LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT

Dear Friends, 

           In the last months the activity of the EACTS Council has been concentrated on several important topics:

1.     Preparing a high quality scientific meeting in Monaco. To this effect, our Programme Committee had a difficult task of selecting the best material from 1379 electronically submitted abstracts. The Programme Committee worked this year in a two-tiered fashion: In the first round of grading a group of selected experts assessed all abstracts subjected to their particular category of expertise. After their anonymous vote a cut-off point was established, which eliminated more than 50% of the submitted abstracts with lower grades. Higher-noted abstracts were subjected to the second, anonymous round of grading by the Programme Committee. The final decision of selecting 274 papers for final programme was reached during the meeting of this committee in Windsor on May 25^th. Following a long tradition, our committee was ably assisted by the editors of the Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery and of the Annals of Thoracic Surgery, Andy Wechsler and Hank Edmunds. I am confident that the excellent submitted material holds promise of an exciting scientific meeting.

2.     Techno-College of EACTS. The Council has decided to support not only the Postgraduate Course, but also an additional event addressing innovation in surgical techniques. This meeting will be organised by the New Technology Commitee, chaired by Dr. Vanermen immediately prior to the Annual Meeting. There is a definite need for such practical education, and the success of the Cardio-Thoracic Technology Meeting in USA shows the obvious interest in such a course.

3.      Relations with European Society of Thoracic Surgeons (ESTSis a major priority of our Association. The obvious goal is to represent all cardiothoracic surgeons in Europe not only in the field of science, but also in professional politics. Scientific activity is now well established with our highly successful annual meeting, and with the rapidly progressing European Journal of Cardio-Thoracic Surgery. In the political arena, there are still major deficits, as exemplified by the difficulties in accreditation with UEMS (Union Européenne des Médecins Spécialistes) and by the fact that general thoracic surgery in Europe is now represented by two different professional organisations.   In an effort to further the co-operation with our two societies, the Council has decided to hold a second Joint Meeting with ESTS in Vienna in 2003, and is furthermore willing to support the idea of Joint Meetings in the future. These meetings will be organised along established EACTS guidelines: strict adherence to times of presentation and duration of sessions; submission of all presented papers to the European Journal of Cardio-Thoracic Surgery; moderated, recorded discussion which is also published in the Journal; Presidential Lecture and President’s Dinner as single, major highlights of the meeting. General Thoracic surgeons will have ample programme space for their own activities. The ESTS is also going to have a spring meeting with a focus on moderated discussions. To improve this co-operation, the President and Vice-President are attending the meetings of the ESTS Council and Secretary General of the ESTS was invited to our own Council Meeting. I hope that I will be able to inform the Membership about the further progress in this field during the Annual Meeting.

4.     European School for Cardio-thoracic Surgery. The preparations for the European School in Bergamo are progressing under the coordinating efforts of Ottavio Alfieri, Hans Borst and Lucio Parenzan. The first courses will be held in March 2003. Thus the post-graduate education in CT Surgery in Europe will have much better possibilities to achieve a homogeneous and higher level.

5.     Distinguished Guests. I was able to recruit two prominent scientists who will address our Association in Monaco. Dr. Adib Domingos Jatene, the head of Heart Institute in Sao Paulo, Brazil, and past Brazilian health minister, is our Distinguished Guest; his talk is entitled “ A Cardiac Surgeon’s Concerns On The Health Problems Of A Country. A Personal Experience.” The Basic Science Lecture will be given by Professor Richard Ernst, from the Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich. His talk “From Nuclear Physics to Medical MRI” will cover the work in his own field, for which he was awarded Nobel Prize in 1992.

Marko Turina, MD

President EACTS

Secretary General’s Report

Scientific Programme 2002

The Association wishes to thank the following members who in addition to the Programme Committee members have been very helpful in judging abstracts:  

Ottavio Alfieri, Jean Bachet, Eugene Baudet, Jos Bekkers, Rimantas Benetis, Friedhelm Beyersdorf, Ad Bogers, Rene Brouwer, Thierry Carrel, Willem Daenen, Rainer de Vivie, Roberto Di Donato, Robert Dion, Jules Dussek, Rolf Ekroth, Michiel Erasmus, Alessandro Fabbri, Willem Flameng, Gino Gerosa, Tomasz Grodzki, K. Jeyasingham, Miguel Josa, Jacques Jougon, Bruce Keogh, Toni Lerut, Harald Lindberg, Daniel Loisance, Urban Lönn, Roberto Lorusso, Alessandro Mazzucco, Uwe Mehlhorn, Carlos Metres, Dominique Metras, Friedrich Mohr, Samer Nashef, Leif Nilsson, Gösta Pettersson, Jan Pirk, Jose Revuelta, Vilem Rohn, Jose Roquette, Enrico Ruffini, Stephan Schüler, Hagen Schulte, Freyja-Maria Smolle-Jüttner, Elisabeth Ståhle, Jaroslav Stark, Jan Svennevig, Pascal Thomas, Hugo Vanermen, Dirk van Raemdonck, Jean-Francois Velly, Walter Weder, Francis Wellens, David Wheatley.

