Birtcher Tapped for National Guidelines Update

UHCOP Faculty Member Appointed to Joint American College of Cardiology-American Heart Association Taskforce on Practice Guidelines

UH College of Pharmacy Clinical Professor Kim K. Birtcher, Pharm.D., M.S., BCPS (AQ Cardiology), CDE, CLS, recently was appointed to the American College of Cardiology-American Heart Association Taskforce on Practice Guidelines, which issues updated recommendations to clinicians in the field of cardiology based on the latest research and practice experiences. 

A clinical pharmacist in Kelsey Seybold Clinic's interprofessional Secondary Prevention Lipid Clinic (SPLC), Birtcher is regarded as a national expert in the areas of cardiovascular risk reduction, including lipid management, and quality-improvement initiative. In 2007, the SPLC was recognized as a Texas Cardiovascular Health Promotion Awards Outstanding Program by the Texas Council on Cardiovascular Disease and Stroke.   

With certifications as a Diabetes Educator (CDE) and Lipid Specialist (CLS), Birtcher most recently served as a co-author on "Review of Clinical Practice Guidelines for the Management of LDL-Related Risk" published in the ACC's official publication, the Journal of the American College of Cardiology and as author of a chapter on "Clinical Evaluation and Treatment of the Adult Patient" in the Pharmacist's Guide to Lipid Management published by the American College of Clinical Pharmacy.

Birtcher currently serves as the Co-Chair of the American College of Cardiology's LDL: Address the Risk Initiative and the Clinical Pharmacist Work Group, and she served on the American College of Cardiology's Best Practices and Quality Improvement Subcommittee and Anticoagulation Consortium for several years. She also has been a longtime advocate for the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association’s Get With The Guidelines® program, a hospital-based quality improvement program that empowers healthcare teams to save lives and reduce healthcare costs by helping hospitals follow evidence-based guidelines and recommendations in the key areas of heart failure, stroke, resuscitation and Atrial fibrillation (AFib).