Highlights from the Paediatric and Congenital Interventional Cardiology Early-Career Society (PICES) 2019 Activities

The Paediatric and congenital Interventional Cardiology Early-career Society (PICES) was established in late 2011 to provide resources and a forum for paediatric cardiac interventionalists early in their career [1, 2]. The mission of PICES is to foster academic and clinical advancement of early career congenital interventional cardiologists through collaborative education, research, and networking. PICES is a special interest group of the Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions (SCAI) and has multiple previous and current PICES executive committee members on the Congenital Heart Disease (CHD) council of SCAI. Currently the society consists of more than 200 members scattered across the globe.
The PICES executive committee through September 2019 was composed of President – Ryan Callahan, MD (Boston Children’s Hospital), Vice President (Research) – Gurumurthy Hiremath, MD (University of Minnesota Children’s Hospital), Vice President (Clinical) – Sara Trucco, MD (UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh), and Secretary – Sarosh Batlivala, MD MSCI (Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Centre). Wendy Whiteside, MD (C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital) was elected the new Vice President (Clinical) and Tacy Downing, MD (Children’s National Medical Centre) was elected the new Secretary, both are two-year positions starting in September 2019. In April 2019, Sebastian Góreczny, MD (Polish Mother’s Memorial Hospital) was selected for a new position named the PICES International Delegate.
The primary means of communication between PICES members has been message exchange through a closed internet group listserv. Multiple clinical questions stimulated informative discussions and in several cases led to initiation of research collaboration. The most debated issues in the last year included selection of stents for ductus arteriosus stenting, optimal treatment of abdominal aortic coarctation and bilateral renal artery stenosis, new onset of atrioventricular block with atrial septal defect device closure, post-catheterisation loss of pulse, and administration of vasodilators and novel oral anticoagulants in Fontan patients. Similarly to previous years, several academic activities, presentation opportunities and job postings were shared on the group listserv.
A Mentorship Program championed by Matthew Crystal, MD (Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital) is now in its second class and was continued in the last year. This structured program with...


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