Development on the UEMS issue
There has been little development in this area, probably due to inner policy problems within the UEMS. The section of Cardio-thoracic Surgery has not been formed yet, although the formal decision to do so was taken already in October last year. It is clear that the UEMS is not a very time-efficient body.

The reason for why this issue is important to us is that cardio-thoracic surgeons are not yet represented within the UEMS. We deserve a place within the European structure and feel both that we need it and that we can contribute.

At long last, a meeting has been announced to be held in July. Through the efforts of Hans Huysmans it seems that we will finally be also able to set up a functioning structure. However, that has been said before. Better not to believe it until it has actually happened.

If you want to inform yourself more about the UEMS issue, there is excellent information at www.ests.org

Post-graduate Education

The European School for Cardio-thoracic Surgery

In the November 2001 issue of the Newsletter, we informed about an exciting development allowing Cardio-thoracic surgery to be at the fore-front of post-graduate education. Through the efforts of Lucio Parenzan, the EACTS has been given the use of a Villa in Bergamo as well as an educational grant of a total of US$ 450 000 over five years. Thus the basic conditions for creating a School of Cardio-Thoracic Surgery are present.

During the year several people, especially, Ottavio Alfieri, Hans Borst, Lucio Parenzan and Pieter Kappetein have worked in preparing the opening of the School.

The primary use of the Villa will be to offer the theoretical education necessary for a young doctor to take the European Board Examination. The curriculum will be arranged in four courses of one week. The students are expected to attend one course per year during their first four or five years in cardio-thoracic surgery. There will be several courses at each level every year in order to fulfil the educational needs in Europe. Thus every department will be asked to send their students one week a year to the School. The efforts of the School are anticipated to result in a better and more homogenous theoretical education in our field. Furthermore, we believe that friendships between individuals across Europe will be formed during these weeks of intense intellectual exchange.

The first cardiac course is to be arranged in March 2003. Specific dates are being decided and will be announced during the Monaco meeting. The first thoracic course will be held in April or May.

There will be a charge for the student for board and tuition and the travel will also have to be paid. The EACTS will be able to help with a limited number of scholarships for all or parts of the above costs.  

You can help to give this important initiative a flying start by sending your juniors to the School. Furthermore, the courses will need teachers. If you are interested, please contact any of the above-mentioned names or the Secretary General’s office.

European Cardiothoracic Surgery Institute of Accreditation

In the November Newsletter, there was brief information on the Council’s initiative on a Quality Assurance System. This activity has continued since. A body, called the European Cardiothoracic Institute of Accreditation (ECSIA) is being prepared. The Institute will have as its main function to issue Certificates of Good Practice. A tentative constitution has been erected and contact taken with our sister organisations in Europe (ESCVS and ESTS). This is an on-going initiative handled by the Audit and Guidelines Committee and its chairman, Samer Nashef.

EACTS is growing

The steady growth of members is continuing. The Membership Committee has   now closely studied and approved 181 new applications to be considered by the General Assembly in Monaco.  The names of these applicants are attached with this Newsletter and also posted at our HomePage under the Membership Committee.  The breakdown of applications is as follows: 92 Active/ International, 84 Juniors and 5 Junior members have applied to become Active Members.  This would bring our total membership up to 1708 surgeons.

Constitution
The Standing Committee on the Constitution has now finalised its work on the necessary changes of our basic rules. The proposal is posted at http://www.ctsnet.org/doc/6725 (or go to www.eacts.org, Committees, Constitution). By our Constitution, amendments have to follow a certain procedure (Article XIII). The proposed changes have to be made known to members at least 30 days before the meeting and the alteration shall receive the assent of two-thirds of the members present and voting. The proposed changes are hereby made public to all members, who are referred to our HomePage. The changes will be voted upon during the General Assembly in Monaco.

General Assembly 23 September 2002, 17.00-18.00 hrs

The Grimaldi Forum, Camille Blanc

          A   G   E   N   D   A   
                                                          

1.         President’s Welcome and Report                      Marko Turina           

2.         Treasurer’s Report                                         José Pomar             

3.         Editor’s Report                                              Ludwig von Segesser

4.         Secretary General’s Report                             Torkel Åberg           

-          On-going initiatives                                 

-          European School for Cardio-Thoracic Surgery

-          Structure of Congenital Heart Surgery

-          UEMS

-          Future Venues

5.         Amendments of the Constitution                      Francis Fontan        

6.         Report of the Nominating Committee                 Ernst Wolner           

7.         Election of New Officers and Councillors            Marko Turina           

8.         Report of the Membership Committee                Robert Dion             

9.         Election of New Members                                Marko Turina           

10.                    Any Other Business

Interactive Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery

EACTS is proud to announce Interactive Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery (www.ICVTS.org) the new fast track publication platform launched in cooperation with Elsevier.  Nowadays, the success in surgery and medicine is often communicated primarily in journals close to the stock exchange. There are various reasons for this including:

     First, the high level of scientific evidence that has to be achieved prior to assessment of a manuscript for publication in the traditional journals of our fields of interest.  

   Second, the time required for passing through the peer-review system.

