By Denise Williams | News & Views
Each year, AACVPR takes pleasure in commending standout contributors to the field of cardiopulmonary rehabilitation, and 2022 was no exception. The stellar class of AACVPR Award recipients was announced and applauded at the 37th Annual Meeting in West Palm Beach, Florida, this past September. Read more about some of the honorees below:
Dr. Ray Squires
When he got the call from then Immediate Past President Dean Diersing that he had won the L. Kent Smith Award of Excellence, Ray Squires, PhD, MAACVPR, FACSM, FAHA, facetiously remembers asking “Are you sure?!!” Diersing was, of course, quite certain.
The recognition comes more than four decades into the career of Dr. Squires, whose interest in the pairing of preventive cardiology with cardiac rehabilitation dates back to his days as a doctoral candidate. A Penn State University grad student at the time, he recalls attending a conference convened for the purpose of developing clinical exercise programs for patients – especially those with cardiovascular heart disease (CVD). As he listened to the experts weigh in over those next few days about the discipline of cardiac rehab in its nascent phase, something clicked. “I got interested at that point, and I thought maybe this idea of clinical exercise physiology and working with patients with CVD would be an interesting career choice,” he reveals.
Interesting and illustrious, too, one might agree. Dr. Squires has dedicated 42 years of that career to Mayo Clinic, where he helped launch the facility’s preventive cardiology program in the early 1980s. Cardiac rehab was incorporated as part of that endeavor – not as a standalone operation – in a model that has since been adopted at many academic medical centers. Over the subsequent years, Dr. Squires is proud to have been part of a movement to make cardiac rehab a focal point of preventive cardiology. Receiving the L. Kent Smith Award of Excellence, he confides, is validation of a career that has been worthwhile – not just his, but that of countless colleagues he has worked with on various projects, committees and other undertakings. So while the award may have his name on it, he doesn’t view it as an individual achievement but as a culmination of the work of many. “It’s really an indication of the fantastic colleagues and teams I’ve had to work with over the years,” he states.
At the personal level, Dr. Squires expresses, the award reflects his commitment to being a constant advocate for cardiac rehab and preventive cardiology; pursuing innovation; helping patients to optimize their cardiovascular health, feel better and function more effectively; and striving to ensure that his research is helping to advance the field and make it a more appealing profession. “What I love is the intersection of exercise science, preventive cardiology, general cardiology, clinical research and this idea of trying to find ways to improve patient care,” he shares. That passion is something Dr. Squires is eager to hand down to the next generation of clinical exercise physiologists and cardiologists by mentoring younger colleagues in their own journeys toward academic and clinical success in the field.
Dr. Daniel Forman
The Michael L. Pollock Established Investigator Award, meanwhile, went to University of Pittsburgh cardiologist Daniel Forman, MD, FAHA, FACC, who was pleasantly surprised to have been chosen for the honor, given his admittedly unconventional background. “I came to cardiac rehabilitation with an interest in aging as it affects heart disease,” he explains, pointing out that older people not only are more likely to develop these conditions but that they also tend to have a tougher road to recovery from them. “I feel very strongly about the value of cardiac rehab for older populations,” declares Dr. Forman, who sees it as an impactful – but underutilized – resource for this demographic.
Currently Chair of the Section of Geriatric Cardiology at Pitt and Director of Translational Research at the Pittsburgh VA GRECC (Geriatric Research, Education and Clinical Center), his research explores how rehab can play a critical role in getting older generations back on their feet after a heart event. Not just through the cardiorespiratory benefits, he elaborates, but also fitness overall combined with balance and strength and even self-confidence.
Expressing excitement that mainstream academics appear to be embracing this mindset and incorporating it into their own work, Dr. Forman tips his hat to AACVPR. “I believe AACVPR, by acknowledging my work and through this award, does elevate the visibility of” CR in the older population, he says gratefully. “I feel that the award reinforces the sense of it being important and generalizable for other programs.”
That being said, he knows the work is far from finished. It’s critical, Dr. Forman believes, to pin down exactly what is the “right” exercise is for older adults. High intensity interval training (HIIT) is a much-discussed approach, for example, but he notes that it doesn’t translate well to older patients who may also may have cognitive impairment or be vulnerable to falls. There’s an unmet need, he continues, to identify and tailor the appropriate intensity for them, with the understanding that some patients may be obese, may have lost muscle mass, or may be experiencing frailty of old age. “How do we define it? How do we achieve it?" he asks. “And what’s the right technology – that is accessible to everyone, not just patients who are tech savvy or can read clearly, for example – to deliver that experience? It’s important.”
Dr. Jean Bourbeau
Also getting his laurels from AACVPR this fall was Jean Bourbeau, MD, MSc, FRCPC, FCAHS, with Montreal’s McGill University Health Centre, where he directs the COPD Clinic and Pulmonary Rehabilitation program. The professor accepted the association’s Thomas L. Petty Distinguished Pulmonary Scholar Award, bestowed in recognition of his research and hundreds of papers on COPD, pulmonary rehabilitation, cardiorespiratory exercise physiology and more.
Additional honorees for 2022 include:
- AACVPR Past President Ana Mola, PhD, RN, ANP-BC, MAACVPR, who took home the Distinguished Service Award;
- Chris Garvey, FNP, MSN, MPA, MAACVPR, and Chris Schumann, MS, ACSM-CEP, recipients of the Presidential Recognition & Citation Award;
- William A. Middleton, MA, who was honored with the Beginning Investigator Award;
- St. Vincent Healthcare Cardia Rehab Home Based Program, which received the Dr. Linda K. Hall Innovation Award; and
- Nebraska Cardiovascular & Pulmonary Rehabilitation Network (NCVPRN), featured here, which was selected as AACVPR’s Affiliate of the Year.