NEWSLETTER
October 1999
LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT
| Dear
Colleagues,
The step into the next millennium is steadily approaching. This will not necessarily cause changes in the further course and the forthcoming activities of our Association. But still incidentally, we are in a period of rapid developments. Among those we should reflect particularly on the role of General Thoracic Surgery in the company with Heart Surgery within the EACTS. Seven years ago we lost some of the members with the newly founded European Society of Thoracic Surgeons, ESTS. Others remained in the EACTS sharing their engagement and keeping friendship and co-operation with the separate community of General Thoracic Surgery. The present situation in Europe is clearly different from that in the United States, the U.K. and Japan as examples. Is it advantageous because of competition and polarity? Or does it compromise the influence that both tribes of a historically common root were able to develop and to display in regard to scientific synergisms and to responsibility within the health policy? The Council of the EACTS is strongly pursuing the maintenance of the duality of Cardio-Thoracic Surgery. The General Assembly has demonstrated unanimous approval last September in Glasgow. Also, the scientific programme of the superbly organised 13th Annual Meeting for which I wholeheartedly congratulate David Wheatley, and his untiring supporters Torkel Åberg, Maud Zingmark, Margaret Tolland and Kathy McGree no less was an obvious proof of a still important position of Thoracic Surgery. The afflux of abstracts in the field of Thoracic Surgery, however, is at risk of drying off if not Thoracic Surgeons from whole Europe including the Eastern parts, and most importantly, the younger generation are looking at the EACTS as their home. One if not the essential proposal for this is an attitude and spirit of fellowship between Cardiac and Thoracic Surgeons. Other instruments are the offer of platforms in research co-operation, the establishment of working groups, and the exchange in training facilities. Important contributions to such a process have already been activated: access of the ESTS to the European Journal of Cardio-Thoracic Surgery, implementation of a Thoracic Surgical Database within the ECSUR programme and joint initiatives for the recognition of Monospecialty Status. I am optimistic that all this will stimulate revival and growth of close co-operation between Cardiac and Thoracic Surgeons. In this context I am grateful for the initiatives taken by Toni Lerut as explained later in this Newsletter. Early in the year 2000 the tight co-operation with the Society of Thoracic Surgeons will be expressed by the mutually planned representation on the occasion of the Annual Meetings in Fort Lauderdale first and in Heidelberg later. These signals, indeed are important, delightful, and in the end fertilising for the progress of Cardio-Thoracic Surgery in clinical practice, education, and research. Traditionally, the attendance of the Annual Meetings of the STS and AATS attract many participants from Europe and, probably, it will be even more this time. With the establishment of an integrated Administrative Office in Windsor, which replaces the former services by CASIL, we are facing a mile stone in the history of EACTS. This is a great merit of our Secretary General. Personally and on behalf of the Council I want to thank Torkel Åberg for his tremendous efforts and wish him all the success which this enterprise is deserving. Finally, I want to express my best wishes to all members of our Association and their families for a bright future, personal happiness and success at the entrance of the new century. Joachim Hasse, M.D., FETCS |
EACTS WEB Address: http://www.eacts.org
Dear friends
The 13th Annual Meeting was magnificently arranged by President David Wheatley and his Local Organising Committee. As always after our Meetings, there is much to report.
Development of Annual Meeting
Development of EACTS
As you know, last year we instigated a new member category, junior member.
During the General Assembly 283 new members were voted in, out of which 82 are
junior members. The total number of members are now 1150.
General Assembly
As the new President, Joachim Hasse had been nominated and was elected. Marcos Murtra was elected new Vice President, José Pomar new Treasurer and Jean-Francois Velly new Councillor.
In order to make the General Assembly more interactive, the format of it was somewhat changed. Instead of formal presentations by the officers, a panel discussion including short formal summary reports on the economy, member applications and our Journal were conducted. By these measures, the time remaining for more strategic issues was much longer than during previous years. One pertinent issue was the democracy within the Association and on how the contacts between the membership and the Council could be improved. Several important suggestions were made that will be further worked upon by the Council.
The feed-back that the Council has had on the new format was in the main positive. The time for discussion was much appreciated. One member thought that the formal presentations could be further elucidated by presenting them in writing in a Newsletter which would immediately precede the Annual Meeting.
If you have any thoughts about the new format of the General Assembly, please let me know.
Committee work
Many of our committees had meetings in Glasgow. Much development had occurred within them and there will be separate reports from some of their Chairmen. The Committee structure of the EACTS has now found a good modus operandi and is working well. Both the Thoracic Surgery and the Congenital Heart Disease Committees will be working on writing guidelines for the organisation of Thoracic and Congenital Heart Disease Surgery in Europe.
