Independent function as a non-profit, professional education and certification organization with funding through annual membership fees and educational grants from a variety of sources including, but not limited to government and industry.

• Support for the advancement of Mechanical Circulatory Support (MCS) device technology through participation in design and implementation of clinical research protocols and the support of interdisciplinary networking of professionals within the device community and related fields
• Establishment of a uniform certification by examination for MCS device clinicians as minimum requirement for evidence of competency in this field
• Writing content for a formal MCS Coordinator Core Curriculum
• Maintenance of certification standards to reflect current evidence-based treatment protocols and advances in technology.
• Annual educational conferences as a venue for presentation and review of clinical trial data, current clinical management trends and future technology

Membership Benefits!

Some of the benefits you can expect from membership are:

• Network, build and create new MCS Professional relationships among the MCS disciplines
• Active work in development of VAD Coordinator Certification
• Access to Best Practices and clinical pearls related to MCS patient management
• Webinars to enhance MCS best practices and professional development
• Support for research within with MCS community in the form of grants and mentoring from seasoned researchers
• Mentorship program for new and seasoned clinicians
• A dedicated Pediatric taskforce to provide resources to Pediatric MCS Professionals
• Access to scholarships and grants. This includes opportunities such as research grants, travel grants, certification scholarships, meeting/conference scholarships. 
• Meetings in conjunction with ISHLT and ASAIO to provide up-to-date education for MCS Professionals. This includes networking events, MCS Coordinator-Specific sessions and MCS Bootcamp courses to increase knowledge of complex case series on durable and non-durable devices.
• International Exchange Award to allow clinicians to share experiences with MCS patient management in different programs internationally
• App for EMS field guides on all durable MCS in the United States
• Searchable/Downloadable references from programs across the world! Look for ICCAC logo as a "stamp of approval"
• Access to member directory and map of all ICCAC Members
• Information about MCS-related events coming up and how to register and/or participate
• Participate and learn from ICCAC driven surveys

If you have any questions about your membership or are seeking opportunities to get involved, please reach out to us at membership@vadcoordinator.org

Click HERE to become an ICCAC Member

Opportunities for Involvement

There are many ICCAC Committees with opportunities to use your unique skills and talents. If you are interested in becoming a member of any of the committees listed on our website, please email the link on that committee page for more information.

2023 Accomplishments

• Awarded 125 VAD-c scholarships to allow members to obtain their certification at no cost
• We held a networking event during the ISHLT meeting in Denver, CO. At that event we celebrated the MCS Clinician of the year. 
• Networking event at the ASAIO conference in June 2023 (San Francisco, CA). We were also able to host an MCS Bootcamp featuring pediatric and adult management for both durable and nondurable MCS devices. 
• We hosted our first European networking event during the EUMS meeting in Paris, France September 2023.
• We partnered with ACTION and were able to sponsor a networking event for pediatric MCS clinicians in Sept. 2023 in St. Louis, MO.
• We had a booth and attended the national EMS conference in New Orleans, LA in Sept. 2023 to provide training for our EMS partners.
• Hosted the first MCS Bootcamp at the ISMCS Conference in Dallas, TX Oct. 2023. We were able to sponsor the cost of bootcamp for 25 members. 
• The Mentorship Committee had it's highest number of dyads and will be awarding a travel scholarship at the annual board meeting to allow one mentee/mentor pair to meet in person.
• The Research Committee awarded 3 scholarships (totaling $10,000) that allowed members to attend national meetings and present their important work.
• The Best Practice Committee finalized 3 projects: Staffing guidelines, VAD Wearables and speed optimization. The speed optimization was accepted as an abstract to ISHLT in 2024! Links to these important documents can be found here: https://iccac.global/members-only/documents/
• We translated several of our most valued member documents into the following languages to support our growing Asia-Pacific members: Korean, Japanese, Traditional and spoken Chinese. You can find those here in our member documents: https://iccac.global/members-only/documents/
• The Webinar Committee had a record year for broadcasts and expanded to include a series in Europe. These have all been recorded and are available for all members to view: https://iccac.global/members-only/webinar-recordings/
• We had our first exchange award grant in several years. This is allowing an international exchange - Thomas Schloglhofer visited the Medical University of South Carolina in October 2023 and Lisa Kester will be visiting Vienna, Austria in March/April of 2024. More details to come in 2024. 
• The Social Work Task-force published a field guideline for social workers who are working with MCS patients (including education on tMCS). They also created resources around housing agreements, compliance agreements, caregiver agreements and a sample interview format for evaluating this complex patient population. 
• Our Public and Regulatory Policy Committee kept us informed about important changes that impact our work and patients. Most notably, they led a thoughtful webinar discussion open to all members and then put together a position statement to UNOS regarding a proposed policy change that will impact tMCS patient listing status. This was a first for ICCAC! 
• Our Communications Committee helped us achieve our highest membership number to date: 528 as of Dec 2023! They have kept our social media feeds active and engaging as well.
• In February 2024, we will be sponsoring a booth at U-CARS in Utah and providing funds for 10 ICCAC members to attend the conference.
• We were able to invest in an additional IT support person to enhance our website features- including auto renew, Zoom for webinar platform with secure links, standardization of member types at sign up and a new industry landing page that will go live in early 2024. 
• ICCAC collaborated with Abbott and STS to review data related to best practices in the management of HM3 patients. The ASPIRE data will be released in 2024 and I need to thank Sarah Schettle for her countless volunteer hours to ensure the data is accurate and complete! Very exciting data for 2024! 

We hope you will join us this year in 2024 to accomplish even more! If you would like more information on how to get involved, please reach out to us at membership@vadcoordinator.org or click on the Committees Tab at the top of the website.