Association for Inherited Cardiac Conditions (AICC)
We aim to provide consistent, top quality education and training, advice on management and best practice, as well as acting as a forum for data collection, audit and collaborative research. Membership is open to clinicians, nurses, counsellors, scientists and professions allied to medicine, as well as to persons from organisations and charities involved in support of such families.
Management of inherited cardiac conditions is currently one of the most rapidly evolving areas in cardiology. The last decade has seen a major change in our recognition of these conditions from apparently rare isolated disorders, to a group which collectively are common and which may be associated with the tragedy of unnecessary sudden death.
Website: https://www.theaicc.org/
Contact: aicc@bcs.com
AICC Council
Jan Till - President
Jan is current president of the AICC, having served as a council member for some years and is passionate about raising awareness and identifying ways in which we can improve care of patients and families living their lives with ICC. Her major interest is device treatment, genetics and management of channelopathies.
Jan works at the Royal Brompton Hospital - where she helped build the inherited cardiac conditions unit - as a consultant in congenital electrophysiology and is Co-Director of Children's services at the Trust, and leads in Channelopathies, caring for both adults and children with channelopathies.
Catherine Mercer - Secretary
Dr Mercer is a Consultant Clinical Geneticist at University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust and is the lead clinician for Cardiac Genetics across the Wessex region. Dr Mercer has developed the Cardiac Genetics Service across the region to increase clinical capacity and ensure equity of patient access across the region. In addition, Dr Mercer was the Rare Disease Lead for the 100,000 Genomes Project in Wessex, involved in driving the delivery of this NHS transformational project. While most passionate about service delivery, she also has a research background with a PhD in the molecular genetic causes of congenital heart disease, specifically left ventricular outflow tract obstruction. She was elected as Secretary for the AICC in July 2019
Melanie Watson – Treasurer
Claire Turner - Consultant Clinical Geneticist
Gerry Carr-White - Cardiologist
John Dean - Geneticist
John Dean is a Consultant in Clinical Genetics for NHS Grampian, based in Aberdeen. He is also Joint Lead Clinician for the Network for Inherited Cardiac Conditions Scotland. His special interests include Long QT syndrome, Marfan Syndrome and the molecular investigation of Sudden Cardiac Death. He is Emeritus Reader in Medicine at the University of Aberdeen.
Lynne Millar - Trainee Representative Cardiology
Saidi (Sam) Mohiddin - Cardiologist
Consultant Cardiologist in Inherited and Acquired Heart Muscle Disease and in Cardiac Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Barts Health NHS Trust.
Sam Mohiddin trained in Edinburgh, in the USA at the National Institutes of Health and in London. He completed his training in Cardiology in 2010 and is a Consultant and Honorary Clinical Senior Lecturer at the Barts Heart Centre. Sam was a lead author of the national training curriculum for Inherited Cardiac Conditions and has an active role in sub-specialty education.
He has active research interests in inflammatory (myocarditis) and inherited heart muscle diseases and in the use of Cardiac resonance imaging (Cardiac MRI) in the assessment of these & other conditions.
Stephen Page - Cardiologist
Stephen Page is a Consultant Cardiologist & Electrophysiologist at Leeds General Infirmary.
He trained in Newcastle before moving to London to train as a cardiologist. His MD in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy at The Heart Hospital introduced him to the world of inherited cardiac conditions, before training in electrophysiology and inherited arrhythmia syndromes at Barts. He now leads the Inherited Cardiovascular Conditions Service in Leeds. His main focus is on clinical service development but is research active with established links with Imperial College and St George’s University.
Nora Shannon - Consultant Clinical Geneticist
Mary Sheppard - Cardiac Pathologist
Kate Thomson - Allied Health Professional
Kate is an experienced Clinical Scientist and a Fellow of the Royal College of Pathologists. She has specialised in inherited cardiac conditions for over 17 years, and is the lead for inherited cardiac disorders in the Oxford Medical Genetics Laboratory (OMGL). She recently completed a DPhil in Cardiovascular Medicine at the University of Oxford, where her research focused on the genetic basis of inherited cardiomyopathies.
Claire Turner - Consultant Clinical Geneticist
Rachel Walker – Genetic Nurse
Rachel has 23 years’ experience working in within cardiology, most recently as ICC nurse specialist in the South Yorkshire Regional ICC service for the last 13 years.
Her long experience of running nurse-led clinics has given her an intimate understanding of the needs of ICC patients and their families and the unique nature of the care they need.
