NEWSLETTER
June 2003

Secretary General's Report

Programme Committee
1500 abstracts were submitted for possible inclusion in the Programme of the Vienna Meeting. The Programme Committee met in May to decide on the final selection of abstracts as well as the general layout of the Meeting. The Meeting will start with The Annual Techno-College on Saturday 11 October where new features and live surgery will be presented, both in cardiac and thoracic surgery. On Sunday, there will be the usual Postgraduate Courses on adult cardiac, thoracic, congenital and perfusion subjects. The scientific meeting will start on Monday morning and continue through Wednesday lunch.

The Scientific Programme will run in five parallel sessions. There will also be business sessions for congenital and thoracic surgery. The people engaged in the running of the EACTS will have a busy time as many committee and other meetings are also being prepared.

Out of the 1500 abstracts, a total of 323 will be presented. The excellent quality of the abstracts promises this Annual Meeting to be something to remember. The era of frequent breakthroughs has passed in cardio-thoracic surgery. The present fine-tuning of our profession that goes on all over Europe and internationally, makes this Annual Meeting extremely interesting.

Many rejected abstracts, if not most of them are of high quality and the material and findings should be made known to the scientific world. Our journals are at your disposal if you wish to submit them for publication, pending peer review.

The Programme Committee has continuously made improvements in the way abstracts are chosen. This has been necessary not only in order to fairly select the most pertinent new data but also in order to deal with the increased workload posed by the 1500 abstracts. The Joint Program Committee furthermore made several pertinent suggestions about future improvements. It is a joy for me as the Secretary General to appreciate how much interest there is to work in Association matters. Indeed, the EACTS has undergone such development that what was right and proper only two or three years ago, now is unworkable!

More than 100 members have been instrumental in judging the abstracts at the first level. My sincere Thank You!

The Programme Committee this year consisted of the following people:

Amendments of the Constitution
This year, the Constitution Committee will ask the General Assembly for two amendments. The first one will slightly change the powers of the Council in adding the ability to give loans. This has become necessary in order to run the Bergamo School where the funds granted by the Cariplo Foundation have to be paid in arrears. This means that the EACTS will have to forward the money, which from a technical-legal point of view is a loan. The other amendment is the inclusion in the Council of an International Councillor. We will have a new Council member with aspects from outside Europe. Hopefully this will strengthen the sense of togetherness of our profession.

Further information and the exact wording of the proposed amendments will be published in the next Newsletter.

Collaboration with ESTS
The tight collaboration with the ESTS continues. Councils of both societies have convened together in the spring Council meeting that took place in Bergamo. At other Council meetings, reciprocal attendance has become the rule as regards joint matters. The prospects for continued tight and happy collaboration indeed have much improved over the last five years.

CTSNet
The business structure of CTSNet has changed inasmuch as it is now a freestanding entity owned by the three large Cardio-thoracic societies. Several features have been launched and many more are in the pipeline or are being prepared. In order to keep up-dated in Cardio-thoracic Surgery, make it a point to regularly visit the great information tool that is the CTSNet and our EACTS homepages!

Is it time for your yearly visit to your own homepage? All information on it has to be current and relevant. Nobody else but you can do this!

Invitation to Trainees Meeting in Vienna
In Vienna, the Junior Committee is setting up a Trainees Meeting. There are now about 380 junior members of the EACTS who are reached by this Newsletter. However, there are many more surgeons in training that are not yet members of the EACTS. Please encourage them to become members by informing them about Vienna and the Trainees Meeting.

European Section of Cardio-Thoracic Surgery of the UEMS
European Board of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgeons in transition.
These two bodies are a result of the entry of Cardio-Thoracic surgeons into the European Union of Medical Specialists (UEMS), the EU body that is engaged in specialist matters. In Vienna, there will be a meeting of the national delegates to these two bodies.

For further information about the Board and examination dates etc. please consult the website that has recently been launched: www.ebtcs.org

Logbook of operations. Useful feature on the CTSNet

There is a very nice electronic logbook for your personal operations on the CTSNet LINK!!!. This way you can keep track of your own operations. This is essential for surgeons in training as they will have to have a record of their operations when taking the Board examination, but is also helpful for everybody as a part of CV and as part of your personal quality assurance infrastructure. Please check it out. It is easy to handle, your private property and may be somewhat modified to your own particular needs. Please inform all your colleagues in your department, especially the young ones.

ECTSIA
The three specialist professional associations in Europe (EACTS, ESTS, ESCVS) have formed a new joint institute which will monitor and recognise good practice in cardiac, thoracic and cardiovascular surgery. The name of this new institute is ECTSIA (European Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery Institute of Accreditation).

The Board of ECTSIA held its first meeting in February 2003 and agreed to proceed. The structure to begin accrediting units across Europe is now being built. This venture will be launched at the 2^nd EACTS/ESTS Joint Meeting in Vienna in October 2003. Visit the ECTSIA stand in Vienna.

For further information, contact
Helen Rodriquez
Papworth Hospital, Cambridge, UK, CB3 8RE
helen.rodriquez@papworth.nhs.uk
Telephone +44 1480 364299, fax +44 1480 364744

Working Group on European Working Time Directive
The EACTS Council has established a small working group to report to Council on the likely impact of the EWTD on trainees, trainers and patients.  The intention is that EACTS should take a view on the matter and then make its opinion known to the EU committees that are due to meet during the next nine months.  It is hoped that we will be able to influence what decisions are taken.

The chairman of the Junior Committee, Deirdre Watson, is heading this working group and would welcome any comments from members and in particular any evidence of the impact of the directive in your country.  Please e-mail her at dctw@doctors.org.uk

Please take a couple of minutes to fill in a short survey on this important subject.

Feel free to peruse the preliminary results of this survey to stimulate a debate on this issue within your unit, your region or in your country.

International Assistance in Cardio-Thoracic
As a continuation of Marko Turina's Presidential speech, the EACTS has decided to investigate the interest of our members to participate in some kind of international assistance as a surgeon or otherwise. In order to elucidate your interest, a questionnaire has been made. Please fill in the Questionnaire and send it to the Executive Secretariat prior to 1^st of August.

Free subscription of JTCVS to Junior Members
Medtronic generously sponsors free subscription to The Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery to the junior members of EACTS. This subscription will begin with the July 2003 issue and continue through June 2004. Thanks to the support of Medtronic, we are extremely pleased to be able to offer this service to the EACTS junior members at no cost.

The Bergamo School
The European School for Cardio-Thoracic Surgery (ESCTS) has conducted its first five courses in level 1, three in cardiac and two in thoracic. Overall, it has been a great success. The results have very much encouraged pupils, teachers and the EACTS Council to pursue the activities of the School. Further courses, also at levels 2 and 3 are being prepared. Please visit the website for further information.

It is extremely important that you support our efforts at developing a unified and improved European theoretical education in cardio-thoracic surgery. Please do so by sending your pupils to attend courses at the ESCTS or encourage your colleagues to attend the School and apply for the European Board Examination.

Diseased
Nitu Mandke, Bombay.

Dear Member, thank you for reading this text and for answering to the Questionnaires mentioned above. The next Newsletter will be sent in writing to you listing the names of new applicants for membership. In the meantime, see http://www.eacts.org/doc/7155 for updates on the upcoming meeting in Vienna. The full scientific programme will be posted by mid July.

Have a lovely summer

Torkel Aberg, MD, FETCS
Secretary General