LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT

Dear members and friends

The next 15^th Annual Meeting of our Association, as it has been well announced, will be for the first time an EACTS/ESTS Joint Meeting in Lisbon, 16-19 September 2001. I would like to encourage everybody to attend what is going to be the largest world’s Congress in Thoracic Surgery.The Programme Committee has worked especially hard to select over 1300 abstracts submitted, to produce an excellent scientific programme. The Final Programme and Book of Abstracts will be posted to all members well in advance.

In Umea 7-8 June we held The Symposium for the Future. During the first day, all the different working groups discussed together some of the most important issues concerning our Association: Future Structure and Finances of the EACTS; Development of the Annual Meeting; Postgraduate Courses outside the Annual Meeting; Education and Manpower; Future of the European Journal of Cardiothoracic Surgery; Future Developments on the Internet, Information Technology and Database; The Industry Relations; Science Creation within the EACTS; Good Practice Certificates; Minimal and Ideal Requirements for a Congenital Heart Surgery Unit and The Definition of the Structure of General Thoracic Surgery in Europe.

The following day, separate meetings of the Workings Groups took place, followed by a general discussion and presentation by the chairman of each group of the most important conclusions and commitments reached.

I would like to thank all participants for their efforts and active contributions to improve and prepare our association for the challenges of the future. There is enough material to keep us busy with the increasingly complex and more demanding obligations and services of modern society. We are an organisation mainly dependent on the voluntarism (good will) and dedication of our members. We have clearly identified the need for recruiting more professional and dedicate business employees inside the structure and management of the EACTS in the future. Thus we will move more towards insourcing the necessary services, i.e. doing them ourselves.

Walter Klepetko presented the final proposal on The Definition of the Structure of General Thoracic Surgery in Europe by the EACTS/ESTS working group. It is based on data collected within a European survey, with the contribution of more than 50 leading thoracic surgeons, among 24 different countries. It reflects a consensus opinion on the structural need for thoracic surgery in Europe. We ought to congratulate Walter Klepetko, Torkel Aberg and Toni Lerut, as chairmen of such project and endeavour, with more than 10 years work behind it. The paper has been discussed among the EACTS and the ESTS, and has been presented and accepted during Council Meetings of both Societies. The Document will now be published and distributed to all members and governments etc. This is the first time that we actively engage ourselves in one of the objects of our Associations, “to provide appropriate professional advice to European authorities on matters concerning cardio-thoracic surgery”.

Many of the reports from the Symposium for the Future will be published in this and future Newsletters. Council will in coming meetings study the proposals in detail and make decisions about them. Please read them, contemplate what they mean to you and send your reaction to the Council. We are dependent on a lively discussion with the members in order to know your views!

Marcos Murtra, MD, PhD, FETCS

IMPORTANT NEW DEVELOPMENT WITHIN THE EACTS
PLEASE READ ENTIRE NEWSLETTER

15^th EACTS Annual Meeting, 9 ^th ESTS and first joint EACTS-ESTS Annual Meetings

This year, the Annual Meeting in Lisbon will be jointly undertaken together with the ESTS. The decision to make a joint Annual Meeting was taken by both Councils in order to strengthen the bonds between cardiac and thoracic surgeons. As everybody knows, the organisational situation for general thoracic surgeons is unclear in some countries. It is the formal policy of both Councils that General Thoracic Surgery and Cardiac Surgery belong together. There are many signs of the implementation of this policy. We have now a joint Journal, we collaborate in the European Board of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, we have jointly taken the initiative to the Klepetko investigation (vide infra) and we have jointly applied to the UEMS to be accepted together. And lastly, we have decided to share our scientific endeavours in a joint Annual Meeting. Thus the policy of “happy co-habitation” has come to its logical fruition.

This will probably be the largest general thoracic scientific meeting ever undertaken. A fifth parallell session has been added to provide for the increased number of General Thoracic presentations. In other aspects, the outline of the Meeting is unchanged from the successful format adhered to last year in Frankfurt. Thus the former Poster presentations will have the format it had in Frankfurt, i.e. displayed on the screen via a computer in order to make it interactive. Thus, poster presentations have changed names and are now called Interactive Poster Presentations (abbreviated “I” in the Programme).

The scientific programme for this Annual Meeting promises indeed to be very interesting. Please study the Final Programme when it arrives. You will see that you will have plenty to do and listen to. Try to participate! Send or bring your younger colleagues if you can! I can promise you that you will not be disapointed!

