The Annual Meeting of the European Society for Cardiology

By the time this Newsletter is published, we hope that a very crowded but challenging scientific program will have attracted thousands of European and international cardiologists to Munich over the period 28th of August to the 1st of September. The attending paediatric cardiologists will have been able to participate in the pre-arranged symposium, arranged through our joint Committee and “Working Group 22” of the European Society that addresses the problems in older patients who suffer from congenital cardiac malformations, either treated through surgical interventions during their earlier years or still untreated. Our Association will have manned its own special booth throughout the meeting, and hopefully members of the Association will have participated actively in the scientific sessions. We anticipate that several of the other sessions, organized by those involved in adult cardiology, will also be of interest for paediatric cardiologists. We hope that our members will also have been stimulated to participate in the challenging FOCUS and HOT LINE sessions. We will be able to provide a more detailed report in a subsequent Newsletter.

News from the Council

The main piece of news is that Otto Daniëls, from Nijmegen, who has served the Association as councillor, secretary-general, and finally as president, has now been succeeded as our new president by András Szatmá;ri, from Budapest. Otto, along with Mats Mellander, has also completed their terms on the council. They were replaced by Eero Jokinen, from Helsinki, and Giovanni Stellin, from Milan. The council welcomed both new members. It is noteworthy that Giovanni Stellin is a cardiovascular surgeon, representing also the European Society for Cardiovascular Surgery, which he serves as secretary. This is the first time that a surgeon has been elected to our council.

We received replies from three-quarters of our ordinary members following the circulation last summer of the special newsletter from the secretary-general addressing the relationship of the Association with “Cardiology in the Young”. More than seven-tenths of these ordinary members were in favour of accepting the special offer from the publishers of the journal, at that time Greenwich Medical Media, and to accept “Cardiology in the Young” as the official journal of the Association. Members were offered receipt of the journal at a very reasonable subscription fee. The council has now conducted long discussions and negotiations with the publisher of the journal, now taken over by Cambridge University Press, and has respected the vote of the members. At the annual assembly in Munich, therefore, the council finally agreed to accept the offer of the publisher, and to provide all junior, ordinary, and corresponding members with an annual subscription for Cardiology in the Young. This will only prove possible, however, by increasing the annual membership fee for all ordinary and corresponding members to 150 euros, and the comparable fee for junior members to 80 euros. Senior members who wish to receive the journal are asked to make direct arrangement through the treasurer or the secretary-general. They will be asked to pay a reduced fee, the amount of which has still to be fixed.

If we take account of the price for an ordinary annual subscription to “Cardiology in the Young”, currently fixed at 350 euros, then the new annual membership fee to the Association of 150 euros, including receipt of the journal, represents a remarkably favourable deal, which should not only please all our members, but which hopefully will also favour paediatric cardiologists in Europe, as well as stimulating those from around the world, who are not yet members of the Association, to join. The agreement with the publisher, which as stated above is now Cambridge University Press, will start with the first issue of 2005.

We take the liberty of using this newsletter, therefore, to invite any paediatric cardiologist, or any specialist in an associated discipline, working in Europe, who is not already a member of the Association to join. The application forms can be found on the Website of the association at www.aepc.org. The forms will also be published twice a year in future issues of the journal, starting in January.

There are many advantages to becoming a member of the Association. Beside the favourable subscription fee to the journal, members can join one of the working groups of the Association of their own choice. Members will also be admitted to the annual meeting at a significantly reduced registration fee. They may take advantage and participate in the excellent and much appreciated annual teaching course the day before the annual meeting, again at a special registration fee.

In addition, the annual meeting promotes both scientific and social contacts, encouraging stimulating discussions and friendships. It can be overlooked that the Association is still sufficiently small to be a family, and is not yet a huge assembly like the meetings of the American Heart Association, or the European Society for Cardiology.

