EAPCI Focus on the Working Group of Haemodynamic and Interventional Cardiology (Hellenic Cardiological Society)

NEWS

■EAPCI Fellowships. During EuroPCR 2014, the Fellowship committee chaired by Michael Haude awarded four grants to Drs. John Jose (India), Luigi Biasco (Italy), Shady Elnaggar (Egypt) Giancarla Scalone (Italy). These awards were supported by grants from AstraZeneca, Edwards Lifesciences and Medtronic.

■The new EAPCI Executive Board. The new 2014-2016 EAPCI Board was announced during EuroPCR 2014. Stephan Windecker took over the leadership of the Association as President 2014-2016. He will be assisted by Michael Haude, President-Elect; Andreas Baumbach, Secretary and Javier Escaned as Treasurer. The full list of elected Board Members will be available on the EAPCI website.

An interview with the President, Konstantinos Toutouzas

What does the EAPCI membership mean for a national society?

The EAPCI plays a dominant role for interventionalists and we are glad to play our part. Several of our members hold key positions in the association, like George Sianos, who is the Secretary, while others represent Greece on the various committees.

We actively participate in EuroPCR with joint sessions with other National Societies, such as last year with Israel. This year we will host “Greece shares its most educational cases”. The EAPCI participates in our annual meeting as well.

What are the current issues related to the national society?

At present, we are involved in a number of large international trials. On a national level, we are currently running only two major registries – the Stent for Life registry and the PCI registry, both financially supported by our institutions and not by government. We are restricted in developing more due to the severity of our economic crisis. We would like to create a national TAVI programme, but due to limited funding we can only treat 160-170 TAVI patients a year.

Currently our speciality is not officially recognised. We hope in the future that a common EAPCI curriculum can be adapted to each national society that would strengthen our discussions with the Greek Ministry of Health in achieving full recognition of interventional cardiology as a specialty in Greece. We are also working on the system for giving credits (EBAC/CME) for the various treatment modalities such as TAVI, LAA, CTOs and PFOs.

Finally, due to the economic crisis, our fellows completing training have difficulty in finding a position in the public or private sector. Many find employment abroad, but practically all want to return to Greece and, to be honest, I believe this is our greatest challenge - these young colleagues are the future of our Greek interventional community!