The preparations for the Lisbon meeting are now in their finishing state. The venue is being prepared for us. The exhibition space is sold out, ensuring a financial success. The work has been carried out by our Windsor Office, headed by Kathy McGree in close collaboration with the chairman of the LOC, Manuel Antunes.

Selection of abstracts
More or less all abstracts were this year submitted electronically. There were 1305 abstracts, out of which 344 were selected for presentation. The abstracts were selected in two steps. First, groups of surgeons judged all abstracts within each category. Results were computed and a cut-off line was decided. All abstracts above that cut-off line were sent to the expanded Programme Committee for grading. Again, a computation was made and the programme built essentially on these results. In some instances, it was evident that there had been double submissions. According to our rules, this is not permitted. These abstracts had to be deleted as the scientific content is already or will become known to the scientific community.

I would like to express my sincera thanks and appreciation to all those spending hours in grading the abstracts. Apart from the Programme Committee, the following surgeons participated:

O. Alfieri, J Bachet, J A Bekkers, R Benetis, F Beyersdorf, D Birnbaum, A Bogers, R Brouwer, A Calafiore, T Carrel, D Casarotto, W Daenen, E Rainer de Vivie, R Di Donato, R Dion, J Dussek, R Ekroth, G Engstrom, M Erasmus, A Fabbri, W Flameng, J Fragata, A Haverich, M Helvind, M Josa, J Jougon, B Keogh, W Klepetko, T Lerut, H Lindberg, U Lönn, R Lorusso, A Mazzucco, U Mehlhorn, J Melo, C Mestres, D Metras, F Mohr, S Nashef, L Nilsson, G Pettersson, J Pirk, J Revuelta, V Rohn, F Roques, J Roquette, S Schüler, H Schulte, F-M Smolle-Jüttner, E Ståhle, J Stark, J Svennevig, P Thomas, J Vaage, D Van Raemdonck, J-F Velly, D Watson, W Weder and F Wellens.

NEW MEMBERS
The Association is steadily growing. The number of new applications to be considered by the General Assembly in Lisbon is 227. Out of these 95 are applications for Active membership, 29 for International, 102 for Junior and 1 Associate Membership application. After inclusion of these new members the Association will have 1554 members.

The Membership Committee under its chairman, Robert Dion, has studied the applications which will be formally considered by the General Assembly in Lisbon.

The EACTS is dependent on being representative for the cardio-thoracic surgeons of Europe. Please act as our ambassador, promote the EACTS, ask your colleagues to become members and sign the application form.

NEWSLETTER ONLY ON THE HOMEPAGE ?
In the ongoing review of the habits of EACTS and the possibility to rationalise our business, we have deliberated whether we can save on the printing and postage of the Newsletter by putting it on our Homepage only. One possibility is to send a very simple reminder (i.e. a postcard) when a Newsletter has been published on the internet.
The proposal is, that the Newsletter is published only on the internet, but that each member gets a reminder that the Newsletter is now available (a postcard).

Please let us know your opinion on this proposal. Send your remarks to Secretary General or the Windsor Office.

BIRMINGHAM REVIES COURSE 27 - 30 SEPTEMBER 2001
The organisers of the Birmingham Review Course in Cardio-Thoracic Surgery have once again extended two complimentary registrations to EACTS. This Course has been officially approved by the Association to meet educational requirements. Two promising surgeons from Eastern Europe, Ladislav Tesinsky, Prague, and Arno Ruusalepp from Tartu have been invited to participate. The Council of EACTS extends our gratitude to the organisers for their generous offer.

CONSTITUTION TO BE REVIEWED
In his capacity of Chairman of the Nominating Committee, Toni Lerut has drawn the Council´s attention to some inadequacies in our Constitution and also made some proposals on how it could be changed. The Council decided to create an ad hoc Committee consisting of Francis Fontan, Keyvin Moghissi, Hans Borst, Deirdre Watson and Jan Pirk with the President and Secretary General as non-voting.

GENERAL ASSEMBLY

Invitation to the General Assembly of the EACTS

REPORTS FROM THE SYMPOSIUM FOR THE FUTURE

As mentioned by President Marcos Murtra, there were many reports given during the Symposium for the Future in June. Some of these reports will be presented in this Newsletter, some will be printed later.

