ABIM announces members of new Cardiology Board

Philadelphia, PA, January 9, 2015 – The American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) today announced the physicians and public/inter-professional members who are now serving on the organization's new Cardiology Board.

ABIM's new governance model calls for the Specialty Boards – previously tasked almost exclusively with creating the exam in their discipline – to broaden their role and take on the work of defining and assessing the full scope of their discipline across the spectrum of ABIM Certification and Maintenance of Certification (MOC) programs. Each of the Specialty Boards includes two public members: one a member of the inter-professional health care team, and the other someone bringing the patient/caregiver perspective.

Cardiology is the 11th Specialty Board established in the new governance model. Mariell Jessup, MD, Professor of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine; Associate Chief-Clinical Affairs, Division of Cardiovascular Medicine; Medical Director of the Penn Medicine Heart and Vascular Center; and immediate past-President of the American Heart Association will chair the new Cardiology Board.

"The broad depth of knowledge and skills represented on the new Cardiology Board will help as we work to evolve our Certification and MOC programs – to increase their relevancy for all of the specialties in cardiology," said Richard J. Baron, MD, President and CEO of ABIM. "Under Mariell's leadership, I am confident that the Board will effectively drive innovation in the options we offer cardiologists to meet MOC requirements."

The Cardiology Board works closely with the Cardiology exam committees, including:

Cardiovascular Disease

Adult Congenital Heart Disease

Advanced Heart Failure & Transplant Cardiology

Clinical Cardiac Electrophysiology

Interventional Cardiology

"I believe ABIM's new governance model is an opportunity to build new partnerships within the broad cardiology community while working to improve the Certification and MOC program across the spectrum of cardiology," said Dr. Jessup, Chair of the Cardiology Board. "The recent changes to the MOC program have created a lot of discussion, and the board members will bring the perspective of their peers as we work to improve the MOC experience for all cardiologists."

The new members of the Cardiology Board are:

Chair, Mariell Jessup, MD, FACC, Professor of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine; Associate Chief-Clinical Affairs, Cardiovascular Division of Medicine; and Medical Director of the Heart and Vascular Center at Penn Medicine, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Olakunle O. Akinboboye, MD, MPH, MBA, Associate Professor of Clinical Medicine at the Weill Medical College of Cornell University and Medical Director of the Queens Heart Institute, Rosedale, New York

Theodore A. Bass, MD, FACC, Professor of Medicine, University of Florida College of Medicine and Chief of Cardiology and Medical Director of the UF Health Cardiovascular Center – Jacksonville, Jacksonville, Florida

Matthew S. Bosner, MD, FACC, Director of Cardiology and Cardiovascular Imaging, Ste. Genevieve County Memorial Hospital, Ste. Genevieve, Missouri

John E. Brush Jr., MD, FACC, Interventional Cardiologist with Sentara Cardiology Specialists and Professor of Medicine at Eastern Virginia Medical School, Norfolk, Virginia

Vincent J. Bufalino, MD, FACC, Senior Medical Director of Cardiology for the Advocate Healthcare, Advocate Medical Group Chicago, and Clinical Associate Professor for Loyola University Stritch School of Medicine, Chicago, Illinois

Javed Butler, MD, MPH, FACC, Chief of Cardiology and co-Director of the Heart Institute at Stony Brook University and Deputy Chief Science Officer to the American Heart Association, Stony Brook, New York

Hugh Calkins, MD, FACC, FAHA, FHRS, Nicholas J. Fortuin M.D. Professor of Cardiology and Professor of Medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and Director of the Clinical Electrophysiology Laboratory, the Arrhythmia Service, and the Arrhythmogenic Right Ventricular Dysplasia Program at Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, Maryland

Frederick A. Masoudi, MD, MSPH, FACC, Professor of Medicine in the Division of Cardiology at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, Denver, Colorado

Kristen K. Patton, MD, FACC, Associate Professor of Medicine in the Division of Cardiology and Arrhythmia Section at the University of Washington, Seattle, Washington

Karen K. Stout, MD, FACC, Associate Professor of Medicine in Cardiology, Adjunct Associate Professor of Pediatric Cardiology and Director of the Adult Congenital Heart Disease program at the University of Washington, Seattle, Washington

James E. Tcheng, MD, FACC, Professor of Medicine, Department of Medicine, and Professor of Community and Family Medicine (Informatics), Department of Community and Family Medicine at Duke University, Durham, North Carolina

Public/Inter-professional Members

• Susan Ashley Moore-Gibbs, AGPCNP, CHFN, Coordinator for the Carolinas HealthCare System's Center for Advanced Practice Cardiology Fellowship and President of the Metrolina Coalition of Nurse Practitioners, Charlotte, North Carolina
• Philip E. Stauffer, Aviation Safety Inspector with the Federal Aviation Administration's Flight Standards National Field Office, Washington, D.C.


About ABIM
For more than 75 years, certification by the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) has stood for the highest standard in internal medicine and its 20 subspecialties and has meant that internists have demonstrated – to their peers and to the public – that they have the clinical judgment, skills and attitudes essential for the delivery of excellent patient care. ABIM is not a membership society, but a non-profit, independent evaluation organization. Our accountability is both to the profession of medicine and to the public. ABIM is a member of the American Board of Medical Specialties. For additional updates, follow ABIM on Facebook and Twitter.