Canadian Cardiovascular Society
 
Canadian Cardiovascular Society

Committees

Governance Committee

Chair: Marc Ruel, CCS Past President

Members:

Lisa Mielniczuk, Secretary
Anne Fournier
Paul MacDonald
Varinder Randhawa, Trainee Representative

The Governance Committee of the CCS is a Standing Committee of the Board of Directors (BOD) of the CCS. It was established to assist the BOD in carrying on the business of the Society in connection with all matters relating to governance. For the purposes of this duty, governance is defined as providing oversight on the CCS so as to be assured that the Society fulfills its commitments and obligations.

Two-year term (with the possibility of a two-year extension)

Responsibilities:

  • To assure the BOD that a measurable process of governance has been defined, documented, and operationalized in the Society.
  • To gain assurance from Management that the aforementioned governance process is embodied in the Society’s internal controls.
  • To make recommendations to the BOD on the improvement in governance practices and processes for the Society.
  • To act as the Nominations Committee for all vacant positions on the BOD or Chairs of Committees of the BOD.
  • To make recommendations to the BOD for vacant positions of President, Vice-President, Secretary/Treasurer and Committee Chairpersons.
  • To prepare criteria for the recruitment, screening and selection of candidates for vacant positions on the BOD and Committees.
  • To oversee the BOD orientation process.
  • To recommend to the BOD the amendment of the Society’s by-laws, as and when, necessary.
  • To recommend to Council the recipients of the CCS Recognition Awards: Achievement Award; Distinguished Teacher/Mentor Award; Women in Cardiovascular Medicine-Science Mentorship Award; Dr. Harold N. Segall Award of Merit; Exemplary Leadership in Clinical Cardiovascular Medicine and Surgery Award; Trainee Excellence in Education Award; Research Achievement Award; and, the Dr. Robert E. Beamish Award.
  • To oversee and approve changes to the Society’s Delegation of Authorities.
  • To undertake other governance duties as requested by the BOD.

Membership
The Governance Committee will be chaired by the CCS Past President, and includes five (5) other CCS members appointed by the BOD including the CCS Secretary/Treasurer and a Trainee member. The Chief Executive Officer and the Chief Financial and Governance Officer of the Society will be non-voting members of the Committee.

Frequency of Meetings
The committee will meet at least twice per year (June and October; in person, as feasible) and more frequently as required (virtually).

Audit and Risk Management Committee

Chair: Andrew Mackie, CCS Secretary/Treasurer

Members:

Mangeet Chahal
Rodney Zimmermann, Past CCS Treasurer

The Audit and Risk Management (ARM) Committee is a Standing Committee of the Board of Directors (BOD) of the CCS. It was established to assist the BOD with the fulfillment of its fiduciary responsibilities for financial oversight and accountability.

Membership
The ARM shall be comprised of three (3) members appointed by the BOD, at least one (1) of whom is a BOD member and one (1) of whom is past CCS Treasure. The CEO and CFGO of the CCS shall be non-voting members of the ARM. The CCS Secretary/Treasurer shall be Chairperson of the ARM. The CFGO serves as the subject matter expert for the ARM.

Terms of Appointment
Each ARM member serves for a period of two (2) years and may be re-appointed for a second term upon completion of their first term.

Frequency of Meetings
The ARM shall meet at least twice per year (June and October; in person, as feasible) and digitally in January. Any member of the ARM may request a special meeting at any time.

For more information about these positions, please contact Clary Ottman, Chief Financial and Governance Officer at ottman@ccs.ca.

Research Fellowship and Awards Committee

Chair: Satish Raj

Members:

Ratika Parkash
Marcelo Munzo
Philippe Pibarot
Maral Ouzounian

The CCS Research Fellowship and Awards Committee is advisory in scope, providing expert, informed advice and recommendations to the CCS Board of Directors on:

  • Policies, practices, scope and structure of CCS research fellowships and research awards.
  • Risks and opportunities related to CCS research funding initiatives, including emerging trends and changes in the Canadian research funding environment

Two-year term (once renewable)

Committee Member
CCS Research Fellowship and Awards Committee members are subject matter experts (the Chair is an active clinician-scientist), including past awardees of a CCS Research Fellowship or Research Award. Members have knowledge of the CCS, the Canadian research funding and award environment and the needs of clinician-scientists at all career stages, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), and Peer Review best practices.

