Composition

The Exec PC shall be chaired by the Scientific Program Chair, and shall also include the current President, the Immediate Past Program Chair, the Incoming Scientific Program Chair and the staff member in charge of Scientific Program Planning. The Scientific Program Chair for a given year’s Annual Meeting shall be nominated by the incoming President-Elect, subject to input from the Education Oversight Committee, be approved by the Board, and shall serve as Scientific Program Chair during the nominating President’s term of office.

Responsibilities

• Serve as advisors to the Scientific Program Chair and provide guidance regarding executive decision-making between meetings of the Program Committee
• Assist in evaluating and resolving issues that arise that cannot be resolved by staff
• Solicit and review published, expert, and learner feedback regarding educational needs and identify practice gaps and educational needs to be addressed
• Develop learning objectives for the Annual Meeting that are tied to the identified practice gaps and educational needs
• Make every effort to include both new and experienced members on the PPC and among the abstract reviewers, and to ensure specialty, gender, geographic, and generational diversity among each group.
• Evaluate and prioritize applications for joint symposia with other organizations at the ISHLT Annual Meeting and make recommendations for such to the Board
• Assist staff in evaluating the effectiveness of the format, structure, and content development process of the Annual Meeting Scientific Program
• Liaise with and be responsive to the Chair of the Education Oversight Committee with respect to the Board’s strategic objectives, harmonization with other ISHLT educational activities and input from and participation by the Society’s various stakeholders.

Composition

• The Program Planning Committee (PPC) shall consist of the Exec PC members and sufficient additional members necessary to ensure that every eligible Interdisciplinary Network and Professional Community has adequate representation on the PPC.
• The PPC members shall be appointed by the Scientific Program Chair, in consultation with the Exec PC and in accordance with the below process.
• The final committee composition is subject to the approval of the Education Oversight Committee.
• The Chair of the Education Oversight Committee shall serve in an advisory role to the Executive Program Committee. He/she will attend the symposium planning meeting in person, attend the abstract planning meeting via conference call, attend Exec PC conference calls as requested, and be copied on all Exec PC and PPC communications.
• All Committee terms are for one year.

Responsibilities

• Understand and comply with all conflict of interest (COI) processes and policies and adhere to all COI resolution requirements
• Understand all ISHLT policies and procedures relevant to the development of the annual meeting scientific program
• Come prepared and participate actively in all conference calls and meetings
• Provide content expertise, but seek to create the best overall program rather than advocating for specific content area
• Ensure that the Annual Meeting Symposia and other invited content address the identified practice gaps and educational needs of the members and the established learning objectives
• Review and evaluate symposium proposals
• Select, refine, develop as needed, and schedule the final symposia and other invited content for the Annual Meeting
• Review submitted abstracts and select those which describe the optimal scientific content for presentation at Annual Meeting
• Ensure that the presentations to be developed from the chosen abstracts will address the identified practice gaps and educational needs of the members and the established learning objectives
• Develop and schedule scientific session content based on the selected abstracts
• Select finalists and/or recipients for the various ISHLT abstract awards
• PPC Team Leaders:
  • Lead assigned interdisciplinary team’s efforts to assemble symposium content and speakers for presentation to the PPC
  • Communicate effectively with the Exec PC, staff, committee members, and other Team Leaders
  • Ensure that all deadlines are met and that all required information is provided to the Program Chair and staff
• Professional Community Representatives:
  • The members of the PPC from each Professional Community shall meet once via conference call prior to the Symposium Planning Committee meeting and once via conference call prior to the Abstract Selection Committee meeting to review and assess the scientific content relevant to the interests of their Professional Community and provide feedback to the Exec PC regarding any concerns.

Responsibilities

• Understand and comply with all conflict of interest (COI) processes and policies and adhere to all COI resolution requirements
• Understand and comply with all ISHLT policies, procedures, and applications relevant to the development of the annual meeting scientific program
• Review and score all assigned abstracts by the stated deadline

Eligibility Criteria / Qualifications / Skill Set

• Abstract reviewers must be members of ISHLT at the time of appointment and through the date of the meeting
• Secure and uninterrupted email and internet access with response times not exceeding 48 hours, particularly during the grading period
• The ability and willingness to block sufficient time during October/November to review and score abstracts via ISHLT’s online scoring system