Her role was initially funded by Cardiomyopathy UK and subsequently had the opportunity to work for their helpline for a number of years. This gave her an appreciation of the variations in the availability of ICC care throughout the country and the need for national approach to its management.
Although Rachel works with all ICCs, she has a particular interest in heart muscle disease.
Eleanor Wicks - Cardiologist
Dr Wicks is a Consultant Cardiologist and the Clinical Lead of the Inherited Cardiac Conditions (ICC) service at Oxford University Hospitals with longstanding specialist interests in acquired and inherited conditions, genomics, heart failure (HF) and multimodality imaging. She studied Medicine at the University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom. After qualifying in 2004, she trained in General Medicine, gaining membership of the Royal College of Physicians in 2009 and completed her general cardiology training at Barts Heart Centre, London, UK. She was appointed as a Consultant Cardiologist with dual accreditation in General Medicine in 2016 and moved to Oxford to become clinical lead of the HF and ICC service in 2017. In 2019 she became an Honorary Senior Clinical Lecturer at the University of Oxford.
Over the past 5 years she has established a national and international reputation in the field of HF and heart muscle disease, authoring >10 peer reviewed papers on the subject. She sits on the ESC Working Group for Myocardial and Pericardial Diseases, the executive committee for the Cardiomyopathy UK charity and the Association of Inherited Cardiovascular Conditions (AICC). She was instrumental as the registry fellow for the European Outcomes Research Programme (EORP) registry on cardiomyopathies. At a day-to-day level, she combines her energy and enthusiasm with clinical leadership and service delivery with the operational management of a UK flagship, large multidisciplinary, multi-professional specialist team providing integrated cardiomyopathy evaluation alongside DNA diagnostics as one of the UK’s genomic hubs. She harnesses clinical and academic synergy via a collaborative network to define disease mechanisms and ensure the translation of novel molecular biological and clinical research approaches into clinical practice which has transformed the care for families nationally. She utilises state-of-the-art genomics and imaging for rich phenotyping to help reveal the molecular, imaging and genetic basis of inherited and acquired heart diseases in search of improved diagnoses, streamlined clinical screening, risk stratification and the exploration of potential therapeutic targets in the hope of delivering personalised therapy with substantial benefits for patients.
Eleanor hopes to propel forward innovative, holistic redesign of services to exceed quality standards and deliver optimal comprehensive services to improve the diagnosis, therapy and risk stratification of cardiomyopathies whilst integrating collaborative, pioneering research routinely in clinical practice. Her business, governance and technical mindset embraces automation and AI and hopes to integrate these concepts within clinical practice to ensure the sustainability, transformation and financial efficiency of her services.
- ICC Patient Pathways
- CPVT Patient Pathway
- Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy (HCM)
- Long QT Syndrome (LQT)
- Recommendations for the management of patients with Long QT syndrome in dentistry
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JOIN THE AICC MEMBERSHIP 
Our membership benefits include free registration to the Annual Conference, our regular enewsletter, joint membership with the BCS* and the opportunity to stand for a position on Council.
AICC Medical Membership = £90 per year
AICC Non-Medical Membership = £45per year
CLICK HERE TO APPLY FOR AICC MEMBERSHIP
Please email aicc@bcs.com with if you have any enquiries regarding AICC membership.
*BCS Joint membership for Affiliate Society members 
As a AICC member, you are eligible for joint membership of the British Cardiovascular Society for only an additional £50*. This represents tremendous value as benefits include a substantial discount (£250 in 2022) on the usual cost of the 3-day BCS annual conference, discounts on other conferences and courses, and free online access to the BCS/BMJ journals Heart and Open Heart. Additional benefits include discounted rates on room bookings in the Grade II listed BCS headquarters in Fitzroy Square, London. See the BCS website for more information.
* Only available to current (affiliate) members who are not consultant cardiologists.
