December 1996

Dear Friends

10th Annual Meeting in Prague

The Annual Meeting was a great success! The number of delegates exceeded by far our expectations and the total number of attendees were 1700. We extend our compliments to Bohumil Hucin and his collaborators as well as to the Meeting Secretariat for excellent arrangements.

Postgraduate Courses were held on Adult Heart Transplantation, Thoracic Surgery and Congenital Heart Surgery. There were four parallel Scientific Sessions. Two Video Sessions presented high quality videos illustrating operations and investigative techniques. The Poster Sessions were again very popular with the delegates. Additional activities included a Video Library and the Heart Specimen Programme. Breakfast Sessions were also included in the programme and were well attended!.

The highlights of the meeting were the Presidential Address given by Toni Lerut, the Honoured Guest Lecture given by David Skinner, and the Basic Science Lecture given by Mark Waer. These special lectures were of the highest quality and were much appreciated by the audience.

General Assembly

The President reported that the following significant changes have taken place during the past year: An EU grant had been received for the database, a provisional homepage on the internet had been established, and ties with the Society of Thoracic Surgeons and the American Association for Thoracic Surgery had achieved a higher level. Also the establishment of the European Board of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgeons was officially announced.

When developing a homepage for the Association you as a member have been asked via a questionnaire whether your name and address can be put in on the internet. A few members have answered reluctantly to this question. The General Assembly decided that names of all members be put on the internet, excluding the ones who inform otherwise in writing. If you do not consent to include your name on the internet, please inform the Executive Secretariat.

The Francis Fontan Prize 1996 was awarded Dr R Benetis from Kaunas, Lithuania. The Young Investigators Award was won by Dr M Kamler from Heidelberg, Germany, for his presentation "Direct visualisation of leukocyte/endothelial cell interaction during extracorporeal circulation (ECC) in a new animal model".

Committees

During these changing times the Council has decided to influence the development through work done primarily by committees. For this reason a new committee structure was presented. Below find the main tasks of the respective committees.

Congenital Heart Disease Committee: Works in order to consider the specific needs of surgeons working in the field of congenital heart surgery.

Thoracic Surgery Committee: Considers and caters to the specific needs of surgeons working in the field of (general) thoracic surgery.

European Board of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgeons: The European Board produces certificates (grants fellowships/memberships) to European surgeons after examination. The Board is governed by two representatives each of EACTS, ESCVS and ESTS.

Postgraduate Education Committee: Has its main task to administer the postgraduate courses during the Annual Meetings. Works in conjunction with the Local Organising Committee and the Committees for Congenital Heart Disease and Thoracic Surgery. This committee should also explore the possibilities to arrange courses outside the Annual Meeting. It should work in tight collaboration with the European Board and possibly arrange courses leading up to Board examination.

Journal Committee: Should assist the Editor in recruiting and proposing younger members of the Editorial Board and reviewers; liaise with Industrial Relations Committee to acquire advertising in the Journal; and promote EJCTS in libraries and universities world-wide.

EU Liaison Committee: Responsible for acquiring knowledge about the EU working modes and to establish links to the important bodies. It should also be well acquainted with the various possibilities for receiving EU grants. Furthermore it should ascertain that the position of cardio-thoracic surgery is protected and developed from within the bureaucracy. It collaborates with the Database Committee and with the European Board. Its tasks may be divided into Regulatory Affairs, Financial Support and Registries.

Industrial Relations Committee: Establishes links with the major industrial companies on a personal basis. Should acquire knowledge about companies possibly willing to exhibit at the Annual Meeting. Should get to know the wishes of the industry as regards their needs and how we can fulfil them. This Committee should be a forum for mutual exchange of information and development. Members of this committee should actively solicit exhibitors for the Annual Meeting.

East European Committee: Should work for the improvement of cardio-thoracic surgery in the former Eastern European countries by granting various scholarships and be a channel by which exchange between departments may be arranged. Should prove itself to be an effective way, by which funds may be channelled into spread of knowledge and thus attract more funds.

IT Committee: Works in order to make use of modern means of communication on the internet. Should develop and manage an EACTS Homepage on the World Wide Web and collaborate with similar committees in other societies. Its aim is to make possible quicker and more complete dissemination of information and knowledge.

Database Committee: Is engaged with the development of registries that have its main task to be research tools but also be used to establish guidelines and quality requirements.

Research and Research Funding Committee: Initiates and performs such research that is best performed by a multi-institutional approach. Should work for the improvement and spread of experimental and clinical research and the appropriate dissemination of it. Should also raise funds internationally in order to finance research on a laboratory, departmental or multi-departmental level.