PROPOSAL FOR A QUALITY ACCREDITATION PROGRAMME
From the Audit and Guidelines Committee (Samer Nashef)

The Audit and Guidelines Committee has agreed that EACTS should be involved in accreditation of clinical quality and certification of Good Practice.

We propose that the standards are set and the programme co-ordinated by EACTS. This programme should initially concentrate of adult cardiac surgery whilst the tools for the other subspecialties are developed. We expect the programme to be self-sufficient but will require financial assistance in the early stages to include secretarial support and meeting expenses.

We recommend that if a country already has an accreditation programme that meets the minimum EACTS standards, then any unit assissed in that country should be automatically granted EACTS accreditation.

We propose that EACTS should look at clinical outcomes using the following agreed criteria for adult cardiac surgery:

The following application process should be instituted:

We suggest that the Audit and Guidlines Committee approaches the national societies for their recommendations of consultants able to carry out accreditation visits. We recommend that, at the beginning, each visit is performed by one member of the Audit and Guidelines Committee and one member recommended by that country´s national society.

SURGERY OF SCIENCE ?
From the Research and Research Funding Committee (Paolo Macchiarini)

We are acutely aware of the widening gap between the day-to-day practice of cardiothoracic surgery and the advances in the biomedical sciences which have traditionally underpinned advances in our specialty. Just at a time when so many fields of new scientific opportunity with direct relevance to the diseases we treat are opening up – such as molecular biology, genetic engineering, and cancer research – we find ourselves preoccupied with professional regulation, practice organisation, standards, examinations and assessments.
Necessary as these latter activities may be, they nevertheless tend to reinforce existing practice and stifle enquiry and innovation.
Many of our younger surgeons are achieving independent practice status without ever having been exposed to the wider fields of medical science. Their presently demanding specialty will ensure that they have little time or inclination to look beyond current practice. There is a very real risk of medical scientific advance bypassing our specialty if we continue on the present course.
EACTS exists primarily to foster scientific and educational endeavour in cardiothoracic surgery. We must make an effort to maintain and develop the scientific basis of our work and foster academic activity. Not to do so will consign our successors to exclusion from any meaningful role in new therapies.
We would welcome comments and suggestions from readers. In the meantime, we intend to contact those of you who we feel might be in a position to offer research posts which would have an element of training in them, in order to stimulate the curiosity and help to mould the philosophy of our young trainee surgeons. We envisage a system in which we would identify positions which would be available for one or more years in an institution in which biomedical research is being undertaken. This would need to be of potential relevance to our specialty and there would have to be an element of training for our young surgeons. The Research and Research Funding Committee intends to establish a list of suitable laboratories and centres which meet certain basic criteria. We feel it is essential that trainees can fit into existing research programmes, as they will not have time to generate fresh ideas, assemble research teams and engage in the difficult task of raising research funding.
The purpose of this letter is to raise the issue for debate and to invite responses from anyone who feels that they may be in a position to help with the provision of suitable resources and opportunities. The letter is also intended to alert membership to the fact that we will be approaching some of the obvious leaders of scientific thought in our own and related specialties. Please feel free to respond to the Chairman of the Research and Research Funding Committee, Professor Paolo Macchiarini, at pmacchiarini@compuserve.com.

Further suggestions from the Research and Research Funding Committee (Paolo Machiarini)

SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER DEVELOPMENT OF THE ANNUAL MEETING
(Siegfried Hagl)

A working group consisting of several previous and future chairmen of Local Organising Committees and under the chairmanship of Sigfried Hagl have prepared this document.

Ideal requirements for the venue
Location: The city should have an international Airport / connected to all major European Airports (allowing arrivals and departures to make even short congress visits possible).
There should be easy and fast access to airport and other public transportation facilities.

Convention Center:
Convention – Accommodation – Exhibition should all be all under one roof. There should be a capacity for up to 3500 - 4000 participants, an adequate number of lecture- and meeting rooms (versatile design), adequate room size and seating capacity in each individual room. There should be an integrated exhibition area to meet the needs of the industry and ample space (at the moment around 7000 m2) for exhibition and for permanent poster exhibition.
There should be enough space to meet and discuss around the congress activities (evtl. seats, tables) and restaurants and coffee shops should be integrated in the exhibition area. There should be modern technical communication tools handled by expert, english-speaking technical staff

Hotels should be of all categories. At least one major hotel should be connected to the convention centre. Most hotels should be within walking distance, otherwise shuttle service should be organised.

