The American Association of Cardiologists of Indian Origin (aacio.org) was
formed in 1986 and after crossing puberty, the organization has reached the
excited stage of youth after nineteen years. In this article, I want to review
the past, present, and future of this organization to evaluate what we achieved
so far, our weaknesses and what we can achieve in future. The principal ideas
behind formation of this organization were:
1) To bring all the cardiologists of Indian origin under a single platform
2) Organize a semiannual meeting coincident with annual conferences of American
College of Cardiology and American Heart Association to get together for the
exchange of ideas, friendship and to discuss problems of practicing cardiology
3) To recognize the outstanding achievements of the Indian cardiologists by
giving awards
4) To work with ACC but also maintain our separate identity
5) To encourage young cardiologists to participate in the organization
6) To establish a fraternal relationship and to work with different cardiology
societies of India.
However, in the beginning the activity of the organization was limited within
awarding an Indian cardiologist for his or her outstanding achievement and
semiannual get-togethers before annual meetings of ACC and AHA, as the number of
members was very small. In 1995, the association started the Young Investigator
Award to recognize a young cardiology fellow (or a cardiologist at the rank of
assistant professor) for his research work by honoring with a plaque and a prize
money of $500.00. In 1998, the association reduced the dues of life members and
waived the membership fees for cardiology fellows and residents which
significantly enhanced the participation of young cardiologists in the
semiannual meetings of the organization. New memberships started increasing. In
the last five years the organization has significantly developed due to the
sincere work of the members of the board and executive committee, and better
communications resulting from the Internet era, of which the following
achievements are worth mentioning:
1) Significant increase in life and ordinary members
2) Recruitment of young cardiologists in the board of directors and executive
committee, who have just finished their fellowships
3) Increasing the number of awardees to two from one and the prize money to
$1000 for each person in the Young Investigator Award.
4) Advertising and asking for abstracts in Circulation and American College of
Cardiology journals each year which increased the participation of the number of
contestants and made the award more competitive
5) Collection of funds for the association; Due to significant personal efforts
of some of the executive committee members and the increase in the number of
life members and ordinary members, there has been a modest increase in the total
collection of funds.
6) A disciplined monetary status has been reached in the last five years after
auditing all the past financial transactions. There is now an up-to-date filling
of income tax.
7) Achievement of nonprofit status of the organization from the IRS
8) Publication of the Directory of Indian Cardiologists in 1999. The directory
is in the process of revision and in the second edition now.
9) One member each from the Cardiology Society of India, Indian College of
Cardiology and Indian Academy of Echocardiography are incorporated in the
executive committee every two years as invited guest members.
10) Establishment of cordial relationship with other ethnic cardiology
associations especially with the American Association of Black Cardiologists.
11) Development of dynamic website of the organization (aacio.org) where in
addition to the news and information about the organization, cardiologists would
be able to become members of the organization from the website.
Although significant achievements have been made by our organization, there is
no room for complacency. In the United States Indian students occupy almost
thirty percent of cardiology fellowships each year. We already have 500 life
members and approximately 2000 members in our organization and our future will
be bright if we can bring many more new fellows into our association.
As the President Elect, I believe our most important job will be to give maximum
effort to the membership drive and to raise money for future projects.
I have the following suggestions in these regards:
1) Advertisement of our organization and web site in different medical journals,
which would help to obtain more members.
2) Further development of the website:
a) Inclusion the names and addresses of the life and ordinary members
b) Advertisements of Job Search – fees can be charged for the advertisements
c) No hassle online membership and payment of dues
d) Creation of online chat room with easy access so that especially young
residents and fellows can communicate with each other
e) Posting of educational news, achievements of the members and important
educational meetings or dead lines
f) Publication of interesting case reports or review articles, which would be
selected by a committee
3) Fund raising effort:
a) All the members of the executive committee and board members should pay a
onetime donation. The board and executive members can decide the amount of the
donation. After that, all the life members can be approached for voluntary
donation.
b) More efforts to try to convert more ordinary members to life members
c) Plan for review or update courses in cardiology prior to the ACC and AHA
annual meetings and special recognition of the cardiologists (Indian or
American) from the organization with awards in the semiannual meetings.
d) Explore the possibilities for development of a charitable trust or endowment
funds
e) Appeal to different Indian business firms, organization on personal basis or
from the organization for donation
4) Working relationship with ACC:
Our organization is interested to work with the ACC but we still want to keep
our identity. The relationship can be explored by keeping in mind our financial
limitations. At present, president Dr. Nayak is working on this issue and I and
Dr. Nayak will continue to work on this in future. I believe a committee needs
to be formed to explore the possibilities. At the beginning, a joint conference
with ACC and AHA in the annual meetings would certainly give a lot of publicity
to the organization and would be a good starting point.
In addition to the above proposals I would like to mention that we would
continue our existing programs. We would also try to expedite the publication of
the new directory and post it into the website.
One of the major challenges the organization is facing from the inception is the
lack of active participation of the members. We always receive valuable ideas
and suggestions but for implementation of such ideas, we need real working
members and more participation from the young cardiologists. Our strength of the
organization lies in the number of members and sound financial status.
As a president elect, I would give my sincere effort to unite all the members
for collective and unselfish effort with a common goal of further strengthening
the organization.
Kul Aggarwal, MD,
FACC, the President Elect of AACIO