Council decisions
As an attempt to broaden the representation, Council decided to appoint a co-chairman of the Junior Committee who ex officio would be invited to the Council.
A business plan for our Executive Secretariat was presented and agreed upon. Kathy McGree will be the Executive Secretary of the office in Windsor and Maud Zingmark the Executive Secretary of the office in Umeå. Kathy McGree will have overall responsibility for the administration of both the Association management and the Annual Meeting. Legal issues, accounting and audit will be out-sourced. At the office in Windsor, at least three people will be working. Kathy McGrees immediate boss will be the General Secretary who will be accountable to the Council.
The Council decided as a part of the improved democracy process- to invite any member to make a suggestion for next years nominations. See special note and contact details of the Nominating Committee on page ??.
Torkel Åberg,
M.D., FETCS
Secretary
General EACTS
Congenital Heart Disease Committee
A very successful meeting was held in Glasgow and starting with the postgraduate course on Sunday, three fairly full days of congenital sessions were held. The papers and discussions were of a high standard and the congenital component of this meeting goes from strength to strength.
The committee has been mainly concerned in the past year with an attempt to establish a suitable database for the collection of information on all operations undertaken for congenital heart surgery in Europe. The purpose of this data collection is for audit and research and in due course hopefully for risk stratification.
In collaboration with a North American group led by Dr. Mavroudis of Chicago, F Lacour-Gayet, J Stark and B Maruszewski have had several meetings and prepared short lists for diagnoses and procedures together with a minimal data set and list of complications. This was discussed at length at a special business meeting held on the afternoon of Monday 6 September. The lists will shortly appear on the CTSNet and be published in the Annals of Thoracic Surgery and the European Journal of Cardio-thoracic Surgery early next year. It was agreed that these lists and the minimal data set should be adopted by EACTS and be used to collect the European data. Clearly the simpler and easier to use the more likely they are to be completed, and hopefully in due course all surgeons will use the database.
Bohdan Maruszewski has offered to co-ordinate the database and it is hoped that it will be funded by ECSUR. As long as uniform codes are used, it would not matter what data collection system was used as with suitable software, data analysis could be achieved. Each surgeon should be able to retrieve their own results but all other results would be pooled and therefore confidential. All centres must agree to have their data validated and be anonymous. It is also hoped that there will be a discussion forum on the internet.
The Chairman would be stepping down after more than four years and is being succeeded by Francois Lacour-Gayet.
James L
Monro, M.D., FRCS
Chairman,
Committee on Congenital Heart Disease
The European Congenital Heart Defects Database (ECHDD)
According to decisions made in Glasgow the European Congenital Heart Defects Database (ECHDD) will be open for all congenital heart units in Europé. Existing minimum data set and new International Coding Lists (accepted by STS and EACTS) for Diagnosis, Procedures and Complications were accepted by STS and EACTS Committees. The software and access to it will be available free of charge for all congenital heart units in Europe from 1st of December 1999. The data collection may start from 1st of January 2000. ECHDD is located in Warsaw, Poland, in the Department of Pediatric Cardiothoracic Surgery, Children's Memorial Health Institute the hospital built out of many international charities in the memory of children who died during second world war.
Communication with participating units, software and information distribution will be based on Internet. However, other ways of communication may also be accepted for units with no Internet access. The ECHDD Database staff will provide all participating units with continuous support concerning use of the software and data transmission and take responsibility for safety and confidentiality of data.
Actual contacts
The ECHDD Director:The Database Coordinator:
Zdzislaw Tobota, M.D.
ul.Fucika 37
02-939 Warsaw, Poland
tel./fax. +48 2 842 40 03
mobile
+48 501 162 807
email: echdd@pol.pl
Thoracic Surgery Committee
At the Annual Meeting in Glasgow the EACTS Thoracic Surgery Committee in conjunction with ESTS organised a panel session on the structure of a Thoracic Surgery Unit. Thoracic Surgery indeed underwent major changes during the last decades and from a European survey it becomes clear that in most countries an unequivocal definition of a Thoracic Surgery Unit is lacking as well as specific organisational guidelines. It was generally felt that such definitions and guidelines are essential to formulate the minimum quality and the resources necessary to achieve quality. Such a document should be an important tool to protect and promote Thoracic Surgery throughout Europe whilst respecting the national regulations in a given country.
It was decided to create a working party to produce such guidelines within the year to come. Such a working party has to be based on a broad co-operation from different European countries. Therefore this initiative will be worked out as a joint effort between EACTS and ESTS. This working party will be co-ordinated by W. Klepetko (phone +43 1 40 4005620, fax +43 1 40 4005642, e-mail: walter.klepetko@akh-wien.ac.at). Any input, especially from those who have the majority of their professional career ahead, will be highly appreciated. Do not hesitate to contact W. Klepetko or the undersigned (phone +32 16 346819, fax +32 16 346821, e-mail: Toni.Lerut@uz.kuleuven.ac.be).
