During the EAPCI’s annual scientific session, EuroPCR 2017, which took place last May in Paris, we held the general assembly of our association – a moment to review the work of the past year and prepare for the future.
This is a privileged occasion for all the different players in the EAPCI to come together and present the work and special interests of their committees. It is an opportunity to meet in person the faces behind the names of the many individuals who dedicate their time to the advancement of our work, each of whom deserves our gratitude. This is the true meaning of association – of people working together, sharing experience, opinions and expertise with a common purpose. For us, that common purpose is the practice of interventional cardiology and how it could – and should – evolve in the forthcoming years.
As the process of integration with our parent organisation the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) continues, it is significant that we began with a motion which was unanimously accepted by all those present, to align our mission statement with that of the ESC and our fellow associations. While the new mission statement “To reduce the burden of cardiovascular disease through percutaneous cardiovascular interventions” seems similar to the old one, it is significant that we have removed the phrase “in Europe” to reflect the broader outreach of both the EAPCI and the ESC.
Our membership clearly reflects this international standard. As of the end of May, we had well over 8,500 members, more than twice as many as in 2012 and, while a large percentage comes from Europe (led by Germany and followed by Poland, Italy and the UK), we are pleased to have members from every continent, with the vast majority being either general or interventional cardiologists.
I will not go into the details of the individual presentations. Suffice to say that these are the active elements that are at the heart of our work as an association. New initiatives, such as “Valve for Life” or the now renamed “Stent – Save a Life! A Worldwide Initiative”, were presented. Over the next few months, as we have done recently with our EAPCI Focus Page on the “Education and Training Committee”, “New Initiatives for Young Interventionalists” or the “Women Committee”, we will highlight the work of individual committees in a more detailed manner. For instance, soon we will look more closely at the EAPCI education and training fellowship programme.
One aspect I do want to mention, especially in view of the forthcoming ESC annual congress, is the EAPCI Scientific Programme Committee, led by Marco Valgimigli and Julinda Mehilli. The theme of this year’s ESC meeting is “40 years of PCI”. The EAPCI, after consultation with its members, has proposed a series of 11 sessions, four of which were retained by the ESC Congress Programme Committee. These include “Interventions for stroke prevention” (chaired by Anna Sonia Petronio and Ruth H. Strasser), “Severe secondary mitral regurgitation in heart failure: a holistic approach” (chaired by Nina Ajmone Marsan and Lucia Torracca), “Left main is now a domain of interventional cardiology” (chaired by Jean Fajadet and Miguel Sousa Uva), and “40 years of percutaneous interventions and beyond” (chaired by Marie-Claude Morice and myself). This work, along with our involvement in future ESC congresses (the congress spotlight for 2018 is on valvular heart disease) only further underlines the integration of the EAPCI into the ESC.
EuroIntervention, the journal of our association, was represented by its Editor in Chief, Patrick W. Serruys. We are proud of the recently announced increase in EuroIntervention’s impact factor which has risen from 3.863 to 5.165, ranking the official journal of our association in the top quartile of cardiology journals published today, and we know that our work and participation are essential elements in EuroIntervention’s continued vitality. An example of this symbiotic relationship occurred during EuroPCR 2017, which was the occasion for the publication of the special EuroIntervention supplement on the National Registries (sometimes referred to as the “White Book”). A reference for the diffusion of interventional cardiology among member countries, this is part of an ESC initiative to understand discrepancies and similarities in practice across member countries. A joint effort of the different national societies and working groups within individual countries and the EAPCI Education and Training Committee, this supplement included reports from 16 countries. Data will be updated regularly online, with the possibility of the first online publication in January of 2018.
Today, faced with a challenging economic climate, along with recent changes in the “MedTech code”, which affects the way the device industry relates to us in terms of their financial support, it is incumbent on the EAPCI to adopt a conservative budgetary approach. The budget, which I presented during the general assembly, reflects this. Our budget objectives are moving towards harmonisation with the ESC and the desire of our parent organisation to monitor closely and collectively stabilise expenses in order to have a break-even net financial result and put in place a “top-down” approach with clear objectives for each individual part of the European Heart House, including associations. To do this requires an accurate picture as to how individual associations are performing in terms of direct and indirect (or general and administrative) costs in order to support future strategic decisions. What this specifically means for the EAPCI in terms of our 2018 budget is that we need to clearly define our needs into what is essential, desirable or simply a dream, part of a wish list we need to reflect on. While this is not an easy task, our association has demonstrated in the past the discipline needed to reduce expenditures and we will continue to do so. In this regard our key projects for 2018 can be broken down as follows:
– Must do
• Valve for Life initiative (as well as valve-related papers and registries)
• EAPCI White Book (as mentioned above when discussing the supplement)
• Certification in interventional cardiology (launch May 2018, and discussed in a previous issue of EuroIntervention)
• PCR London Valves (our structural heart meeting)
• Scientific documents
• Education – 2017 Fellows Course, Webinars
– Want to do
• EAPCI paying membership 2018
• Education and training grants, micro-fellowship programme
– Like to do
• ESCeL: for nurses and allied professionals, as well as updating the content of the existing platform
Our general assembly was detailed, our membership active, and I want to thank you all, for it is only by working together that we can succeed.
