Month: December 2022

The Women in Cardiothoracic Surgery committee held a stimulating workshop at the 36th EACTS Annual Meeting – Embodied Leadership: The Hidden Dimension. The session explored the various ways that practising personal power can help to achieve objectives. We’re overjoyed that the workshop received a high rating!  

Introduced by Secretary General Patrick Myers and diversity expert Mira Vasic, participants were able to take part in practical exercises to for building confidence and resilience. Together, we learnt about the most common, unwritten masculine and feminine rules in the game of power and leadership. It was an honour to see Yolonda Colson in attendance, the 103rd  President and first female President of the American Association for Thoracic Surgery. 

26% of delegates were female at this year’s Annual Meeting and the WiCTS workshop was a first-of-its-kind session attended by 75 men and women. Empowering women surgeons to take up senior positions has become an important priority for EACTS. This workshop, and the WiCTS webinar series, helps to give women the inspiration and confidence to take leadership roles. 

Looking back on the success of the session, Chair of the WiCTS committee, Jolanda Kluin, said: “It was a great opportunity and a pleasure to discuss this topic with male and female surgeons at the Annual Meeting in Milan. I believe that creating an inclusive workplace, a place where everyone feels a sense of belonging, is an important requirement for high quality care.” 

At the Annual Meeting, the EACTS TV channel lifted the lid on sessions, giving the audience a chance to stay on top of hot topics and hear from key opinion leaders in more detail. The second episode of The Big Debate dissected equality and diversity in cardiothoracic surgery with expert panellists: Jolanda Kluin, Franca Melfi, Alicja Zientara, Martin Grabenwöger and Nabil Hussein. The full episode is available to watch via the EACTS Media Library here. 

The WiCTS committee recently launched a thought-provoking webinar series – The changing face of leadership: moving from diversity to inclusion. The series blends theory with practical information from experts and an array of guest speakers, offering vital tools to maintain influence and leadership as a cardiothoracic surgeon in the current landscape.  

Directed by Jolanda Kluin and moderated by webinar coach Maleene de Ridder, the series will run until May 2023 and is free for EACTS members. Non-members can participate for a small fee.  

Learn more about upcoming sessions and register here. 

Thank you to our sponsors for their ongoing support: AtriCure, Edwards and Medtronic.

We’re excited to be extending the reach of the EACTS Academy by offering a number of courses in a new, hybrid format allowing delegates to participate regardless of location or circumstance.

Register today for the first hybrid course of 2023

Sign-up today for the three-day ‘Fundamentals in Coronary Artery Disease’ course and join course director Aaron Ranasinghe for the first session of this innovative series, which will explore the clinical aspects of coronary artery disease through an array of interactive lectures and hands-on sessions.

The course will run from 31 January – 2 February 2023 in Windsor and online.

More information about the course, registration fees and application can be found here.

Matthias Siepe, Editor in Chief, said: 

 

Today, EJCTS has published the results of an independent review of the meta-analysis entitled, Radial artery versus saphenous vein versus right internal thoracic artery for coronary artery bypass grafting, that was originally published in EJCTS in June 2022. 

 

The original paper by Gaudino et al. was based on a meta-analysis of individual patient data comparing outcomes using different grafts for coronary artery bypass surgery.  

 

Following publication of the original paper by Gaudino et al, several concerns were raised with us, including the appropriateness of the methodology that was selected for the analysis. After careful consideration, we commissioned Professor Nick Freemantle’s Comprehensive Clinical Trials Unit at the Institute of Clinical Trials and Methodology, University College London, to conduct a further review.  

 

Further analysis conducted by UCL showed that: 

 

• The results were similar to those identified by Gaudino et al when using the same methodology, confirming that the data handling was numerically and statistically correct. 

• Differences were noted between individual matched groups using propensity score matching across three groups. Supportive conventional analyses found was associated with better matching and didn’t find systematic difference on the outcome of mortality when comparing the different grafts used in CABG.  

 

This is an outstanding example of open science: editorials, letters to the editor and social media questioned a paper. The authors were open and shared their entire dataset and code, in compliance with the author guidelines, for independent re-analysis. These supporting analyses give a clearer picture of the robustness of the initial findings, and paint a clearer picture of how to interpret the results. 

 

We have published the additional analysis today in the interests of open science and to ensure as comprehensive a picture as possible is available publicly to help inform the best treatment options for patients. 

  

The original authors should be applauded for sharing their entire dataset and codes with us for re-analysis, and we will welcome further responses on this issue for publication in EJCTS.  

 

Read more here and here.