EAPCI Focus on the Cypriot Interventional Cardiology Working Group of the Cypriot Society of Cardiology (CSC)

NEWS

■ Fellows course: 9-11 June 2016 at the Heart House, Sophia Antipolis, France. This course is designed to aid the continued development of medical doctors who have started or have recently completed a programme of training in interventional cardiology in the core subjects of the syllabus. Register now.

■ Attend the EAPCI General Assembly on Tuesday 17 May from 17:15 to 18:45, at the occasion of EuroPCR 2016 and hear, amongst others, the EAPCI Board elections results. Access the scientific programme of EuroPCR for further information concerning this session.

An interview with the President, Savvas S. Constantinides

What does EAPCI membership mean for the national society?

EAPCI membership is practically universal amongst Cypriot interventionists. For a small country like ours, being part of the EAPCI is important for exchanging knowledge and experience, particularly at EuroPCR. Cyprus has seven cathlabs (six centres) with a one cathlab/120,000 population ratio. Despite our size, we have been able to promote our work and share our experience at EuroPCR through joint sessions, this year with Greece and the UK.

Current issues related to the national society?

In Cyprus, interventional cardiology is not recognised as a subspecialty. The Interventional Cardiology Working Group is relatively new and its activities are mainly performed under the auspices of the Cyprus Cardiological Society. Primary PCI, although it began many years ago, has failed to penetrate on a national basis, and STEMI treatment still depends on the geographical area of presentation. Cyprus is a member of the Stent for Life initiative. The establishment of our Working Group has brought local interventional cardiologists together. We organise regular case presentations and meetings for topic discussions and, in the last two years, we have hosted the “Cyprus Transradial Course”, an international course for radial intervention with the participation of local and international authorities within this field.

Future vision, expectations and hopes related to the national society?

We are aiming to expand primary PCI throughout the country, eliminating the unacceptable geographical differences in the management of STEMI. Through establishing a national registry for ACS, which will start running this year, we are hoping to highlight these inequalities and put pressure on the Ministry of Health to expand primary PCI to all areas involving both the public as well as the private sector within an organised National Health System. In addition, we are working on the establishment of a national PCI registry involving all practising interventional cardiology centres, and finally we hope to expand TAVI uptake which is presently limited due to reimbursement issues. The Government is committed to establishing a formal National Health System which would hopefully cover all people living in a “unified” Cyprus, equally involving the public and private sectors in a way that would improve the availability and uniformity of interventional cardiology practice in Cyprus.