Organisation. There should be a precise definition of tasks for everybody in the organisation structure with clear delegation of responsibilities to avoid mistakes and time-consuming interactions. The budgets should be calculated and defined. There should be an early involvement of local experienced congress organizing company. There should be regular telephone conferences between the local organizers and the headquarter to save travel expenses and time

Cost containment. We may reduce costs by concentrating on few congress venues for the Annual Meeting – biannual tri-annual contracts with the Centre Organization, city authorities, hotel managers and local professional organizers may considerably reduce costs.

We may try to engage only few experienced professional congress organizing companies independent on the chosen locations
We may engage the Industry even more för instance increase the number of satelite symposia

Scientific Contents
a) Abstract presentation
The final programme book has reached a volume, which is too big and heavy for practical use during the meeting. A separate abstract booklet or a supplement of the EJCTS including the scientific programme may improve practicability

b) Interactive Poster Presentation
A "Poster Centre" (Poster Cafe) including space for the „Permanent Poster Exhibition“ and adequate well technically equipped rooms for „Interactive Poster-Presentation“ may further increase the attractiveness of this type of scientific communication

c) CD-ROM
The publication of the main session and extraordinary lectures via CTSNET is highly favourable. Either those „high lights“ as well as the posters, later on at least all of the slides of the oral presentations may be presented on CD-ROM (for sale?)
d) Internet Publication of the Posters and Oral Presentations by the EACTS
To allow an immediate communication of scientists, at least the abstracts of all accepted communications (Posters) should be available via CTSNET or as a special section of the EACTS homepage in advance to/during/immediately after the meeting

e) Pro and Contra Sessions
A limited number of this type of sessions seems to be very attractive. Topics as „innovations in Cardiac Surgery: Scientific concepts, experimental and clinical evidence“ are highly stimulating when presented in a controverse discussion

f) Theme Sessions
Such type of sessions can give place for actual topics in cardiovascular research. This might stimulate young colleagues involved in research and basic scientists to participate in Annual Meetings.

g) EACTS Involvement in Satellite Meetings
On the background of worldwide, reduced resources for research the cooperation with the industry will become more and more important for continuous research and development. Modified Satellite Symposia might be a forum to stimulate cooperation by knowledge exchange and transfer of technology. It, however, seems essential that the EACTS is fully involved in selecting topics and speakers to guarantee a high scientific level and prevent manipulation

h) Basic Science lecture
It is an important highlight within the frame of Annual Meetings. At least an abstract/ better the entire manuscript of the lecture should be available (printed in the abstract supplement, Internet, CD-ROM).

Social Programme

Further comments
We should attract more young colleagues, colleagues from Eastern Europe, from overseas as well as colleagues from other specialities (cardiologists, anesthetist, pediatric cardiologists, Pulmonologists, Basic Scientists etc.) reduce prices (registration, accommodation), increase the number of presentations, include more scientific work, provide an reimbursement of travel expenses for high-ranked accepted work of young investigators.

We should increase the attractiveness of our Awards (Young Investigator, Francis Fontan Price etc.) by making them more visible. The deadlines are very early. Provide links to conditions and deadline information. Announce the Awards within all printing and on-line media (CTSNET, EJCTS, EACTS Newsletter).

Structure in Thoracic Surgery

During the last year, a joint EACTS-ESTS working group under the chairmanship of Walter Klepetko has worked upon the Structure in Thoracic Surgery in Europe. The findings and conclusions of the group have been published on our HomePage since last year. All comments and suggestions done by the readers of the Document on the HomePage are gratefully acknowledged. Both Councils have now approved the Document. It has been printed in its final version and is /bilagd/ sent to you together with this Newsletter.

The distribution of this document is a starting point for a new direction of work for the EACTS. According to the Constitution, one object of the Association shall be: … To provide appropriate professional advice to European authorities on matters concerning cardio-thoracic surgery;… The Document on the Structure of Thoracic Surgery is the first time that we actively provide such advice. In the document the Working Group outlines the needs and wishes of thoracic surgeons in order to be able to give the best possible service and care to our patients.

A similar document on congenital heart surgery is being prepared by the Congenital committee.