For more information about these positions, please contact Seema Nagpal, CCS Chief Science Officer at nagpal@ccs.ca.

Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Committee

Chair: Sonia Anand

Members:

Alexandra Bastiany
Annabel Angela Chen-Tournoux
Saleema Allana
Donna May Kimmaliardjuk
Sharon Mulvagh
Gurmeet Singh
Andrew Krahn
Varinder Randhawa

The Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Committee is a Standing Committee of the CCS Board of Directors. The vision of the CCS is strong heart teams in a heart healthy Canada. Fostering equity, diversity and inclusion is one of our guiding principles. The success of the CCS Mission depends on people who provide a diversity of background, experience, ideas and perspectives as members and leaders. The EDI Committee supports the CCS in establishing the strategic priorities and action plans to uphold and advance our EDI values.

One-to-two year terms

The EDI Committee is responsible for:

  • Supporting CCS in evaluating needs, offerings, processes, practices, and policies to assess strengths and shortcomings to facilitate improvements in what we do and how we do it;
  • Using existing CCS membership and other data to inform current status on EDI within the Society, and advising CCS on improving data collection and analytics to support EDI activities and evaluation;
  • Advising on CCS’s long term EDI strategy by supporting staff in identifying key priorities and activities to advance this work, informed by CCS baseline data;
  • Championing the policies, processes, and positions the CCS adopts; and,
  • Evaluating progress using an established list of key performance indicators.

For more information about these positions, please contact Sharon Groulx, Program Manager, Policy and Advocacy at groulx@ccs.ca.

Continuing Professional Development Committee

Chair: Anil Gupta

Members:

Chi-Ming Chow, Past Chair
Jonathan Gabor
Jonathan Windram
Kiera Liblik, Trainee Representative
Lisa Mielniczuk
Nadine Gauthier
Osama Elkhateeb
Phyllis Billia
Stephanie Poon

The Continuing Professional Development (CPD) Committee is a Standing Committee of the CCS Board of Directors (BOD). The CPD Committee promotes excellence in cardiovascular care by positioning the CCS as the national leader in cardiovascular knowledge translation. Members of the CPD Committee must be committed to ensuring the CCS’ continuing professional development program meets the educational needs of clinicians delivering cardiovascular care in Canada. Representatives for this committee are selected from across Canada and from various areas of care.

Three-year term (with the possibility of a two-year extension)

Committee Member
The CPD Committee provides the BOD with informed recommendations regarding CCS CPD programs for members and trainees, in consideration of best practices in Knowledge Translation and The Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada (RCPSC) Accreditation criteria. This is a two to four-year term.

For more information about these positions, please contact Vanessa Richardson, Director, Continuing Professional Development at cpd@ccs.ca.

Guidelines Committee

Chair: Jonathan Howlett

Members:

Kim Connelly
Kevin Harris
Jasmine Grewal
Tarek Malas
Nicolas Thibodeau-Jarry
PJ Devereaux
Dennis Ko
Natasha Aleksova
Krishnan Ramanathan
Emilie-Belley-Côté
David Birnie
Nariman Sepehrvand

The Guidelines Committee is a Standing Committee of the CCS Board of Directors (BOD). It is accountable for steering, supporting and approving the slate of Guidelines and Clinical Practice Updates (CPU) through to successful publication in the Canadian Journal of Cardiology (CJC), and directly supporting the CCS’s vision, mission and strategic operating plan.

Committee members commit time to functions that include, but are not limited to, participating in review and selection of the annual call for topics, peer review of final draft manuscripts and voting on eligibility for submission to the CJC, actively participating as a Guidelines Committee liaison on one or two Guideline / CPU panels, collaborating with other CCS Standing Committees (i.e., Scientific Program Committee, Continuing Professional Development), informing the BOD and Council on requests, and attending a minimum of four virtual committee calls, plus one Congress meeting (either in person or virtual) each year.

