The four-day EuroPCR Course is not just the official yearly meeting of the EAPCI, but also the moment when we all meet at our association’s General Assembly to exchange ideas and look towards the future of our work together. It is during this General Assembly that the results of the election of the Executive Board are officially announced. As the new President, I would first like to thank again the outgoing board and Past-President Stephan Windecker for their outstanding work. We look forward to their continued and active collaboration. Our new Executive Board, which will work with me up to May 2018, comprises: President-Elect, Andreas Baumbach; Secretary, Giulio Guagliumi; Treasurer, Bernard Chevalier and our representatives to EuroPCR, Christoph Naber and Bernard Prendergast.
They are all very well qualified and senior members of our profession, but one of the key goals of the EAPCI is to pave the way for future leaders in interventional cardiology. To do this we are committed to education and exchange, through EuroPCR, through our Fellows Seminar, through our textbooks and other learning resources, but also by actively promoting qualified fellows for further training, with exposure to techniques that they might not readily have available in their own centres or countries. We are speaking here about the EAPCI Fellowship grants, directed by the EAPCI Fellowship Committee, which was chaired by Adam Witkowski and Martine Gilard. This year, three Fellows received these grants at the EAPCI Awards Ceremony during EuroPCR. These Fellowships are intended to do more than advance the training of individual fellows: they aspire to help create international bonds between the participants and, in doing so, contribute to an international exchange and pan-European standard of care and excellence.
To understand what these grants have meant to previous Fellows, we urge you to read the series of EAPCI focus articles which EuroIntervention has been publishing (in this issue as well as in the two previous issues), where we interview former awardees to find out what their Fellowship experience has meant to them.
The Fellows for 2016 are:
Alberto Polimeni (Italy), for a research fellowship at the University Medical Center Mainz, Germany, under the supervision of Dr Tommaso Gori. His topic is “Echocardiographic parameters for prediction of clinical responsiveness to MitraClip implantation”. This grant is supported by EAPCI.
Celestino Sardu (Italy), for a research fellowship at the Inselspital, Bern University Hospital, Switzerland, under the supervision of Marco Valgimigli. His topic is “In vivo and in vitro research protocol: Non-ST-Elevation Myocardial Infarction (NSTEMI) outcomes in type 2 diabetic patients with non-obstructive coronary artery stenosis. DIAbetic MYocardial infarction COronary Non-Obstructive Stenosis: DIA-MYCONOS STUDY”. This grant is supported by Medtronic.
Nader Zaki-Nazmi (Egypt), for a training fellowship at the Deutsches Herzzentrum München, Germany, under the supervision of Adnan Kastrati. His topic is “Head-to-head comparison: aspirin plus clopidogrel versus Rivaroxaban following TAVI regarding post-procedural silent left main compromise and early hypoattenuated leaflet thickening”. This grant is supported by Edwards.
Our association advances by how we work together. In the coming months this column will introduce you to the work of other EAPCI committees, meeting their new members and chairs, and underlining their evaluation and aspirations for the future of our speciality and our work. We look forward to introducing the different facets of the EAPCI which continues in its dynamic tradition of openness and exchange.