THOUGHTS ABOUT EACTS INDUSTRY RELATIONS COMMITTE IN THE FUTURE
(Claes Arén)

Function of present Industry Relations Committee
The EACTS Industry Relations Committee (IRC) was created to improve the relations to Industry in much the same way as the American associations were doing at that time. One of the driving forces behind this was Jaroslav Stark, who at that time was (or had recently been) a member of the EACTS Council. The coupling of the position as chairman of the IRC and membership or very recent membership of the Council, I think was part of the success of the early committee work.
When I was elected as member and later chairman of the IRC, the major focus of the Committee work was on solving practical problems in connection with the Annual Meetings. (i.e. booking of exhibition area, the suitability of venues, hotel booking, customs problems). This practical work was much appreciated by Industry. However, little was carried out in the IRC on the relation to Industry in a deeper sense. The discussions and initiatives on how to improve the collaboration for sponsoring and to create a win-win situation for EACTS and Industry have taken place elsewhere or not been on the agenda.
One initiative has been the one-hour Industry Symposium, held during the last two Annual Meetings. Top managers of companies were invited to listen to examples of good collaboration between Industry and the EACTS. This may be a good way to discuss examples of collaboration and maybe work as a kind of think-tank, but will never be the place where the real discussions on deep relations and sponsorship will take place.

Ideas for the Future
The economic platform for the work of EACTS rests to a very large extent on sponsoring by Industry. The selling of exhibition space and sponsoring of activities during the Annual Meetings are the most important sources. The engagement by the Council in activities to extend and improve the relations to the Industry is in my view of utmost importance. I think an IRC should be chaired by a member of Council. I do not think it should have the same responsibilities as today, but engage in activities to create new kinds of relationships and to deepen the existing ones. An IRC without member of the Council will not have the status and power, at least in the eyes of the larger companies, to fulfil such a task. I also think that an active committee with members who really want to contribute is a prerequisite to get further.

I suggest there will be three levels for collaboration between the EACTS and Industry.

1. The Annual Meeting and Exhibition Level dealing with all practical issues regarding these matters. In my view, this is one of the most important tasks of the Windsor staff. Good service to Industry and quality in the activities is very important in the competition with other associations for the business with and sponsoring by the companies. Probably, there should be a morning meeting during the Annual Meeting where representatives of the Industry could get urgent problems solved. This meeting should be lead by Kathy McGee and have a member of the Council/IRC present.
2. Probably, there should be an Intermediate Level, which deals with intermediate and small size companies and also with middle level managers in the larger companies. The one-hour Industry Symposia may fit into this level. I think that creation of personal relationships is very important. So, this level should consist of a group of persons, where each member has his or her responsibility for a specified list of companies and maybe other tasks. I think this decentralized responsibility to the group members is a way to get a better engagement by the individuals. Of course, this responsibility should be coupled with a responsibility to report either to an IRC (see below) or directly to the Council.
3. The Top Management Level, where a member or members of the Council meet with top managers from Industry to set up principles and agreements for sponsorship for their particular company. I do not think that this level should work through group meetings but rather try to create personal relationships and to deepen already existing ones. This level should work at least with the larger and middle sized companies.

My suggestion is that the IRC should consist of the member or members from the Council, one of whom should be the chairman, and the persons responsible for the Intermediate Level.

EDUCATION AND MANPOWER
(José Revuelta)

Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery has developed as a modern surgical specialty in the last 50 years. It may well be stated that no other branch in the field of Medicine has undergone such a spectacular development.
The information available on Education Programs in Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery in Europe is scarce and largely heterogeneous. Countries as advanced in medical education as USA and Canada, are currently reviewing their training programs for thoracic and cardiovascular surgeons. There are an increasing number of surgeons and institutions demanding qualitative and quantitative changes in the characteristics and duration of training for our surgical specialty.
Resident training in Europe is currently in a process of reorganization. Education systems, established 30 years ago and most of them totally obsolete, are still being used by different schools in many countries. The professional organizations have to take a leading role in the shaping of a new and improved educational system.
Therefore, the education of surgeons and manpower in Europe requires a careful analysis of the current situation, as well as the implementation of precise changes to achieve an efficient and appropriate training in the future.
The Council of the European Association for Cardio-thoracic Surgery have decided to erect a new Committee entitled Education and Manpower Committee (See end of Newsletter for members) with the task of assisting the EACTS in these matters.

