Did you see Santa at the GA ACC this year? Santa and Mrs. Claus were there.
See your family’s pic in the gallery below.
Order your prints at the link provided in the gallery.
2024 Emergency Cardiac Care Conference
(For Exhibitors) Download Prospectus
March 22, 2024
Gas South District Conference Center
6400 Sugarloaf Parkway
Duluth, GA 30097
Thank you Sponsors!
DIAMOND SPONSOR
GOLD SPONSOR
Confirmed Exhibitors as of 3-19-24
- Abbott
- Abiomed
- Air Methods
- Astrazeneca
- Avive
- Boston Scientific
- GCEP
- Inari
- Kiniksa
- Lantheus
- Medtronic
- Stryker
- Zoll
2023 GA ACC Legislative Report
Dear Georgia Chapter,
We had another exciting and impactful annual ACC Legislative Conference in Washington, DC from Oct 15-17. This year we had more than 400 attendees spanning the entire cardiovascular care team, including more than 130 first-time attendees and 9 members of our own Georgia Chapter! I had a great time co-moderating a lively discussion between former Missouri Senator Claire McCaskill and former White House staffer Mary Matalin at our HeartPAC Fundraiser dinner on Sunday evening. On Monday we attended sessions covering the current political landscape, ACC’s advocacy priorities, and strategies for meeting with lawmakers. We then convened on Capitol Hill and met directly with nearly 300 congressional offices about policies impacting patient access to care, clinician well-being and workforce, and improving heart health for all.
I am proud of all we achieved there, including raising nearly $40,000 for HeartPAC, ACC’s political action committee, with over 80% of conference attendees contributing. We also had tremendous impact with our voices on Capitol Hill, with The Increasing Access to Quality Cardiac Rehabilitation Care Act seeing an increase of 62.5% in congressional co-sponsors, and the GOLD Card Act with an increase of 37.5% in congressional co-sponsors immediately following the Conference.
If you are interested in learning more about advocacy for our cardiovascular patients and practices, HeartPAC will have a table later this month at our annual Chapter Meeting, or you can learn more about our legislative priorities or make a contribution here: https://www.heartpac.org/home.aspx. Please save the date for next year’s conference in DC from Sept. 29-Oct. 1, 2024, and remember Georgia ACC will cover $1000 in travel expenses for all member attendees. Our goal is to double the size of the Georgia Delegation and we will need your help!
If you have any questions I would love to hear from you, and you may contact me via email at pschafer@augusta.edu.
Pascha E. Schafer, MD, FACC
Vice-chair, HeartPAC
Advocacy Chair and Secretary-Treasurer, Georgia Chapter
GAACC Foundation Year End Giving
Nov. 13, 2023
Dear Colleagues:
On behalf of the GA Chapter of American College of Cardiology, I thank you for everything that you do to support our organization and the patients of Georgia.
In 2021 our Chapter launched the GA ACC Foundation, a 501 (c)3 charitable organization, to fund our community service programs, student education and DEI initiatives that so desperately need our support. We have already purchased several AEDs for under-served organizations and funded Dr. Heval Kelli’s Young Physician’s Initiative (YPI) that is reaching out students in middle school, high school, college and medical school to introduce them to medicine and cardiology.
We have an initial goal of $250,000 and have raised $192,750 from our members, including 100% participation from our Council. Our ultimate goal for the Foundation corpus is $1 million which will allow us to become self-sustaining by using earnings from our investments to fund these activities for many years to come.
We are asking you to help us reach and hopefully exceed our goal by contributing at one of these levels:
Levels of support:
- Platinum – $10,000
- Gold – $5,000
- Silver – $2,500
- Bronze – $1,000
Again, on behalf of the GA/ACC Foundation Board (listed below), I thank you for your continued support of our Chapter. We look forward to seeing you at our 2023 Annual meeting in November.
Sincerely,
Charles Brown, MD, FACC
President, GA/ACC Foundation
Board of Directors:
Jeff Marshall, MD, FACC, President-Elect
Arthur Reitman, MD, FACC, Vice-President
Donald Page, MD, FACC, Treasurer
Marcus Brown, MD, FACC, Secretary
Board Members:
William Blincoe MD, FACC
Pascha Schafer MD, FACC
Jennifer Yeh, MD, FAC
WAYS TO GIVE:
Send Checks to:
GA ACC Foundation
4850 Golden Parkway, Suite B-418
Buford, GA 30518
Donate by credit card with this link: https://17002.ezfacility.com/login?SmuFormId=FE4FDC08-4E22-49A8-961A-594385F4F0F5
Please click on the link, create a username and password that is different from your GAACC login and hit “create account”. Once your email address has been verified you can move forward to make your donation. If you run into a snag or would like our administrative office to make your credit card donation, please call Melissa Connor at 770-271-0453
Set up a Donation Pledge or Donate from you DAF:
Please call Melissa Connor at 770-271-0453 and she will assist you.
Dr. Byron R. Williams to Receive GA ACC’s Lifetime Achievement Award
Byron R. Williams, Jr., MD | Emory Heart & Vascular Center
Dr. Byron R. Williams, Jr. is a native of South Carolina who received his undergraduate degree from The Citadel in 1970 and his medical degree from the University of Florida in 1974. He did his internal medicine residency at Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte, NC.
In 1977, he came to Emory University for his cardiology fellowship under the tutelage of Drs. Willis Hurst, Bruce Logue, Bob Schlant, Nanette Wenger and others. He also did a fellowship in the emerging field of nuclear cardiology at Yale University in 1979-80 with Drs. Barry Zaret and Franz Wackers.
From 1980-1984, he was an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Emory University’s Crawford Long Hospital where he helped establish their non-invasive cardiology program. From 1984 to 1993, he was a member of the Atlanta Cardiology Group at Saint Joseph’s Hospital. During that period in private practice, he remained on the Emory faculty and volunteered as an attending in the Grady Memorial Hospital cardiology clinic. In 1993, he returned to Emory Crawford Long Hospital (later renamed Emory University Hospital Midtown) and was named the Linton Bishop Professor of Medicine and served at the Chief of Cardiology. In 2002, he became the Martha West Looney Professor of Medicine and served as the Chief of Medicine at EUHM. In 2013, he returned to Emory Saint Joseph’s Hospital and served as the clinical chief of cardiology until 2021.
He has mentored countless Emory medical students, internal medicine residents, cardiology fellows and junior faculty over his distinguished career. In 2012, he was awarded the Wadley R. Glenn, MD Award recognizing his contributions to EUHM and his distinguished service to Emory Healthcare. In 2018, he received the Napier Burson, MD Award for his years of distinguished service to Emory Saint Josph’s Hospital.
He has been married to the former Barbara Scanlon of Melbourne, FL since 1972. He is the proud father of five children and twelve grandchildren.
This award will be presented Saturday evening at the President’s Reception and Dinner.