Guidelines Committee members are CCS members in good standing. They embrace CCS’s Committee Member Core Competencies and the Committee is balanced for equity, diversity and inclusion.

Guidelines Committee members bring an excellent cross-section of qualifications and interests including:

  • Cardiovascular specialists and sub-specialists (pediatrics, surgery/transplant, interventional cardiology, imaging, electrophysiology, cardio-oncology, critical care, heart failure);
  • Allied healthcare provider(s), pharmacists;
  • Early-, mid-, and late-career members plus trainees;
  • Cardiovascular specialist(s) with interest in systems change / optimizing care based on patient values / preferences
  • Demonstrated experience in development and publication of Guidelines using GRADE plus clinical statements
  • Enthusiasm to provide leadership, clinical and academic guidance to Guideline / CPU panels;
  • Understanding of provider barriers to optimal cardiovascular health and care and knowledge of how Guidelines and related knowledge translation can help address these barriers;
  • Awareness of needs of the broader cardiovascular care community, primary care providers, allied health care providers and patients; and
  • Ability to connect the CCS with other content experts.

For more information, please email Kiran Thapar Otto at guidelines@ccs.ca.

Membership Committee

Chair: Lisa Mielniczuk

Members:

Laurie-Anne Boivin-Proulx
Anil Gupta
William McIntyre
Tina Zhu

The CCS Membership Committee is a Standing Committee of the CCS Board of Directors (BOD). The Committee provides overall expert advice for current, new and suggested products and services as required, and makes recommendations on member recruitment, retention and engagement strategies.

Three-year term

The CCS Membership Committee has a mandate to:

  1. Oversee the implementation of the programs and services outlined in the membership section of the Strategic Plan;
  2. Provide overall expert advice for current, new and suggested products and services as required; and
  3. Report to the Board and to engage Council of Committees to develop products and services that will benefit the membership and to encourage membership participation/engagement in CCS and Affiliate societies’ activities and growth by promoting the CCS and Affiliate societies.

For more information about this position, please contact Linda Palmer, Director, Membership Services and Affiliate Relations at palmer@ccs.ca.

Scientific Program Committee

Chair: Chi-Ming Chow

Members:

Shelley Zieroth, Outgoing SPC Chair
Jasmine Grewal, Annual Meeting Chair
Atul Verma, Incoming Annual Meeting Chair
Anil Gupta, CPD Chair
Jonathan Howlett, Guidelines Chair
Filio Billia, Education Chair
William McIntyre, Workshop Chair
Kai Wu, TPPC Co-Chair
Najah Adreak, TPPC Co-Chair
Tara D’Ignazio, TPPC Co-Chair
David Bewick, Year-in-Review Chair
Ansar Hassan, Year-In-Review Co-Chair
Gillian Nesbitt, Year-In-Review Co-Chair
Grace Chua, Year-In-Review Co-Chair
Kevin Bainey, CAIC Representative
Margot Davis, CHFS Representative
Matt Bennett, CHRS Co-representative
Jaimie Manlucu, CHRS Co-representative
Subodh Verma, CSCS Representative
Robin Ducas, CSE Representative
Jonathan Windram, CACH Representative
Dave Nagpal, CANCARE Representative
Idan Roifman, CSCMRI Representative
Paaladinesh Thavendiranathan, CCON Representative
Sheri Koshman, CCPN Representative
Caroline McGuinty, CCTN Representative
Robert Miller, CNCT Representative
Michael Khoury, CPCA Representative
Eric Kaplovitch, CSVM Representative
Susan Morris, CCCN

The Scientific Program Committee is a Standing Committee of the CCS Board of Directors (BOD). The Canadian Cardiovascular Congress (CCC) is a complex meeting with an extensive Canadian Cardiovascular Society (CCS) program. The CCS program includes Plenaries, Workshops, Accredited Symposia, Trainee Sessions, Abstracts, Featured Research and integrative functions such as the Kick-off, and networking opportunities. The complexity of the CCC and its organizational policy, as well as its resource and financial requirements, benefits from strategic oversight from a designated, committed individual who is responsible for overall CCC integration.

