Julie Russo • June 26, 2024
Volunteer!

The HCMA has many volunteer opportunities to help create the world we want to see for HCM patients and their families. To learn more about HCMA volunteer opportunities and get involved, contact julie@4hcm.org or click HERE.

FAQ: What is an HCMA Legislative State Champion?

An amazing group of volunteers with A SHARED COMMITMENT TO FIND the undiagnosed in their state!

We seek to improve cardiac screening in the “Well Child” examination for all children 19 and younger through:

✔Improved identification of cardiac disorders in the young.

✔Improved student-athlete pre-participation physicals.

✔Professional development for healthcare providers.

Our goal: To help you take the Healthy Cardiac Monitoring Act (HCM Act) from aspiration to legislation to law in your state.

If you are interested in becoming a Legislative State Champion, please email Julie Russo and julie@4hcm.org.

Share Your Story (SYS)

HCMA Theme of the Month Stories

The HCMA themes for July 2024 are “COE Care” and “Vacationing with HCM” featuring the story of Amy Lenhart.

I was encouraged to find a Center of Excellence and found it helpful talking to those who really understood my challenges and took the time and compassion to listen to me – this helped me emotionally, and it helped alleviate my fears. I have the opportunity to live my life normally. There are scary things about HCM, but I now have hope, and I will be forever grateful for that.

To read more about Amy’s HCM journey, click HERE.

If you are a patient (or the parent/guardian of a patient) and are interested in sharing your story about your HCM journey. In that case, we need more patient stories than ever to help educate and spread awareness about HCM.  To sign up to Share Your Story, click HERE.  Under “Projects,” choose “Share My Story Volunteer Group.”

HCMA Ambassador Program 

HCMA Featured Ambassador for July 2024 – Karen Klimczak

A little about Karen… “I was diagnosed with HCM at 27 years old, with no family history and years of passing out/concussions (early 20s) during physical activity.  Having grown up super active: playing tennis, hiking and weightlifting, HCM wasn’t easy to understand or diagnose.”

Click HERE to learn more about Karen and follow her and our other HCMA Ambassador volunteers on social media. 

#4hcm

#BigHeartBigLife 

#hypertrophiccardiomyopathy 

If you would like to share your HCM experience via social media as an HCMA Ambassador, click here to apply for future workshops. 

Legislative Advocacy

In June we hosted our Legislative State Champion training session with 21 states represented!  Our State Champions will lead a small group of volunteers within their state through the process of passing the Healthy Cardiac Monitoring Act into law. With the support of the HCMA Legislative Committee members and staff, our State Champions will obtain a bill number in their state and support its passage into law.  Volunteers interested in becoming a State Champion should email Julie Russo at julie@4hcm.org.  Include the words “ State Champion ” and the state you live in the subject line of your email. 

Ohio HCM Act Update:

  • Bill Sponsored by Ohio Representative Sara Carruthers
  • Co-sponsors: Reps. Forhan, Denson, Pavliga, Schmidt
  • Bill Number Assigned:  HB 356
  • Introduced on 12/6/23
  • Referred to Ohio House Public Health Committee on 12/12/23
  • Proponent Hearing for HB 356 held on June 18 th
    • Testimony given in-person by Lisa Salberg, Dr. Peter Aziz, Dr. Milind Desai, and patient testimony by Judith Ried.
    • A recording of this proponent hearing can be viewed HERE
  • Next steps: To our Ohio constituents, get ready to “make some noise” to show your support of HB 356. Stay tuned!  

Michigan HCM Act Update:

  • Sponsored by Michigan Rep. Amos O’Neal
  • First draft of the bill received from Michigan’s Legislative Service Bureau (LSB) and commented on by the HCMA Legislative Committee.
  • Additional language needs to be reviewed before re-submitting to LSB (end of Summer break)

Free Online Patient Discussion Groups   

Our online discussion group meetings are recurring, but you must register for each meeting date. Our meeting dates, times, and topics are updated regularly, so check our event calendar regularly to join a meeting (or more than one) best suited for you! 

HCMA’s July 2024 Featured Discussion Group Leader:  Paul Perlman

Paul co-hosts the HCMA monthly “All Things Myectomy” discussion group. He also hosts our “Pre-Myectomy education session for patients scheduled for myectomy surgery. Click on our event calendar for exact dates and times to register for Paul’s groups or any other volunteer-led online discussion groups.   Our free online discussion groups are open to all.

