SCCT announces new president, leadership team

SCCT ANNOUNCES NEW PRESIDENT, LEADERSHIP TEAM
Qualitative expansion, inclusion overarching themes in new President’s priorities

ARLINGTON, VA (SEPTEMBER 10, 2024) The Society of Cardiovascular Computed Tomography (SCCT) is pleased to welcome Maros Ferencik, MD, PhD, MCR, MSCCT as he begins his term as SCCT President, as well as the new 2024 - 2025 Executive Committee and Board members.

Dr. Ferencik is professor of Medicine and Radiology, section head of Cardiovascular Imaging, at Oregon Health & Sciences University, who has published over 300 papers, book chapters, abstracts and other scientific contributions, with many presentations at major scientific meetings worldwide.

A founding member of the Society, Dr. Ferencik began his path to president as the inaugural chair of the SCCT Fellows and Residents in Training (FiRST) Committee in 2012. He then became chair of the Membership Committee in 2019, and later served on the Education Committee before being elected to the Executive Committee.

He has been a pivotal contributor to studies exploring the application of CT imaging in assessing coronary artery disease, coronary atherosclerotic plaque, evaluating myocardial infarction and stratifying cardiovascular risk.

He has participated in the evaluation and assessment of cardiac CT in large multicenter clinical trials (ROMICAT I and II, PROMISE, Framingham Heart Study) with the focus on detection and characterization of high-risk coronary atherosclerosis, assessment of coronary calcium, improvement of the diagnostic accuracy of CT for the diagnosis of acute coronary syndrome and prognosis of future cardiovascular events.

He said a crucial moment for his career was at the very beginning of it: when he joined the imaging program at Massachusetts General Hospital in Harvard Medical School, working alongside cardiac CT pioneers, SCCT past presidents and award recipients such as Stephan Achenbach, MD, MSCCT; Koen Nieman, MD, PhD, MSCCT; Udo Hoffmann, MD, MPH; Tom Brady, MD; Suhny Abbara, MD, MSCCT; Ricardo Cury, MD, MSCCT; and others.

"I joined the group in Spring of 2002 when cardiac CT was becoming 'a thing.' That's really where cardiac CT started, and I was lucky to join the group that was at that point bringing this modality to the United States."

During his year as president, he plans to pay it forward by helping the Society’s junior members, prioritizing efforts in mentorship, education and collaborative support for the next generation of cardiac imagers.

“I really benefitted from people helping me to get active in the Society, to become an engaged member, so I look forward to creating pathways that further enhance engagement of our junior members.”

Other priorities include expanding the Society’s geographic reach to global communities outside the U.S. and Europe, where most members reside, as well as creating and enhancing SCCT’s educational offerings to align with member needs.

Advocating for fair reimbursement and distribution of resources will also be at the forefront of Dr. Ferencik’s presidential term, along with ensuring the Society provides a diverse representation within issues such as potential new pathways to cardiology certification through the new American Board of Cardiovascular Medicine.

“We'll have to navigate these waters and make sure that, for those who are in cardiology, we are fairly and well represented at the level of the American College of Cardiology (ACC). And for our members that are also certified in cardiology, provide a training pathway that's supportive of their needs, whether it's in CT or in other imaging modalities,” he said.

“At the same time, what is very important for our society is to also take into account that we have members from radiology, and non-cardiologists and non-radiologists who perform cardiovascular CT. We are a society that represents all of them, so to make sure that while we are making changes to the board exams or training requirements, this reflects the needs of all our members, not only cardiologists.”

He said he looks forward to meeting as many members as possible, in addition to traveling and representing such a diverse and evolving community at conferences with sister societies.

“In my training and my background, because I am a multimodality imager, I understand and feel strongly that we need to have a collaborative relationship with all the other imaging societies so we can best serve our members – practicing physicians who use different imaging modalities – and ultimately serve our mission: to provide the best cardiovascular CT or other imaging services for our patients.”

Dr. Ferencik succeeds Immediate Past President Ed Nicol, MD, MBA, MSCCT. Dr. Nicol is honorary consultant at both the Royal Brompton and Chelsea & Westminster Hospitals.

In his farewell address published in the Journal of Cardiovascular Computed Tomography (JCCT), Dr. Nicol reflects on his year-long term, with an underlying focus on promoting cardiovascular CT as a tool to improve population health, especially amongst those who have least access to healthcare.

During his time as President, he created and amplified awareness surrounding the business aspects of cardiovascular CT, with projects such as the planned special supplement of JCCT led by guest editors Ahmad Slim, MD, FSCCT and Jonathon Leipsic, MD, MSCCT, and the mapping cardiac CT project that will highlight gaps in delivery in the U.S.

"This in turn will allow a public health, and health inequalities debate with legislators, to ensure our (comparatively) low cost and simple test is accessible to all, to ensure the optimal cardiovascular care of those patients we serve,” Dr. Nicol wrote.

Dr. Nicol established multi-societal collaborations, recognizing that we are our best when we work together, and that we all strive for the best care for our patient.

Under Dr. Nicol’s leadership, SCCT speakers participated as faculty in cardiology and imaging meetings around the world, including American Society of Nuclear Cardiology (ASHC), Society for Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance (SCMR), ACC, the American Society for Clinical Investigation (ASCI) and others.

His letter also emphasizes the collaborative work within the past year regarding the new American Board of Cardiovascular Medicine and the importance of lobbying together for appropriate and equitable training and certification of cardiovascular imaging across specialties.

Read the full letter in JCCT.

SCCT thanks Dr. Nicol, as well as the 2023 - 2024 leadership team for their dedication and commitment.

SCCT is pleased to announce the 2024 - 2025 SCCT Executive Committee:

• President: Maros Ferencik, MD, PhD, MSCCT
• President-Elect: Kavitha Chinnaiyan, MD, MSCCT
• Immediate Past President: Ed Nicol, MD, MBA, MSCCT
• Vice President: Ronen Rubenshtein, MD, FSCCT
• Treasurer: Kelley Branch, MD, MSc, FSCCT
• Secretary: Cristina Fuss, MD, PhD, FSCCT
• Member at Large: Ahmad Slim, MD, FSCCT

SCCT 2024 - 2025 Board Members:

• Anjali Chelliah, MD, FSCCT
• Marcus Chen, MD
• Sandeep Hedgire, MD, FSCCT
• Jill Jacobs, MD, MS-HQSM, FSCCT
• Lynne Koweek, MD, FSCCT
• Omar Khalique, MD, FSCCT
• Sandeep Hedge, MD, FSCCT
• Pal Maurovich-Horvat, MD, PhD, MPH, FSCCT
• Ming-Yen Ng, BMedSci, BMBS, FSCCT
• Barbara Srichai-Parsia, MD, FSCCT
• Nikkole Weber, RT(R), (CT), CSCCT
• Jonathan Weir-McCall, MD, FSCCT
• Michelle Williams, MD, PhD, FSCCT
• Pamela Woodard, MD, MSCCT