Audit and Guidelines Committee: Establishes quality requirements and guidelines for cardio-thoracic surgery in Europe. It works in conjunction with the Database Committee. Should work in all fields of cardio-thoracic surgery, and be at the disposal of such units/individuals/government bodies that require a voluntary or fiscal audit of cardio-thoracic activity across Europe.

The Editor also reported considerable changes of which the most important one is the change of publisher to Elsevier Science effective from January 1st, 1997. The first issue next year will appear all new and we hope that you will like it. The submission rate to the Journal has increased considerably and in order to meet the backlog the number of pages in the Journal will be increased. The cash balance of the Association is healthy. However, considering the change of publisher of the Journal and the additional pages it was decided to raise the annual dues to 300 Swiss Francs.

Ernst Wolner was elected President for the coming year, and Eugene Baudet will serve as Vice President. The officers leaving their posts, to whom we would like to extend our sincere thanks, are the following

Toni Lerut President

Hans Borst Councillor, Past President

Severi Mattila Programme Committee

Luigi D'Alessandro Membership Committee

Dino Casarotto Industrial Relations Committee

Yves Logeais Subcommittee on Database

Hans Huysmans Subcommittee on Postgraduate Education

Pierre Fuentes Subcommittee on Postgraduate E ducation

Detlev Branscheid Subcommittee on Postgraduate Education

Babulai Sethia Subcommittee on Postgraduate Education

Message from the President

In view of the increasing complexity of research, the need to co-ordinate research across frontiers and to promote international research projects must be the driving force behind the work of our Association in the field of cardio-thoracic surgery.

In this context, we intend to create a kind of "co-operation project exchange" which individual working groups looking for international partners can address in the framework of the Association. For this purpose, the introduction of a column headed "Seeking Partners for Research Projects" is envisaged for the newsletters as well as our Journal. Moreover, the Association is also in charge of promoting multinational studies and has to engage in quality management by creating databases. In particular, it seems indicated to supply members of our Association living in EU member states with more information about EU research promotion programmes and to initiate multinational research programmes in the field of cardio-thoracic surgery which are supported by various Biomed Programmes of the EU.

For the successful implementation of such projects it will not only be required to look for partners among universities, but also to find partners in the industry as projects that might create jobs have more of a chance to be subsidised than projects which do not give any consideration to the labour market. The Research and Research Funding Committee chaired by David Wheatley, Glasgow, was founded to co-ordinate these activities within the Association.

I would like to invite all members of the Association to make use of what the Committee can offer, to start corresponding with it and make suggestions and proposals for multinational research programmes so that the funds available in Europe for research purposes can be used for the benefit of research in the field of cardio-thoracic surgery to a greater extent in the future.

11th Annual Meeting in Copenhagen, 28 September - 1 October 1997

The coming Annual Meeting will take place in the cultural city of Copenhagen at the Bella Center. The scientific programme will be made up along the lines used earlier. A novelty to be introduced this year is a

Postgraduate Course on Perfusion. This course will be directed to surgeons as well as to perfusionists. Four simultaneous postgraduate courses are planned for on Thoracic Surgery, Congenital Heart Disease, Acquired Heart Surgery and Perfusion. You will hear more about the programme in the next Newsletter, but I suggest that you book the dates for the meeting already now when you start looking into the calendar for 1997.

We are very pleased with the growing co-operation with the industry and are happy to have a large number of companies exhibiting at our Annual Meetings. If you and your colleagues meet with company representatives we would appreciate it if you mention that they are welcome to our meetings. Let them also know that we will offer an introductory discount to new companies in order to attract a large variety of products.

General Information

The Process of Selecting Abstracts

Council and Programme Committee members often get questions about the grading and selection of abstracts to be presented at the Annual Meeting. The process is as follows:

The responsibility of selecting the abstracts rests with the Programme Committee, which is appointed by the Council. The Programme Committee consists of representatives for adult cardiac, thoracic and congenital heart surgery as well as expertise on the ten categories of subjects (i.e. arrhythmia, cardiac general, congenital, coronary, experimental etc.) stated on the abstract form.

Abstracts are submitted by the authors to our Executive Secretariat, CASIL, in London. Final submission date is April 1. Abstracts are to be prepared according to instructions in order to enhance readability and to facilitate further handling in the grading and selection process. Fifteen anonymous copies not revealing the name of the institution have to be sent in with the original. All abstracts are numbered, the anonymous copies divided by category and bound into a book, which is then sent to all reviewers, i.e. Programme Committee members. Each member reviews the abstracts in the categories for which he has assumed responsibility. This means that each member reviews primarily the abstracts category in which he has special knowledge. At least three reviewers judge each abstract.