About Paul: 

Paul is a retired lawyer from Orchard Park, NY.  He was diagnosed with HCM in 2013 at Cleveland Clinic and received an ICD later that year.  After his symptoms became more pronounced, Paul had a surgical myectomy in 2016.Click HERE to learn more about Paul and to view other online discussion group leader bios and themes.  

HCMA Blog

On a green background, a line drawing of a head that has complicated arrows pointing outwards
By Gordon Fox April 25, 2025
Part 2 of a series on making decisions in HCM. A key reason is that decision making is so difficult is that most decisions involve more than one risk.
Hypertrophic Obsctructive Cardiomyopathy
By Erica Friedman April 22, 2025
Bristol Myers Squibb announces that Camzyos has been approved for Obstructive Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy in Japan.
April 15, 2025
It is hard to believe the first quarter of 2025 is in the history books. In the space of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and thick heart muscle disorders, the distance between the promise and the delivery of a reality freed from burden of disease is closer than it has ever been, not only in the United States but throughout the world. Unfortunately, we are navigating through some challenging health policy times, which will impact a large percentage of those with the diseases we seek to serve. While we navigate these challenging waters together, we remain committed to ensuring safe, accessible, affordable healthcare while ensuring the rights of those with disabilities are maintained. Last month, I attended two large conferences - one held in Stockholm, Sweden the other Chicago, Illinois. The research communities worldwide are holding their breath, waiting to see how we will move forward, even as we continue to develop new therapies, treatments and, even potentially, cures. It has never been more important to keep research moving, as we are so close to so many amazing improvements in our ability to care for those with thick heart muscle disorders, including HCM in all its forms, Amyloidosis, Fabry’s disease, Danon disease, and RASopathies. There was amazing science presented at the American College of Cardiology, where we warmly welcomed new president, Dr. Christopher Kramer, the original director of the hypertrophic cardiomyopathy center at University of Virginia. We look forward to his leadership and wish him well in his challenging tasks ahead. Later this month we will be in Orlando, Florida - please register and join us for this wonderful Bighearted warrior tour in person with our friends at AdventHealth and the incomparable Dr. Marcos Hazday. I even understand that there's some carpooling being organized from the Tampa area. If you're interested, reach out to the office and we will connect you. Maybe, the most impactful thing that will happen in the month of April is that we will conduct our second visit to Capitol Hill. Our lead topic this year is something you have heard us talk about at many prior meetings of the HCMA and podcasts; the generic drug quality issue. We are proud to be partnering with David Light, Co-founder and President of Valisure, and retired Colonel Vic Suarez, to ask House and Senate members to support the inspection of all generic drugs purchased by the Department of Defense and the Veterans Administration and make results of these inspections open for public use. Secondly, we are seeking rational oversight of health insurance companies’ abuse of prior authorizations and step therapy requirements. These issues cost an estimated 1.3 billion dollars a year and provide nothing to keep a patient safer or a physician's office running more efficiently. Common sense tells us to not waste money where there is no return. Additionally, prior authorizations and step therapies can keep patients sicker longer, ultimately costing the healthcare system more money. Our briefing will educate Representatives to act in an informed manner when moving policies that impact us all. You can watch the video of our briefing from Wednesday, April 9th on Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/event/5043266 If you wish to get involved or more informed on any of the issues above, I encourage you to visit the website, 4hcm.org , or reach out to the office and the staff will be happy to assist you. On the day before I head out to Washington DC, I will leave you with this one thought - we have come a really long way in our understanding of HCM over the past 60 years. We have increased the lifespan of those with HCM, through collaborative research and implementation of best practices in an organized fashion throughout this country. We have worked so hard to end suffering for so many, and we are succeeding in our shared goal to outsmart hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and other thick heart muscle disorders. It is important to continue the research into all aspects of these diseases, including the biological, the clinical, and burden of disease measurements. System improvements, positive impact of timely diagnosis and treatment, and the value to society of all of these big hearts being here, will help keep their families whole. So we're off to DC to try to educate others about what it really means to live in our ecosystem. Best wishes, Lisa
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