes?! So far, the Cardiovascular Sonography and Interventional Echocardiography Council Steering Committees are tied for first place, both raising $100!

March is not only host to the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s Men’s and Women’s Basketball Championship Tournaments, but it’s also Women’s History Month. When you make your donation, we encourage you to think of the women in your life who have supported you, whether emotionally or professionally. Make your donation in honor or in memory of an important woman in your life. 

ASE is proud to announce a new Sonographer Career Day initiative that will take place at the upcoming Scientific Sessions in National Harbor, Maryland, on Saturday, June 24, 2023. Apply now to participate! ASE developed this initiative to help address the shortage of sonographers in the field and create a space for recruitment during ASE 2023 to a targeted audience in the field of echocardiography. Labs and institutions are encouraged to apply now to participate!

There will be two recruiting sessions on June 24 from 10:00 AM to 12:00 PM and 1:30 to 3:30 PM. A table and two chairs will be set-up in a main hallway and up to six recruiting institutions can participate in each session. Institutions can apply to participate through April 21, 2023, by completing this application. Selected institutions will be assigned on a first-come, first-served basis, and must pay the $500 registration fee by May 15.

Sonographer students who are enrolled in a sonography school program are encouraged to attend on Saturday free of charge. Pre-registration is required, and students must register using their school email address. (This registration does not include CME or access to recorded content.)

Join the AMA by April 1, 2023

ASE needs your help to ensure your voice is heard on issues related to legislative, regulatory, and coding matters. We are currently undergoing a five-year review to maintain our representation of two seats in the American Medical Association’s (AMA) House of Delegates. To keep our seats, a significant number of our U.S. Physician members must also be members of the AMA.

We’re asking our U.S. Physician members to consider joining the AMA by April 1, 2023, if you have not already done so. Your AMA membership empowers ASE to continue directly engaging, impacting, and leading discussions regarding fair and accurate valuation for echocardiography and related clinical services. Make our voice matter for echocardiography and learn more at ASEcho.org/AMA.

Register now to attend ASE’s upcoming live webinar on the Recommendations for the Use of Echocardiography in the Evaluation of Rheumatic Heart Disease guideline published earlier this year. This document provides recommendations for the comprehensive use of echocardiography in the diagnosis and therapeutic intervention of RHD.

The guideline webinar will take place on Thursday, March 23, from 5:00 to 6:00 PM ET. Hosted by lead author and Guideline Chair Natesa G. Pandian, MD, and Guideline Co-Chair Jin K. Kim, MD, PhD, FASE, the webinar is free for ASE Members. Earn 1.0 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit™ for participation.

Available Now in the ASE Learning Hub

ASE offers an array of products to help individuals prepare for the Advanced Cardiac Sonographer (ACS) Registry Examination, and its newest offering, ACS Registry Review Guide Mock Exams, is available now in the ASE Learning Hub. The next exam window for the 2023 ACS Registry Exam is coming up in August, but you can start preparing now!

This product contains two mock exams. Mock Exam 1 is a timed simulation of the exam that can be taken up to five times. Mock Exam 2 offers the opportunity for unlimited practice. It is not timed and allows you to view your incorrect answers. Both exams contain 150 questions that are based on the seven sections that will appear on the ACS Registry Exam.

ASE members can purchase this product today for only $199 USD ($240 USD for nonmembers). Log in to the ASE Member Portal and then purchase this product from the ASE Learning Hub to receive special member pricing.

The March JASE includes “Recommendations for Cardiac Point-of-Care Ultrasound in Children: A Report from the American Society of Echocardiography“, endorsed by the Society of Critical Care Medicine. Jimmy C. Lu, MD, FASE, lead author said that, “Although the clinical scenarios for someone in the pediatric emergency room, intensive care unit, or operating room may vary dramatically, there are common technical factors to consider when imaging children and the same need for appropriate training and quality assurance. Previously, there were not uniform recommendations for utilization in the pediatric population, leading to variation among specialties, sometimes even within the same institution. This guideline aims to define those common considerations and to emphasize the importance of collaboration across specialties to optimize pediatric patient care.”

Dr. Patricia A. Pellikka, MD, FASE, JASE Editor-in-Chief, writes in her editorial, “Relevant to the aforementioned guidelines document and also published in this issue are the results of a survey from the ASE Task Force on Cardiac POCUS in Children. This survey of North American pediatric echo lab directors was conducted to understand perceptions and challenges related to clinical use of cardiac POCUS in children. Challenges identified were related to collaboration between pediatric echo labs and others providing cardiac POCUS in children, and difficulties in defining and measuring competency of providers.”

In addition, other clinical investigations explore POCUS, diastolic function and prognosis, pediatric normal values and Z scores for ventricular strain, and echocardiography in infant congenital heart disease. Two editorials address left ventricular diastolic dysfunction and reference standards in quantitative Pediatric Echocardiography. The Brief Research Communications describe echocardiographic reporting of the aorta in young competitive athletes, utilization of an ultrasound-enhancing agent use in evaluating the right ventricle in patients with left ventricular assist device, left atrial volumetric/mechanical coupling index in the general population (from the Copenhagen City Heart Study), and a novel index of right ventriculoarterial coupling in adult patients with repaired Tetralogy of Fallot using 3D speckle-tracking echocardiography. A letter to the editor addresses exercise-induced cardiac remodeling and atrial fibrillation in female endurance athletes.

The President’s Message, “Sonographer Challenges Today,” from Stephen H. Little, MD, FASE, is co-authored with Keith Collins, MS, RDCS, FASE, the current Council Representative on the ASE Executive Committee of the Board of Directors. The authors start off the column, “As we move beyond the global health crisis caused by COVID-19, we must adjust to a changing healthcare delivery environment, a significantly altered workforce, and the seismic shifts that have changed how we educate, train, and mentor cardiovascular sonographers.”

The March ASE Education Calendar lists education opportunities far and wide.