Annual Meeting

WV ACC 2023 Annual Meeting

More information coming soon!

2022 Conference Speakers:

Sarah Embrey, PharmD, BCPS

Sarah Embrey is a Clinical Pharmacy Specialist for the Medication Use Team at WVU Medicine in Morgantown, West Virginia. She graduated from West Virginia University with her PharmD degree, and she completed a PGY1 residency at Cabell Huntington Hospital in Huntington, West Virginia. She currently serves as the President of WVSHP. Throughout the pandemic she worked as a clinical pharmacist in the critical care and step-down units of Thomas Memorial Hospital in Charleston, West Virginia. She is passionate about patient safety and mentoring new graduates through the residency process.

Ellen Thompson, MD FACC

Noninvasive cardiologist at Marshall Cardiology with strong interest in rural health. Runs a long-standing outreach clinic in Logan, and is heavily involved in Project Echo, providing tele-education and CME to rural providers. Program Director of the Marshall JCE School of Medicine Cardiology Fellowship, Director of Echocardiography at St Mary’s Regional Heart Center.

Esam Baryun, MD

Cardiac Electrophysiologist at St Mary’s Medical Center since 2008

Lavinia Mitulescu MD

Dipti Itchhaporia, MD, MACC, FAHA, FESC, FRCPS

Dipti Itchhaporia is the immediate past President of the American College of Cardiology (ACC). She was the 70th President of the ACC and the first South Asian American to hold this role.She is an interventional cardiologist and the Eric & Sheila Samson Endowed Chair in Cardiovascular Health, director of disease management for Hoag Heart and Vascular Institute, and Associate Professor at the University of California, Irvine.Dr. Itchhaporia’s professional interests include helping develop digital tools and other innovations that can propel digital transformation in healthcare, disrupt care delivery and achieve the Quintuple Aim. She has been the Chair of the ACC’s Health Equity Taskforce focusing on addressing the social determinants of health and improving access to care for underserved patients. She also has an interest in cardiovascular disease in women focusing on emerging risk factors and medical and lifestyle interventions to prevent coronary heart disease.She will be joining the World Heart Federation board starting in January 2023 contributing her global perspectives on the prevention of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs). She has worked with the Public Health Foundation of India in their capacity building efforts and hasalso been involved with the Best of ACC’s program in China, educating cardiovascular professionals in China. She has also Co-chaired ACC’s International Conference in the Middle East and has been on the editorial board for the ACC’s extended learning (ACCEL) as well as the Cardiology Today magazine. She has also participated in numerous quality initiatives including being a Member of the Physician Advisory Group, California Physician Performance Initiative (CPPI), an advisor for the ACC’s Innovation Program and most recently has been asked to be a member of the Cardiovascular Disease (CVD) Master Plan Steering Committee, California Department of Public Health.Prior to becoming ACC President, Dr. Itchhaporia held many leadership positions including being on the ACC’s Board of Trustees, past ACC Secretary and Chair of the Board of Governors for the ACC, Past President of the California state chapter of the ACC, an advisor for the ACC’s Innovation Program, the Board of the Western Affiliates Board of the American Heart Association (AHA), and Past President of the Orange County Chapter of the AHA.She was named Cardiologist of the Year 2021 for the California State Chapter of the ACC. She has been named Top Doctor by the Orange Coast Magazine for the last three years and has been recognized by the AHA as an Outstanding Medical Honoree. She is a fellow of the American College of Cardiology, the American Heart Association, the European Society of Cardiology and an honorary member of the British Cardiovascular Society, the Indian College of Cardiology, the Irish Cardiac Society and the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons, Glasgow.

Sarah Rinehart, MD, FACC, FSCCT

Sarah Rinehart works at CAMC where she serves as Medical Director of Cardiac Imaging, cardiovascular CT and Nuclear Medicine as well as Program Directory of the cardiovascular fellowship. She attended WVWC where she just served on the Board of Trustees for 8 years and subsequently trained at Marshall University for medical school, residency and cardiology fellowship. She subsequently completed level 3 cardiovascular CT and MRI training at Piedmont Hospital in Atlanta, GA. She worked there for greater than 12 years. During her tenure at Piedmont Hospital she served as Medical Director of Cardiovascular CT and MRI and was co-founder of the Women’s Heart Program. She has been active in research and her primary interests involve cardiac imaging, women’s heart health and prevention.