*AICC latest* Recommendations for vaccination for children with inherited cardiac conditions (ICC)
September 2021
The joint committee on vaccination and immunisation recently recommended that 12- 15 year olds in specific risk categories should receive two doses of COVID-19 vaccine. This advice is available on
The risk categories included 12-15 year olds with “haemodynamically significant congenital or acquired heart disease or milder heart disease with other co-morbidity”. The 12-15 year olds who should be offered two doses of the Pfizer vaccine has been considered within the AICC and includes
- Children with cardiomyopathy requiring medication
- Children on medication to improve heart muscle function
- Patients who have undergone heart transplantation
- Children who have an inherited cardiac condition but also have significant coexisting conditions eg chronic kidney or lung disease
- Individual children who have been specifically advised to receive vaccination by their cardiologist because of their specific clinical situation
The Chief Medical Officers of all nations of the United Kingdom have recommended that 12- 15 year olds without associated heart conditions should be offered vaccination against COVID-19 with a single dose of vaccine (Pfizer). This is based on assessment of balance of medical and educational benefits of preventing severe COVID-19 infection versus rare potential side effects of vaccination. 12 to 15 year olds with ICC outside the risk groups outline above should be offered a single dose of COVID-19 vaccination in the same way as those without associated risk factors as it is believed that the benefits outweigh the risks.
Current evidence suggests that the risk of myocarditis from CoVID-19 is far higher than from the vaccine, and that current evidence suggests that children who do get the very rare complication of myocarditis from vaccination appear to recover quickly and usually completely.
Children with Brugada or potential Brugada syndrome should take paracetamol before and after vaccination (as with other vaccinations) to try and minimise the effect of incurring a temperature following vaccination.
The AICC wish to provide some guidance for its members in advising their patients with ICCs about COVID-19. This advice is consistent with that submitted to Specialist Commissioning and expected to be available on-line from NHS England and through 111.
All patients should follow relevant government advice on COVID-19 provided by the 111 website and call line.
Patients who are at increased risk of complications of infection who will require strict self-isolation to reduce the chance of contracting the virus:
- Dilated, arrhythmogenic and hypertrophic cardiomyopathy patients with LV impairment and/or symptomatic left heart failure.
- Arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathy patients with RV impairment and/or symptomatic right heart failure.
- Symptomatic hypertrophic cardiomyopathy with or without significant obstruction.
Patients who may require special instructions:
- All patients with Brugada syndrome and/or sodium channel disease should self-treat with paracetamol immediately if they develop signs of fever and self-isolate.
- If patients with Brugada syndrome and/or sodium channel disease without an ICD, especially those with a spontaneous type 1 pattern, develop a high fever (>38.5C) despite paracetamol, they should contact 111 by phone, stating their condition, and may need to attend A+E*. A+E will need to be advised either by 111 or by the patient that they will attend to allow assessment by staff with suitable protective equipment. Assessment should include an ECG** and monitoring for arrhythmia. If an ECG shows the type 1 Brugada ECG pattern, then the patient will need to be observed until fever and/or the ECG pattern resolves. If all ECGs show no sign of the type 1 ECG pattern, then they can go home to self-isolate. Patients with fever who have an ICD can isolate at home and follow guidance provided by 111.
* A+E attendance may be regulated according to the capacity of service and risk of COVID-19 infection.
** ideally three different ECGs with V1 and V2 in the 4th, 3rd and 2nd intercostal spaces should be taken.
Long QT syndrome patients infected with COVID-19 who receive antivirals and/or chloroquine/hydroxychloroquine will require ECG monitoring in case of exacerbation of QT prolongation and increased risk of arrhythmias during therapy.
2022 AICC ANNUAL CONFERENCE AND NATIONAL TRAINING DAY
MONDAY 12TH AND TUESDAY 13TH DECEMBER
Registration is now open for the Annual Conference and Training Day on December 12th and 13th respectively. The full programme will be available early October. Further updates on conference format and accommodation will be available shortly. For all updates and registration, please visit the conference website:
https://aiccglasgow2022.com
AICC CONFERENCE - MONDAY 12TH DECEMBER | |
AICC MEMBER | FREE |
NON-MEMBER DOCTORS (include 1 year's free AICC membership) | £90/year* |
NON-MEMBER OTHER | £45/year* |
*The conference registration will be confirmed following payment receipt
AICC/NICCS NATIONAL TRAINING DAY - TUESDAY 13TH DECEMBER | |
AICC MEMBER | FREE |
TRAINEES/AHPs | FREE |
REGISTER HERE
ABSTRACT
The Association of Inherited Cardiac Conditions invite abstract submissions related to academic, clinical and scientific research as well as the results of projects in service development and quality improvement. Submissions are welcome from clinical and research physicians, nurses, cardiac physiologists, other allied healthcare professionals and medical students.
The deadline for submission is Noon on Monday 31st October.
DOWNLOAD THE FORM HERE*
*Only submissions in this format will be considered.