Canadian Cardiovascular Society

Regular Members are specialists in cardiovascular health and diseases, or specialists who do not have a specialty qualification in a cardiovascular discipline but are recognized as having a major interest and time commitment to cardiovascular disease, or those with doctorates who are directly involved in cardiovascular teaching and research.

Associate Members are individuals with an interest in cardiovascular health and diseases, and do not qualify as a Regular Member or as a Member-in-Training.

Member-in-Training are those individuals who are currently engaged in a formal cardiovascular-related training program. Individuals remain eligible for such membership for as long as they are engaged in formal training.

Life Members are those individuals who have been Regular Members in good standing for at least ten consecutive years and who are retired and/or disabled, and request to be elected a Life Member.

Honorary Members The Society may, from time to time, identify any physician, surgeon, scientist or other individual for special distinction and confer Honorary Membership.

In addition to the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada (HSFC), a number of other Canadian cardiovascular associations have established affiliations with the CCS, including those that represent physician specialities, nurses, researchers, technicians, and other cardiovascular professionals. The CCS and its affiliates are all active participants at the Canadian Cardiovascular Congress, which is conducted by the CCS and HSFC.

The Society also has strong ties with the Canadian Medical Association and is a specialty society of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada. Internationally, the CCS represents Canada at the Interamerican Society of Cardiology and together with the HSFC is the Canadian voice at the World Heart Federation.

On April 2, 2014, the Society released a list of "Five Things Physicians and Patients Should Question" as part of the Choosing Wisely Canada campaign.[2] CCS recommendations include:

1. Don’t perform stress cardiac imaging or advanced non-invasive imaging when initially evaluating patients when there are no cardiac symptoms present unless the patient has high-risk markers. [3][4]

2. Don’t perform annual stress cardiac imaging or advanced non-invasive imaging in asymptomatic patients in a routine follow-up.[5]

3. Don’t perform stress cardiac imaging or advanced non-invasive imaging in pre-operative assessment for patients who are scheduled to undergo low-risk non-cardiac surgery.[3]

4. Don’t perform echocardiography in routine follow-up for adult patients who have mild, asymptomatic native valve disease with no change in signs or symptoms.[3]

5. Don’t order annual electrocardiograms (ECGs) in patients who are low-risk and do not have any symptoms.[6]

The Canadian Cardiovascular Society Angina Grading Scale is commonly used for the classification of severity of angina:[7]

• Class I – Angina only during strenuous or prolonged physical activity
• Class II – Slight limitation, with angina only during vigorous physical activity
• Class III – Symptoms with everyday living activities, i.e., moderate limitation
• Class IV – Inability to perform any activity without angina or angina at rest, i.e., severe limitation

It is similar to the New York Heart Association Functional Classification of heart failure.

• Canadian Cardiovascular Society
• CCS Guideline Programs