Questionnaire on EDUCATION IN EUROPE
The scarce information available in Europe concerning postgraduate education systems in Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery led us to develop an initial and simple questionnaire, which constitute a real "European puzzle".

Information required

The information on many European countries is now available but is too voluminous to be published in this Newsletter.
Please contact José Revuelta or Maud Zingmark for information.

DEVELOPMENT OF POST-GRADUATE EDUCATION
(Ottavio Alfieri)

The following quality standards for postgraduate courses are proposed:
There should be a mechanism in place by which the PG courses may be quality assured.

PG courses fulfilling criteria and approved by the Post-Graduate Committee/Council may use the EACTS logo and announce themselves as “Under the auspices of the EACTS”.

The following yearly postgraduate courses have so far been located in Europe :

The following courses have been identified and fulfill the criteria if they become regular:

SPECIAL COURSES FOR PREPARING EUROPEAN BOARD EXAMINATION
It is desirable to establish a special course leading up to the European Board examination. We need to provide a uniform solid systematic up to date theoretical background in the discipline of Cardiothoracic Surgery throughout Europe. We also need a mechanism by which we may favour integration, personal relationship and friendship among Cardiothoracic Surgeons from different European Countries.

The necessary infrastructure is a "HOUSE" (or a school) with lodging facilities where courses can be held throughout the entire year. The duration of each course and the number of participants will be determined taking into account the manpower requirement for Cardiothoracic Surgery in Europe, the lodging facilities in the "HOUSE" and the availability of appropriate teachers
Financial resources for all the above could come from Departments, Industries, Universities, Institutions and National Societies.
Beside the tuition which is supposed to make the residents ready for the European Board, the ultimate goal of the Postgraduate Education Committee of the EACTS should be to make the training of the Cardiothoracic Surgeon as uniform as possible in all European Countries.

Addendum. A possible perspective is that the EACTS could distribute the educational material of the courses using satellite digital video broadcast (DVB) and therefore the EACTS could become content provider for DVB. With a decoder (similar to those used for satellite TV) and an antenna, any personal computer can be connected to this network. Satellite technology overcomes regional network diversity, and virtually reaches each European region with the same accessibility and quality. Two types of learning units are available:
the stand-alone downloadable lessons and the live events sessions -. The system has full interactive features that allow a user-friend interface for feedback between the tutors and the trainees. In this way also residents at distance and many other Cardiothoracic Surgeons could take advantage of the teaching activity in the "HOUSE" and in other PG Courses.

NEEDS OF MANPOWER OF CARDIOTHORACIC SURGEONS IN EUROPE
The manpower requirement can be approximately estimated as one new Cardiothoracic Surgeon / year / 4 million population.

Comment by Secretary General
These suggestions are open for discussion. Please make your opinions known to the various authors or to anybody in the Council (E-mail address to Secretary general: secretary@eacts.norrnod.se).
Council will deliberate the various proposals and appropriate decisions will be taken within the next working year.

REPORT ON THE EAST EUROPEAN COMMITTEE

Six years now have passed since the foundation of this Committee – 6 years of intensive efforts at bridging the trench remaining between the Eastern and Western parts of our Continent. The main targets have been the improvement of cardiothoracic surgery in the East, at the same time establishing close and lasting scientific and personal ties across the former Iron Curtain.

The table summarizes the grants given up to July for fellowships, team visits and professorial excursions. The latter involved 41 centers. Importantly, 5 fellows and 4 teams coming from Eastern European centers where hosted by clinics in Czechia and Poland.

Financial support for the attendance of special meetings and symposia was granted to a total of 33 colleagues. These included the Leipzig Symposium 2000 and, in 2001, the London Short Course, the Paris Mitral Valve meeting, the Munich convention of the International Society of Minimal Invasive Cardio Surgery as well as the Birmingham Course. We wish to thank F.W. Mohr, Sir M. Yacoub, A. Carpentier, J. Cox as well as H. Reichenspurner and G. Smith for inviting these colleagues to their respective meetings.

As announced in the August 2000 Newsletter, our 3^rd workshop was held in R-Krasnodar last fall, leaving a lasting impression of the high caliber of V. Porhanov’s thoracic service on the Western attendants. Another workshop on cardiac subjects was held at Bishkeik, Kyrgistan by B. Hucin.