The potential changes discussed above, however, initiate and necessitate some changes in the constitution of the Association. Application for membership will become much easier and more accessible. Because of constraints of time during the annual meeting in Munich, the council found it necessary to postpone the discussion of these changes. In time, nonetheless, all members of the Association will receive the proposals for these changes, and they will be welcomed to challenge them, or to provide the council with constructive contributions and suggestions.

In accordance with the existing constitution, we must replace some of our councillors each year. All members of the Association, therefore, are invited to suggest potential candidates to the council, using their right to propose not only new councillors, but also new officers. If any member has doubts about the procedure, he or she is encouraged to write to the secretary-general for further information, or clarifications. In 2005, it will become the turn of the secretary-general to be replaced. May we ask you for nominations?!

News from the Working Groups

Paediatric Cardiology has recently experienced major important developments and substantial diversification in the care for patients. Spectacular advances have occurred in the immediate postoperative care of patients. These changes have promoted the development of new sub-specialties of both Paediatric Cardiology and Paediatrics, and have resulted in the institution of a new Working Group for Paediatric Cardiovascular Intensive Care and Paediatric Cardiovascular Anaesthesia. Council warmly welcomes this new working group, and expects it will establish very fruitful collaborations with the other working groups of the society. Colleagues interested in this sub-specialty should contact Eduardo Da Cruz and Maurice Beghetti at the Paediatric Cardiology Unit of the Hôpital Cantonal Universitaire in Geneva.

The working group of our Association concerned with imaging was invited to collaborate with the new Association formed within the European Society for Cardiology to take care of echocardiographic aspects in organizing the Euro-Echo meeting in Athens, to be held between 1st and 4th of December, 2004. Colleagues interested in this meeting will find detailed information on the web site of the European Society of Cardiology.

For adult cardiologists, a European examination on imaging will be held for the first time in 2004, in Munich. The question was raised whether our Association should create its own examination, or should join in the organization of the adult cardiologists. The council takes the strong view that the needs in paediatric cardiology are substantially different from those in adult cardiology. The responsibilities for a correct and conclusive investigation are much more important, and also have legal consequences, and in the opinion of council, only fully trained paediatric cardiologists should investigate fetuses, children, and adolescents with congenital cardiac malformations. Adult cardiologists caring for adults with congenital cardiac malformations should be specially trained, and should even have served, and been trained, in a paediatric cardiology unit.

The working group for basic sciences and genetics will provide the special teaching course at the annual meeting to be held in Copenhagen in 2005. Members are invited to participate in this course for a minor special registration fee.

Recommendations have already been published in the Journal relating to fetal investigations¹ and for an ideal catheterization laboratory.² The council is now looking forward to receiving further recommendations from the working groups concerned with imaging and arrhythmias for publication in the journal during 2005.

Future Meetings

The Annual Meeting of the Association for 2005 will be held in Copenhagen between 18th and 20th of May. Abstracts should only be submitted electronically, and the deadline for submission is 10th January. All information can be found on special files at the Website www.aepc.org.

The Annual Meeting for 2006 will be organized by the Swiss Paediatric Cardiology Group, and will take place in Basel during the third week of May.

All our members should also note that the World Congress for Paediatric Cardiology and Paediatric Cardiovascular Surgery will be held in Buenos Aires from 18th to 22nd September, 2005. We hope that our members will participate in great numbers, and all are now invited to submit abstracts. We will organize a special day, with interesting contributions and pre-arranged symposiums. Detailed information can be obtained from Horacio Capelli and Guillermo Kreutzer at pccs@congresosint.com.ar. The deadline for submission of abstracts is 15th March, 2005. Looking even further ahead, our members should note that the subsequent World Congress for Paediatric Cardiology and Paediatric Cardiovascular Surgery will take place in Australia, in June 2009.

Finally, by the time you read this extensive Newsletter, we hope you will have enjoyed a wonderful summer, with relaxing holidays, and we wish you an interesting and challenging new academic year.