"We invite you to join APAC becoming one heart and voice to continue to advocate for high level team-based care in our communities, bringing the PA perspective to both our physician colleagues and the patients we serve. May our hearts beat as one."
-Viet Le, MPAS PA-C FACC FAHA APAC President
Every February we celebrate Heart Month. This amazing organ beats nearly 100,000 times a day; pushing 4-5 liters of blood and its contents, including oxygen, hormones, proteins, nutrients, and cell wastes; through nearly 12,000 miles of arteriovenous tissues.
Please join your APAC in reminding our patients that heart disease remains the leading cause of death, affecting 1 in 3 men and women.
While the past 10 years have seen amazing pharmacotherapeutic advances in treatment, including new classes of lipid lowering, cardiometabolic/renal, and anticoagulant therapies; updates in structural heart disease devices; to possible gene editing therapies for amyloidosis and familial hypercholesterolemia, lifestyle modifications remain an effective approach at improving overall quality of life while lowering the risk of heart events.
Valve Disease Awareness Day is February 22, 2023! Help others understand this condition that affects more than 11.6 million Americans. Take the challenge, or challenge your supporters, to see just how easy it is to get their hearts checked for valve disease by taking the Valve Disease Day Challenge! Complete the challenge in just two easy steps:
1. • Go to your healthcare provider to get your heart listened to; OR • Schedule an appointment to get your heart listened to; OR • Get a loved one to schedule an appointment to get their heart listened to.
2. Share a picture on your favorite social media platform to show that you or your loved one took the challenge. Use #ListentoYourHeart and #ValveDiseaseDay in your posts and share a picture on the way to your appointment, at the appointment, getting your heart listened to, or even of your calendar with the scheduled appointment.
AHPAC is excited to highlight the contributions of PAs in OUR community during the First Decade of the 21st Century (2000-2009) John Davis, PA-C “Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. “We are the change that we seek.” President Barack Obama, words which have applied to the PA profession since its inception in 1965. This realization especially rings true for people of color in the PA Profession. The realization that to address the obstacles, the criticism, the doubts of our abilities, we must reach out, take the giant leap forward, and lead the way to change. Becoming a PA was another leap forward for the risk takers and adventurers among us. Each student should be rightfully proud to have entered into an admired, respected and giving profession that has so much to offer personally and to the world. As our patients say, “I love my PA,” we practicing PAs say, “I love being a PA.” - Courtesy of John Davis, PAHx Society
Prentiss L. Harrison Memorial AHPAC 2023 Scholarship
APAC is proud to partner with the African Heritage Caucus, an organization that has a strong history of advocacy for PAs, students, and patients. APAC has made a donation to the Prentiss L. Harrison Scholarship in honor of Black History Month.
He was the nation’s first African-American Physician Assistant, and one of the founding members of the African Heritage PA Caucus. Mr. Harrison was a graduate of the Duke PA program in 1968, and became a PA educator and owned a clinic in Houston Texas. He was named a Distinguished alumni of the Duke PA program, and had a passion for providing health care to the medically underserved. He passed away in 2018, and this scholarship was renamed in his memory. Applicants should be a current PA student, and must be a member of the African Heritage PA Caucus. Historically the 3 scholarship winners have received between $500 and $1000. The deadline is 2/28/2023
Johnson & Johnson 'Save Legs. Change Lives.' Campaign Brings PAD Amputation Awareness to the Black Community
Black Americans are up to four times more likely to have a PAD-related amputation, largely due to greater delays in care and less access to quality vascular care.
Save Legs. Change Lives.™ aims to reach more than 10 million Black Americans over the multi-year initiative.
Don’t miss a one-of-a-kind conference on the intersection of healthy lifestyle & health disparities. Join people from across the U.S. to learn from the leading experts on food as medicine, health disparities, & community impact.
Thank you to all who attended our inaugural PA Women in Cardiology (PAWC) Meeting. We look forward to continuing to support fellow APAC members with opportunities to discuss personal and professional growth.
If you were unable to join us or want to re-watch this meeting with Meghan Krause MPH, a recording is now available.
Meghan Krause MPH is a health coach, TEDx speaker, and well-being coordinator for HealthPartners clinics and hospitals. In this discussion, Meghan led us through finding our purpose, and how to change a “filled life” into a fulfilled life.
The Multidisciplinary Heart Team in Cardiovascular Medicine: Current Role and Future Challenges- JACC
“The Multidisciplinary Heart Team in Cardiovascular Medicine: Current Role and Future Challenges” article in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology was published last month, and APAC was thrilled to be involved in the initial round table meeting at the ACC Heart House that culminated into developing this fundamental paper. It outlines the importance of all team members (including PAs), with the patient at the center, when managing complex cardiac disease.
Vignettes reviewing the team members involved include valvular heart disease, geriatrics, congenital heart disease, cardio-oncology, cardio-obstetrics, heart failure and transplant, and revascularization.
- Laura Ross, PA-C, AACC, CLS, APAC President-Elect (pictured above) was honored to be a contributing author for this article as the only PA, with many stellar NPs and MDs.
APAC looks forward to our in person conference September, 2023 – stay tuned for details!
ACC CardiaCast Podcast
Looking for a quick listen and learn on the way to work?
Check out the ACC CardiaCast, a 15-20 minute podcast where cardiovascular team members discuss the latest in care. APAC board members were excited to be asked to contribute and would love to share what we have learned in our practice with our members.
Effects of SGLT2 inhibitors and GLP1-receptor agonists on cardiovascular and limb events in peripheral artery disease- A Review
"Peripheral artery disease (PAD) and diabetes mellitus are two overwhelming health problems associated with major cardiovascular (CV) and limb events, in addition to increased mortality, despite advances in medical therapies including statins and renin-angiotensin system inhibitors. Sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 inhibitors (SGLT2i) and glucagon-like peptide 1-receptor agonists (GLP1-RA) are two new antihyperglycemic drug classes that have been associated with a significant reduction of major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) in patients with type 2 diabetes (T2D) and CV risk. Whereas most studies had enrolled patients with T2D and concurrent CV disease (CVD), patients with PAD were obviously underrepresented. Furthermore, there was a signal of increased risk of amputation in one of the main trials with canagliflozin. We aim to provide a general review of the current literature and summarize societal guideline recommendations addressing the role of SGLT2i and GLP1-RA drugs in patients with CVD focusing on the PAD population when data are available. Endpoints of interest were MACE and, when available, major adverse limb events (MALE)."