   Third the paper-based production process, which is not designed for competition with the real time ticker systems at the stock exchange driven by financial interests.

Interactive Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery (www.ICVTS.org), the new fast track publication platform launched by the European Association for Cardio-thoracic Surgery in cooperation with Elsevier, is designed to reduce the gap between the information available daily from the newspapers and the traditional communication of the progress made in cardiovascular and thoracic surgery through scientific publication in a peer-reviewed journal.

A number of measures have been taken to achieve this goal by adapting both, the scope and the production of ICVTS as follows:

a) Acceptance of scientific work at an earlier stage of the evidence achieving process by providing “New ideas”, “Work in progress”, and other sections.

b) Encouraging reports on “Negative experiences”, “Research protocols”, “Nomenclature”, etc to restore the balance. 

c) Acceptance of electronic manuscripts only, in order to keep the editorial office totally paperless

d) Lighter, fast track review process with complementary assessment by visitors

e) Primary publication on the web immediately after acceptance

f) Discussion possibility for the most recent, active publications on the web  

g) Secondary print version of the archived publications together with the discussion for all subscribers to the European Journal of Cardio-thoracic Surgery

Interactive Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgeryinvites you now to Communicate The Success and The Problem at www.ICVTS.org.

Looking forward to your next visit and your comments

Ludwig K. von Segesser, MD, FETCS, FACS

Editor-in Chief ICVTS

Report of the East European Committee

In view of the persisting demands for educational support, the Committee has continued its activities at a high level during 2001/02, particularly in the countries of the CIS, including Central Asia and the Caucasus.

The number of fellowships granted has risen to 88. Thanks to the advice of L. Parenzan, 5 of them were extensions of fellowships originally granted by the International Heart School, Bergamo. The total of professorial visits now stands at 25 (47 centres contacted), that of team excursions at 45. Several new intermediate-term connections between centres in East and West were established.

In addition to the three previous workshops, two such events took place in 2002: In April G. Massard and V. Porhanov conducted another thoracic workshop at Krasnodar which was co-sponsored by NATO and the European Respiratory Society. In May B. Hucin and five associates were in the cardiac centre Bishkek, Kyrgistan, headed by S. Djoshibaev. This event was focused on pediatric and off-pump coronary surgery. W.L. Gore Assoc., Munich, kindly contributed to the travel expenses of both meetings.

Access to selected courses and symposia was granted to 63 persons. Our cordial thanks go to T. Graham, Birmingham, F.W. Mohr, Leipzig and R. Lange, Munich, for providing free attendance to their respective meetings.

Upon the request of the Council, a query was conducted concerning the benefit obtained by our 45 initial fellows during their stay in foreign centres. Thirty-nine thus far responded, all but two giving generally enthusiastic reports, regarding the introduction of new or improved surgical techniques, higher efficiency in patient management and support of their careers. Five colleagues became heads of departments or divisions. The two negative respondents actually were the only ones to leave their home units. Our initial fear that many fellowships might be used as a jumping board to the West therefore has turned out to be wrong! Some colleagues from the CIS considered the lack of equipment and apparatus (i.e. echo, monitors, respirators, minimally invasive instruments) a major hindrance tomodernisation of their centres: a plea to our members for donation of such material!

The main problem for the future and, in fact, the survival of this programme, rests in its funding, especially since donations from our industrial partners has decreased substantially. This is surprising in view of the common efforts we have been conducting with certain companies at specific centres. Nevertheless, we would like to extend our heart felt gratitude to F.W.Gore Assoc., Ethicon GmbH, Jostra Medizintechnic, Germany and Moscow, Medtronic Europe, A.D.Krauth and Sulzer Carbomedics Inc. for continuing their help in this programme.

The undersigned likewise wishes to thank our Council, the Umeå and Windsor secretariats and all colleagues actively participating in this programme, including the members of the Committee, for their great engagement.

H.G. Borst

Chairman

European Board of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgeons – Examination dates
The cardiovascular examinations will be organized in Helsinki, preceding the 2002 ESCVS annual meeting. The dates are Thursday 27th June 2002 (late afternoon) and Friday 28th June 2002 (all day).

The thoracic examinations will be organized in Istanbul, immediately
following the 2002 ESTS annual meeting. The dates are Monday 28th October 2002 (late afternoon) and Tuesday 29th October 2002 (all day).

  For the cardiovascular examinations this year the applications should
  be sent as soon as possible.

Application forms and information can be obtained from the office of the
Board:
EBTCS office, P.O. Box 2023, 1990 AA Velserbroek, the Netherlands,
tel.: + 31 255- 520 950, fax: + 31 255- 523 353, e-mail: ebtcs@wxs.nl

Forthcoming meetings of ASCVS, AATS, ESTS, EACTS and STS

2002      September 22-25           Monte Carlo, Monaco      EACTS

October 26 - 28            Istanbul, Turkey            ESTS

2003      Jan. 31 – 2 Feb.            San Diego, CA               STS

            February 12-14             Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia   ASCVS

            May 3–7                      Boston, MA                   AATS

            October 12-15              Vienna, Austria              Joint EACTS & ESTS

Members of EACTS Council and Committees 2001 - 2002