Another initiative that has been launched is the participation of Thoracic Surgeons in the ECSUR registry project. As outcome assessment is becoming increasingly important I would urge any Thoracic Surgeon to participate in this project. More information can be obtained through R.G. Berrisford (phone +44 1392 402689, fax +44 1392 402175, e-mail: richard@berrisford.u-net.com) or through Richard Wyse (phone +44 181 3833490, +44 181 3831915, e-mail r.wyse@ic.ac.uk)
T
Lerut, M D.
Chairman
Thoracic Surgery Committee
The European Cardio-thoracic Surgical Registry (ECSUR)
Now in direct contact with 1387 surgical centres, the European Cardiothoracic Surgical Registry (ECSUR) continues to develop rapidly in three areas: adult cardiac surgery, paediatric cardiac surgery, and thoracic surgery. A full report on the establishment and progress of the ECSUR project was published earlier this year ('The development of an International Surgical Registry: the ECSUR project'. European Journal of Cardiothoracic Surgery, 16, 2-8, 1999).
In adult cardiac surgery, and enjoying exponential growth in patient data received, ECSUR now has information on over 210,000 procedures, mainly according to its minimum dataset (the software for which is available free on application to ECSUR). Later this year, feedback reports will be sent to participating centres, benchmarking their own individual activities against several national adult cardiac surgical registries that are held within ECSUR (Germany, UK, Norway, Belgium), and also against the STS database reports which cover much of USA and Canada.
Working closely with colleagues on the STS, UK and German database committees, much effort by ECSUR has gone this year into harmonising the development of a standardised international adult cardiac surgical dataset, which includes risk stratification, operative details and outcomes. The aim is to make this dataset a global standard for data collection for all surgical units worldwide, and considerable care has been made to ensure it is totally compatible with the existing and the new datasets used nationally in the UK, Germany, and Belgium, and also with the latest version of the STS dataset. This new international dataset also is directly compatible with the ECSUR minimum adult cardiac surgical dataset, allowing centres to upgrade their ECSUR participation to more detailed data collection whenever they choose. In this way it is envisaged that ECSUR will not only produce annual reports for centres, but will also help them develop their own local risk models, rather than have them use nationally published data which may not necessarily be relevant to their own practice. It is hoped this new international dataset will be published on both sides of the Atlantic early in 2000 but, in the meantime, it is available from the ECSUR office.
The main ECSUR initiative in paediatric cardiac surgery has been in helping with the development of a worldwide standardised dataset for data collection. EACTS Database committee members have been involved with their counterparts on the STS database committee in co-ordinating this development. See also entry above by J Monro on Congential Heart Surgery Committee.
EACTS database committee members, in collaboration with the STS database committee as well as with ESTS members, have been instrumental in developing standardised worldwide datasets for thoracic surgery. The ECSUR minimum thoracic surgical dataset has now been defined, and the software to run it has been developed. Around 20 centres in several countries have volunteered to pilot this new software in a project that runs until the end of this year. Thereafter, it is anticipated that ECSUR will distribute the software free on a CD-ROM to any centre worldwide that wishes to use it to collect their thoracic data, to produce local reports, and to share it with ECSUR. Widespread distribution of these CD-ROMs is scheduled for early in 2000. A much larger International thoracic surgical dataset, including risk stratification, is also close to completion, and details can also be obtained from the ECSUR office. See also entry above by T Lerut on Thoracic Surgery Committee.
Further
information on all these initiatives can be obtained from the ECSUR Project
Manager, Dr Richard Wyse , Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Hammersmith
Hospital, London W12 0NS, UK, tel +44 181 383 3490, fax +44 181 383 1915, email:
r.wyse@ic.ac.uk)
Awards Granted during the Glasgow meeting 1999
THE
FONTAN PRIZE AWARD
G A
Cohen, London, UK has been granted this
prestigious Award thanks to his high scientific level and attractive research
project which will include studies of the lymphatic circulation with the final
goal to develop new therapeutic agents for congestive heart failure.
YOUNG
INVESTIGATORS AWARDS
Cardiac
category funded by EACTS
J Schneider, Leipzig,
Germany
TRANSMYOCARDIAL LASER
REVASCULARIZATION LOSS OF EFFECTIVENESS AFTER 2 AND 3 YEARS
Thoracic
category funded by EACTS
W Wisser, Vienna,
Austria
IS LONG TERM FUNCTIONAL
OUTCOME AFTER LUNG VOLUME REDUCTION SURGERY (LVRS) PREDICTABLE?
