William C. Little, M.D., chief of Cardiology, McMichael professor and vice-chair of the Department of Internal Medicine at the Wake Forest School of Medicine, part of Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, has been named Chair of the American Board of Internal Medicine’s (ABIM) Subspecialty Board on Cardiovascular Disease.
ABIM is one of 24 medical specialty boards that make up the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS). Through ABMS, the boards work together to establish common standards for physicians to achieve and maintain board certification. The boards were founded by their respective specialties to protect the public by assessing and certifying doctors who meet specific educational, training and professional requirements. The ABIM also has a special focus on developing the cognitive exam that physicians must take to certify or maintain their certification in that field. ABIM is an independent, non-profit organization that is not a membership society.
“I am honored to be chosen by my colleagues to serve as the Chair of the ABIM Subspecialty Board on Cardiovascular Disease,” said Little, “and I look forward to working with them to maintain the high standards for certification.”
As Chair, Little, a member of the Subspecialty Board on Cardiovascular Disease since 2005, serves as the subspecialty board’s representative to ABIM’s Board of Directors which guides ABIM’s overall mission and direction as it works to improve health care quality.
Little, who is board certified in internal medicine, cardiovascular disease and interventional cardiology, has published more than 225 peer-reviewed articles of which 27 have been cited more than 100 times. A key research accomplishment was the finding that myocardial infarction (MI) most commonly results from the sudden occlusion of a coronary artery that did not previously contain an obstructive stenosis.
He is a fellow of the American Heart Association’s Council on Clinical Cardiology and the American College of Cardiology. In 2010, he was the recipient of the American Heart Association’s Laennec Master Clinician Award, and the American Physiological Society’s Lamport Award for Cardiac Research. He is past Chair of the National Institutes of Health Cardiovascular Study Section and VA Cardiovascular Merit Review Board.
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