This is my first president’s column in EuroIntervention and I would like to use this summer issue to update you on the European Association of Percutaneous Cardiovascular Interventions (EAPCI).
Since the handover of the presidency at EuroPCR in May, we have assembled the new team for 2018-2020. I would like to highlight the new members of the executive board: Dariusz Dudek is now the President-elect and will take over in two years’ time for his term as President of EAPCI. Emanuele Barbato has been elected as Secretary and Julinda Mehilli as our Treasurer. The two EuroPCR representatives on the board are Flavio Ribichini and Nicolas Dumonteil.
If you are interested to learn who is working on any of our now 11 committees and the board, you find a full list on the EAPCI website – they are too many to mention here! But I would like to make a point about the committees and continuity at EAPCI. We aim to welcome new members on the committees at all times, based on motivation, skills, interest and dedication, to work as volunteers in the various focus areas. We emphasise the element of renewal as no one stays on for more than a four-year term as a chair or co-chair. However, we also value continuity in the leadership. Hence, as a rule of thumb, we always appoint a committee co-chair with a commitment that they will become the subsequent chair. With that approach we have assembled a dedicated and talented team, which met for the first time at our transition board in Nice in June. This year, I am pleased to report that our female colleague constituency is greater than ever before, which I hope will bring a more balanced leadership and direction to the board!
A new initiative of my presidency is to bring the patient back into focus in our interventional cardiology community. This year’s EAPCI summit in June, with representatives of our national interventional societies, discussed the ways in which we can centre more on our patients’ needs. The topics of adversity, advocacy and patient engagement were intensively evaluated with the following programmatic objectives: 1) to create awareness of patient-related aspects of our care; 2) to identify barriers to optimal invasive cardiovascular treatments; and 3) to strengthen advocacy of our patients for best cardiovascular outcomes. A summary of the proceedings of the meeting will be available soon for a more detailed reflection of this initial stage. You will hear more from this initiative and the new Patients Committee in the coming months.
Looking ahead, we will meet at the European Society of Cardiology in Munich and shortly after at our EAPCI course PCR London Valves. The London course focuses on the interventional therapy of patients with valvular heart disease, and you can expect to see the latest cutting-edge device therapies, during live demonstrations and skilful teaching sessions.
The ESC meeting, while covering the whole spectrum of clinical and scientific cardiology, does have a strong interventional emphasis, which was developed together with EAPCI. The meetings are complementary, and I encourage you to attend both to enhance your skills, learn about the latest scientific evidence and meet your colleagues.
In the meantime, enjoy the remaining summer days with family and friends and I hope to see many of you in Munich.
