Dear Colleagues, Friends, and Members of the Association,

The year 2010 has started with a very encouraging number of applications for ordinary and junior membership! The Association has received 106 new members in 2010 so far.

The Council is very pleased about this development and is looking forward to meeting these new members in the activities of the Association. Congenital Cardiology and related sub-specialities should be considered as a big, friendly, and open-minded family caring for congenital cardiac anomalies in patients from foetal to adult life.

We are facing several challenges during 2010. Our major task will be harmonising training and education in Paediatric Cardiology within Europe. The Educational Committee is working hard on the educational issues. Educational Committee will coordinate the teaching courses for juniors. Therefore, it is extremely important that the Educational Committee is informed about all the teaching courses and other courses that are held under the patronage of the Association for European Paediatric Cardiology (AEPC).

The web page of the Association needs a major renewal. In this work, the Council welcomes your ideas, criticism and activity. Please send your wishes on the content and functions of the web page to the Secretary-General.

New Council Members

The Association will elect a new Councillor who should be a surgeon and Secretary-General-elect during its Business Meeting in Innsbruck on the 27th of May, 2010. The office of the Secretary-General-Elect will be very demanding. Therefore, the Secretary-general-Elect should have experience in the work of the Council.

The Secretary-General has not received any proposals for the new councillor or for Secretary-general-Elect from the members so far.

Members can make proposals for these positions until the 27th of February, 2010.

The Council proposes

1. (a) Juan Comas from Madrid as a new Council member

   1. (i) Juan Comas is a Chief Surgeon at the Hospital of 12th of October in Madrid, Spain. He is a skilful and well-known congenital surgeon. He is also the chairman of the Congenital Domain the European Association for Cardio-Thoracic Surgery.

2. (b) Katarina Hanséus as the new Secretary-General-Elect

   1. (i) Katarina Hanséus is a Chief Cardiologist and Chief Physician of the Cardiologic and Cardiothoracic Unit in Lund University Hospital, Sweden. She is currently a Councillor.

Annual subscription

Attached you will find a letter from the Treasurer. This letter contains instructions how to pay your annual subscription. Many of us will use online payment. You will need your username and password before paying online. If you have lost your username and password please feel free to contact the Secretary-General. He will send your password and username to you.

You can pay online even before you receive the surface mail. Just follow the instructions on AEPC web page at www.aepc.org.

Paying the annual subscription in due time ensures that you will get your copy of the journal Cardiology in the Young and you can register to the Annual Meeting with the membership fee.

All the members will receive the letter from the Treasurer

• – Senior members do not have to pay the annual subscription.

• – If a senior member wants to receive the journal Cardiology in the Young a subscription fee of €80 is needed.

• – There are some members that have paid their subscription for 2010 already. If you have paid already please discard the letter.

Annual Meeting in Innsbruck 26–29 May, 2010

AEPC Annual Meeting in Innsbruck Austria takes place 26–29 May, 2010. Please register now. The programme is really good and gives you an excellent update of new developments in Paediatric Cardiology.

Please visit http://www.aepc2010.at/ for more details about the programme.

The meeting will take place in one of the most scenic areas of Europe, the Alps. Innsbruck also called capital of the Alps does have a nice small river in the city too. The venue is a modern congress centre with all facilities, at the riverside just at the edge of the city centre within walking distance of all Hotels. AEPC will be using the facility exclusively and the friendly staff will be caring exclusively just for us.

The programme highlights the newest developments in all the specific parts of Paediatric Cardiology covered by our Working Groups, often in joint sessions, and with pro and con parts.

The update-on course on Wednesday 26 will be organised by WG Dysrhythmia and Electrophysiology.

The programme especially focuses on outcome not only haemodynamically but in terms of Quality of life! For decades we have been working hard to help our children survive, and we have been quite successful as well, so now our patients are outgrowing childhood and adolescence and soon there will be equal numbers of patients in the paediatric and adult population. Therefore the question is not if, but how do our patients survive and how does this influence our work again.

Another important challenge that we are facing is the change in populations in Europe. Due to the political and economic changes as well as globalisation we all have patients with different cultural background. Thus, we have to reconsider treatment plans not only individually for the disease but for the patient within the cultural context. In respect of this intercultural aspect we are very happy to have the representatives of the Japanese Society of Paediatric Cardiology and Cardiac surgery for the first time as guests with us. They will not only present their research, but also give us an input in their attitudes towards the main topics.

Another new aspect of the programme is a special session for nurses and technicians. We are not only a multidisciplinary but also a multiprofessional society.

Last but not the least we will have scientific abstract sessions as a forum for our junior members and young researchers to present their work. Poster exhibition is also very interesting. There should be enough time to discuss them with the authors directly.

• • Update-on Couse in Arrhythmias

  The Annual Meeting is preceded by an excellent Update-on Course in Arrhythmias organised by the “Cardiac Dysrhythmias and Electrophysiology Working Group” on Tuesday, 26 May, 2010.

• • AEPC/European Association of Echocardiography (EAE) Individual accreditation examination in congenital echocardiology takes place during the 44th AEPC Annual Meeting in Innsbruck.

  There is a possibility of taking an individual accreditation examination in congenital echocardiography that will be organised on Wednesday 26 May, 2010 during the Innsbruck Annual Meeting. AEPC and EAE members benefit from a reduced fee. You can find more information on it at the following web pages:

• http://www.aepc2010.at

• http://www.aepc.org/aepc/nid/Meeting_Training_Education_Job

• http://www.escardio.org/communities/EAE/Pages/membership.aspx

On behalf of the local organising committee of the 44th Annual Meeting in Innsbruck Professor Joerg-Ingolf Stein invites you all to join this year’s 44th Annual Meeting. We all are looking forward to welcoming you in Innsbruck in May, 2010!

In closing,

We hope you all a favourable year 2010.

Looking forward to see you all in Innsbruck!