Congenital
category funded by Sulzer Carbomedics
S M Langley,
Durham, USA
PREOPERATIVE HIGH DOSE
METHYLPREDNISOLONE ATTENUATES THE CEREBRAL RESPONSE TO DEEP HYPOTHERMIC
CIRCULATORY ARREST.
LILLEHEI
AWARD
Valve category funded by St Jude Medical, Inc.
F Maisano,
Milan,Italy
THE DOUBLE ORIFICE REPAIR
AS A STANDARDIZED TECHNIQUE FOR MITRAL RECONSTRUCTION IN BARLOW DISEASE.
Discussion
and Working Groups
As outlined in the
July Newsletter establishment of Discussion and Working Groups are well underway
and will be active within very short. Details
will be included on the EACTS homepage under the guidance by our Site Editor,
Paul Sergeant Paul.Sergeant@uz.kuleuven.ac.be.
Please contact him if you would like to establish a Discussion or Working
Group.
Nominations
for the year 2000
Nominations for next
years election (Vice President) may be done to any of the members of the
Nominating Committee, who will consider your suggestion.
You are welcome to contact any of the following Committee members prior
to 1 May 2000:
Prof. Hans
G. Borst
Widenmayerstr. 7
D-805 38 Munich, Germany
Phone/fax + 49 89 29161191
Prof.
Toni Lerut
Heelkunde Thoraxheelkunde
UZ Gasthuisberg
Herestrat 49
3000 Leuven, Belgium
Phone +32 16 34 68 19, fax 32 16 34 68 21
Toni.Lerut@uz.kuleuven.ac.be
Prof
Ernst Wolner
AK der Stadt Wien
Universitätsklinik Chirurgie, Herz- und Thoraxchirurgie
Währinger Gürtel 18-20
A-1090 Vienna, Austria
Phone +43 1 40 400 6966, fax +43 1 40 400 6968
ernst.wolner@akh-wien.ac.at
Prof.
Eugène Baudet
Dept. Cardiovascular Surgery
Hopital de Haute-Leveque
Ave. de Magellen
33604 Bordeaux-Pessac, France
Phone + 33 5 56 36 70 49, fax + 33 5 56 07 22 78
baudet@francemultimedia.fr
Prof.
David Wheatley
Cardiac Surgery
Royal Infirmary
10 Alexandra Parade,
Glasgow G31 2ER, UK
Phone +44 141 211 4730, fax +44 141 552 0987
d.j.wheatley@clinmed.gla.ac.uk
|
CTSNet Thank
you for updating your contact details
on your private homepage on the CTSNet. By doing so
we will easily reach you for continuous information on details
available on the many valuable pages on the internet |
The European Board of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgeons
This year, there were 9 surgeons
passing the Board Examination in cardiac surgery. For the thoracic exams in
Nancy at the end of October 9 candidates will undergo the examinations.
IF YOU ARE
NOT A FELLOW OF THE BOARD OF THORACIC and CARDIOVASCULAR
SURGEONS, PLEASE WRITE TO HANS HUYSMANS TO BECOME ONE UNDER THE
GRANDFATHER CLAUSE. Applications under the grandfather clause are
available until 1 September 2001.
European
Board of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgeons
P.O.B. 2023, 1990 AA Velserbroek, The Netherlands
Tel. +31 255 520 950, fax +31 255 523 353
E-mail: ebtcs@wxs.nl
Forthcoming meetings of
The Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS), The American Association for Thoracic
Surgery (AATS) and European Association for Cardio-thoracic Surgery (EACTS)
Special events
A
day has been planned prior to both the STS and EACTS Year 2000 Annual Meetings
to recognise our partnership and efforts in advancing the specialty.
Saturday
29 January the STS has
organised a tempting programme in Fort Lauderdale celebrating international
co-operation. The arrangement
includes a midday cruise, culinary offerings, wine tasting and a black tie
elegant cocktail party. The world-known Tommy Dorsey Band will entertain later
in the evening. Further information is provided on CTSNet (http://www.ctsnet.org).
|
2000 |
||
| 31 Jan. - 2 February | Fort Lauderdale, FL | STS |
| 30 April - 3 May | Toronto, Ontario | AATS |
| 7-11 October | Frankfurt, Germany | EACTS |
|
2001 |
||
| 29 - 31 January | New Orleans, LA | STS |
| 6 - 9 May | San Diego, CA | AATS |
| 16-19 September | Lisbon, Portugal | EACTS |
EACTS Executive Secretariat
Heart Centre, University Hospital
901 85 Umeå, Sweden
Phone +46 90 785 36 76
Fax +46 90
785 36 01
E-mail: eacts.secretary@mailbox.calypso.net
Web
http://www.eacts.org