Olalekan Olanipekun, MD MPH

Dr. Olalekan Olanipekun was born and raised in Ondo State, in the southwestern part of Nigeria. He obtained his medical degree from Igbinedion University in Nigeria. He holds a Master of Public Health degree with a concentration in biostatistics from the University of North Texas in Fort Worth, Texas. His residency was at Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center in Chicago, Illinois. He is a second-year cardiovascular disease fellow at Marshall University Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine. Dr. Olanipekun is a member of the American College of Cardiology, board certified in Internal Medicine by the American Board of Internal Medicine, and a member of the Nigerian Medical Association. Dr. Olanipekun is married with two children, and he lives in Huntington, WV.

Allen J. Taylor MD

Chairman, Department of CardiologyMedStar Georgetown University HospitalMedStar Heart and Vascular InstituteRegional Chairman, Washington RegionProfessor of Medicine, Georgetown University

George Sokos, DO FACC

George G. Sokos, DO, FACC is the Associate Chief of Cardiology, Director of Noninvasive Cardiology, Advanced Heart Failure & Cardiac Transplant and Professor of Medicine, West Virginia University School of Medicine and colleague of Division of Cardiovascular Medicine and The Heart and Vascular Institute at WVU Medicine.
Prior to his appointment at WVU Medicine, Dr. Sokos was an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Drexel University College of Medicine and Program Director of the Advanced Heart Failure and Cardiac Transplant Fellowship program at Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh, PA. He currently is the Domain Leader for Cardiology for the National COVID Cohort Collaborative (N3C) which is an NIH sponsored initiative to learn more about the effects of COVID-19 on cardiovascular disease and includes researchers from several sites across the US. His research interests include the cardiovascular effects of COVID-19, delivery of heart failure care in rural at-risk populations, utilization of multidisciplinary teams to enhance medication adherence in patients with heart failure, as well as metabolic abnormalities in cardiac dysfunction. He has received the prestigious American College of Cardiology Merck Fellowship award for his work using a novel product to aid with recovery from cardiovascular surgery.
Dr. Sokos has authored or co-authored more than 30 peer-reviewed publications. He has given more than 100 presentations in regional, national and international scientific meetings, and has served on numerous committees in the American Heart Association (AHA), American College of Cardiology (ACC), International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation, and other organizations.
Dr. Sokos has served as a clinical investigator in over 50 clinical trials in heart failure, transplantation, mechanical circulatory support, and pulmonary hypertension. He has received funding from the AHA, ACC, Pennsylvania Department of Health, and the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.
Dr. Sokos received his Bachelor of Science degree in Pharmacy from the West Virginia University School of Pharmacy and his Doctor of Osteopathy degree from the West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine. He completed his residency in Internal Medicine at Allegheny General Hospital (AGH) where he also served as Chief Resident. He completed his Cardiovascular Medicine fellowship at AGH and completed an additional fellowship in Heart Failure and Cardiac Transplant Medicine at the Cleveland Clinic.
Dr. Sokos is board certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine in Cardiovascular Disease and Advanced Heart Failure & Transplant Cardiology and is licensed in the states of Florida, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia.

Brittany Messer, PharmD, CTTS, AACC

Dr. Brittany Messer, PharmD, CTTS, AACC has been practicing clinical pharmacy in Huntington, West Virginia for the last 3 years. She is currently the clinical pharmacist at Marshall Cardiology and is adjunct faculty at the Marshall University School of Pharmacy as well as the newly established Physician Assistant program. She is an active member of the CV Team Pharmacist Work Group, and member of the WV Women in Cardiology Chapter. Dr. Messer was elected an Associate of the ACC in February 2022. Dr. Messer earned her doctorate of pharmacy degree from Marshall University School of Pharmacy in 2019 and completed a pharmacy residency at the Hershel “Woody” Williams VA Medical Center thereafter where she gained experience with heart failure medication optimization, anticoagulation management and cardiovascular disease state management, such as lipids and hypertension, in both the inpatient and ambulatory settings. She is a certified tobacco treatment specialist and has received an anticoagulation certificate from the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP). Dr. Messer has practiced the last 2 years post-residency at Marshall Cardiology as the department’s first clinical pharmacist. She works closely with the heart failure clinic, establishing the HF Med Management follow up telehealth clinic for GDMT optimization, and runs the hypertension clinic. She oversees the warfarin clinic and is involved in research with the cardiology fellows and pharmacy residents. She presented a poster at the ACC 2022 Spring Meeting and her most recent project has won an NIH Early Career Investigator Award from the Internal Medicine section of National Medical Association and was presented at the AHA Hypertension 2022 meeting this September.

Jacob A Misenheimer, MD, FACC

Email info@accwv.org with questions.