The Joint Council on Congenital Heart Disease (JCCHD) is a council the current chairs of four core organizations related to pediatric cardiology, the sub board of Pediatric Cardiology (American Board of Pediatrics), the section of CHD/PC (American College of Cardiology), the Council of Cardiovascular Disease in the Young, (American Heart Association), and the Section of Cardiology and Cardiac Surgery (American Academy of Pediatrics). In addition, the council includes representation from the International Society of Adult Congenital Heart Disease (ISACHD), the Congenital Heart Surgeon's Society (CHSS), the Society of Thoracic Surgery (STSS), the Adult Congenital Heart Association (ACHA) and the Children Heart Foundation (CHF).  Originally formed to improve communication between the various groups involved with congenital heart disease (CHD) and pediatric cardiology, the JCCHD meets once a year in the Fall and holds numerous conference calls to share information between the represented organizations and to help coordinate national activities related to pediatric cardiology, pediatric cardiovascular surgery and CHD.

The JCCHD has worked with the American Board of Pediatrics (ABP) to develop national Quality Improvement Opportunities in conjunction with the Board's Pediatric Maintenance of Certification Program in the Subspecialties (PMCP-S). To accomplish this, the JCCHD formed the JCCHD National Cardiology QI Working Group to draft a nationwide cardiology quality improvement project, “To Improve Survival and Quality of Life in Infants with a Single Ventricle during the “Interstage” period between Discharge After Neonatal Cardiac Surgery and Admission for Bidirectional Glenn”.  The multicenter project currently is in the measurement phase including development of a longitudinal database/ registry of infants with Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome and testing of QI changes intended to decrease interstate mortality and improving the quality of life for these infants.

In addition, the JCCHD met in Washington, D.C. on January 28, 2008 for a summit on Training in Adult CHD, which was also attended by the Adult Congenital Heart Association and representatives of many academic medical centers.  Following the meeting, the JCCHD formed an Adult Congenital Heart Disease Working Group, with the objective of developing petitions for a joint exam and subboard certification for pediatric cardiologists caring for adults with CHD.  The ACC will be the sponsoring organization to present a petition to the American Board of Pediatrics. Parallel petitions will be submitted to the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) and the ABP. The current JCCHD writing group for pediatrics is, Dr. Catherine Webb (Chair), Dr. Gerard Martin, Dr. Robert Beekman, and Dr. Curt Daniels.  The current JCCHD writing group for internal medicine consists of: Dr. Michael Landzberg, Chair, Dr. Gary Webb, Dr. Carole Warnes, and Dr. Daniels.