Certain important observations are to be drawn from our more recent activities in the East: open heart surgery in our closer neighboring countries, particularly in Czechia, Hungary and Poland, is rapidly approaching the Western level, both in terms of quantity, quality and regarding operative spectrum. In contrast, it is saddening to note that the operative rates in most of the member states of the CIS are stagnating at low levels on account of continuing economic bottlenecks. Advanced procedures also are limited to but a few centers of excellence. On the other hand, the quality and quantity of thoracic surgery in Eastern Europe, less dependent as it is on economic factors, appears to compare favorably with the West.

These conclusions obviously must have a major impact on the type of further efforts directed to individual countries and centers. Surprisingly, they also have an unfavorable side effect on the financial basis of any program directed East: Some industrial companies seemingly are loosing interest in the CIS, while directly supporting active centers in the more privileged regions. For our program this means that we must cope with lesser funding for the years to come, especially since the massive support by the European Foundation for the Advancement of Medicine is running out in the fiscal year 2001 – 02. Any suggestions regarding potential financial sources, industrial, national or European, therefore would be of great help!

Again, the members of our Committee would like to extend their heart-felt gratitude to the Foundation and to our faithful industrial partners, W.L. Gore Assoc., Jostra Medizintechnik, Köhler Chemie, A.D. Krauth and, in particular, Sulzer Carbomedics Inc. Our cordial thanks likewise go to all the colleagues in East and West who have made our program so worth-while and enjoyable.

Hans G. Borst, Chairman

European Board of
Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgeons

Examinations
Both the Thoracic as well as the Cardiovascular Examinations for 2001 will take place in Lisbon on 19 and 20 September 2001; pre-examination interviews will be scheduled for the afternoon of Wednesday 19 September, the oral examinations will take place on Thursday 20 September. The examination fee amounts to 400 Euro. For contact details to the Secretariat of the European Board, please see below.

We need to improve upon the general quality of education of cardio-thoracic surgeons in Europe. The European Board of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgeons was created with this in mind. It has come to our knowledge, that sometimes there may be difficulties for young surgeons to be excused as to his clinical work in order to go and take the Board Examination. Of course, we as senior surgeons and heads of departments have to help our young people by giving them time to study and also to go and take the examination. This is also necessary in order to give the Board Examination the necessary recognition and prestige.

“Grandfather Clause” ending

The "Grandfather Clause" i.e. the possibility to become a Fellow of the European Board without an examination, will come to an end on 1st October 2001. Applications will have to be received before that date. The Fellowship of the European Board och Thoracic and CardioVascular Surgery is open to experienced surgeons with a European recognition

Application forms are available from:

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

Did you update your private homepage on CTSNET?
To update the information on your home page, go to the CTSNet home page (http://www.ctsnet.org/) and select Members. On the Member screen, select your category of membership (Surgeon or Associate), then select Update Home Page from either sidebar. Enter your userid and password. If you have forgotten these, please contact Maud Zingmark at secretary@eacts.norrnod.se. After completing all three information categories, you may view your home page to make certain it is correct.

A most valuable addition to your home page is your photograph. We encourage all CTSNet members to provide a photo. It is an excellent way for us to get to know each other better. Photographs can be supplied in one of three ways:

(1) Send a passport-sized photo, or larger if you prefer, to the CTSNet office address at the end of this message. Color is preferred, but black and white is better than none.

(2) Attach a photo in an electronic format (jpg, tiff, or bmp) to an e-mail message addressed to ats@msnotes.wustl.edu Do not send an image in a Word document; it must be in one of the three extentions mentioned above. When you send the attachment, please be sure to include your full name, city, state, and country.

(3) Have your photograph taken at the CTSNet booth at any of the major international meetings (AATS, EACTS, STS).

For more information about CTSNet, please refer to: http://www.ctsnet.org/section/aboutctsnet or contact: ats@msnotes.wustl.edu

IMPORTANT DEADLINE

Forthcoming Meetingsof The American Association for Thoracic Surgery (AATS), The Asian Society for Cardiovascular Surgery (ASCVS), The European Association for Cardio-thoracic Surgery (EACTS), The European Society of Thoracic Surgeons (ESTS), and The Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS)

Who is who in the EACTS ?
Office of the Secretary General
Torkel Åberg, M.D., FETCS
Secretary General of EACTS
Heart Centre, University Hospital
S-901 85 Umeå, Sweden
Tel +46 90 785 36 76
Fax + 46 90 785 36 01
E-mail: secretary@eacts.norrnod.se