The SPC Chair heads the committee, and works very closely with the CCS Manager, Congress. In addition, the SPC Chair is assisted by their administrative assistant who is responsible for the following tasks: set up all video conferences; take minutes on all video conferences; and assist the SPC Chair in execution of their role.

The term of appointment is 4 years: 1 year as incoming (vice) chair, 2 years as chair and 1 year as past chair.

Chair Qualifications
A candidate for Chair of the SPC must possess the following qualifications:

  • Have previous experience on the CCS Scientific Program Committee;
  • Be a well established and highly respected cardiovascular health researcher and medical expert;
  • Be a CCS member in good standing who represents both academic and community cardiovascular specialties as well as the basic sciences;
  • Be an enthusiastic, results motivated cardiovascular medical practitioner, scientist and educator, or an established scientist with strong ties to the medical community, who is committed to developing and delivering excellent programming at the Canadian Cardiovascular Congress; and
  • Be well connected within the cardiovascular health network and posse’s strong leadership and communication skills that will serve in fostering collaboration among participating organizations in the interest of program integration.

The Scientific Program Committee (SPC) is responsible for the development of high-caliber CCS scientific programming at the CCC. The SPC plans and selects all content for CCC with a focus on delivering education aimed at improving the quality of care provided by our membership and improving health outcomes for those who receive care. Representatives from various areas of care and sub-specialization are selected to represent the CCS membership as part of this committee.

One-to-four-year term

The Scientific Program Committee (SPC) is a CCS standing committee with the mandate to develop a high-quality scientific program for the CCS Annual Scientific Meeting portion of the Canadian Cardiovascular Congress (CCC) and to help extend the delegates learning experience over the period between congresses.

The Scientific Program Committee is responsible for:

  1. Developing the overall CCS scientific program format and program content;
  2. Invite identified plenary speakers;
  3. Co-ordinate reviewers for all abstract submissions;
  4. Liaise with the Congress education partners (ie participating allied health organizations), and to CCS Affiliates to inform overall CCC program content and cohesion.

Committee members are expected to:

  1. Participate in 3-5 video conferences and one face-to-face meeting at CCC in October;
  2. Participate in the CCS Members Needs Assessment;
  3. Recommend and contact prospective speakers if required;
  4. Be active members of sub-committees (Workshops, Featured Research, Young Investigator Award Selection, etc.); and
  5. Be ambassadors for the meeting in their communities during their term

For more information about this position, please contact Danielle Hurtubise, Manager, Congress at hurtubise@ccs.ca.

Advocacy Committee

Chair: James Tam

Members:

Simone Cowan
Michelle Keir
Stephanie Poon
David Messika-Zeitour
Isabelle Nault

The Advocacy Committee is a Standing Committee of the CCS Board of Directors (BOD). The Committee supports the CCS in influencing policy and advocating for the heart health of Canadians. Specifically, the committee guides the CCS in identifying priorities that are representative of and in the best interest of the cardiovascular specialist community to advance heart health for all.

One-to-two-year terms

The Advocacy Committee is responsible for:

  1. Advising on the development of CCS’s advocacy plans by supporting staff in identifying national-level policy and advocacy issues and priorities;
  2. Evaluating how to respond to issues;
  3. Guiding the CCS in developing policy documents, and contributing to CCS submissions to federal or provincial consultations;
  4. Representing the CCS to the public and the media, and championing the policies and positions the CCS adopts;
  5. Participating and attending annual federal government lobby activities, as required; and
  6. Evaluating success using an established list of key performance indicators.

Issues in the cardiovascular field that this committee may work on in the next two years could include (but are not limited to) the following: Cardiovascular care quality; Access to real-time data; Value Based Health Care; Improving Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in Cardiovascular medicine; Vaping; Pharmacare; and Virtual Care

For more information about this position, please contact Sharon Groulx, Program Manager, Policy and Advocacy, at groulx@ccs.ca.

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