The grading is done on a scale of five points with five being the highest. Each reviewer's gradings are collected, and the mean grade for each abstract calculated. The abstracts are then (still an onymously) tabulated in order of their mean grade in each category.

At the Programme Committee Meeting in May, each category of abstracts is considered, starting with the abstracts with the highest grades. When all categories have been considered, some small adjustments are made in order to get a well balanced programme as regards the contents in each category. As a final step anonymity is broken in order not to get too many abstracts from the same institution. This is the only exception to the principle of anonymous judging and acceptance of abstracts.

During the Programme Committee meeting, abstracts are also put into three kinds of sessions, i.e. Oral with a time allotment of 15 minutes (7 for presentation and 8 for discussion), Forum 10 min (5 for presentation and 5 for discussion) and Poster 10 (2 for presentation and 8 for discussion ). Assignment to sessions does not primarily reflect the grade or quality of the abstract but rather the clinical importance, controversy and discussability. Our Poster Sessions have become known as excellent discussion fora. Subjects are kept together as much as possible (i.e. cerebral protection, mini-invasive surgery etc.).

This process has evolved over the years and is now functioning well. We believe that every effort is made to ensure a fair and equal treatment of all abstracts emphasising the scientific and news value of the abstract. However, the process still evolves and suggestions for improvement are always welcome. If you have any comments, please write to me and the Council will seriously consider them.

As a future presenter at the Annual Meeting, write your abstract strictly according to instructions. It is a privilege for you to present your work. Prepare not only your presentation but also your manuscript and have it ready for the Editorial desk at the presentation. If the manuscript is not turned in within four weeks after the Annual Meeting the author and all co-authors will not be permitted to present papers at our meeting for two consecutive years. This is a new rule which the Council decided upon in order to be fair to those adhering to the rules and to facilitate the work of the Editorial staff.

East European Committee

Applications for fellowships, especially from the former SU countries are increasing rapidly. Many applicants either choose a western cardio-thoracic centre which already is crowded with foreigners while others ask for suitable addresses. As a result, it would be helpful to know who among our members are ready to accept promising young candidates (age group 34-40, personal operative experience), at which time and for which type of advanced training (thoracic, adult/paediatric cardiac). In that conjunction it would be important to know whether a temporary working permit could be obtained. Also, we would be happy to know who of our colleagues would be willing to spend a one to two weeks teaching and operating period in centres of the Russian Federation, the Ukraine or Belarus.

As reported during the General Assembly the East European Committee has been very active in increasing the educational activities between east and west. The fellowships gives opportunities to practice at a western clinic for time periods varying from 3 - 12 months. From the Johnson & Johnson Philanthropic Fund "Ethicon Fellowships" have been granted to Doctors Z Prodán, Hungary, M Jagmanis, Latvia, and T Laissar, Estonia. In addition the following surgeons have been supported by the EACTS: T Vanakesa, Estonia, M Petko, Slovakia, A Pirtnieks, Latvia, G Rasimavicius, Lithuania, I Silins, Latvia, G Kalinauskas, Lithuania, R Rubikas, Lithuania, V Lubomudrov, Russia, G Fyodoro, Russia, G Moissenkov, Russia and M Dovgan, Ukraine.

The European Board of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgeons (EBTCS)

has been founded. Originally representatives of the EACTS and the European Society of Cardiovascular Surgery (ESCVS) tried to find an officially recognised position for cardiac and thoracic surgery within the organisation of the European Community, i.e. the UEMS, the European Union of Medical Specialists. Neither cardiac nor thoracic surgery could meet with the requirements of that organisation for recognition as a monospecialty. In order to meet those requirements, the specialty has to be recognised in most member states and the field covered by the specialty should be approximately the same in all countries. In fact many European countries have either no independent specialty for cardiac and thoracic surgery at all or have recognised specialties with very different contents, grossly outlined by the terms cardiac, thoracic, cardio-thoracic, cardiovascular, cardio-pulmonary and others. UEMS feels that cardiac and thoracic surgery should only be recognised as subspecialties of surgery, under guidance of general surgery. This would be in contrast to the existing practice in most European countries and would very much limit the opportunity for our profession to take its own responsibility regarding quality, capacity and other political decisions. For that reason it is important to organize our specialty in a better way and provide standard quality of surgeons that would make free movement of surgeons and patients possible within Europe.

An additional advantage is that this organisation is also open to people from European countries outside the European community. The initiative got the full support of the EACTS and ESCVS and later from the European Society of Thoracic Surgeons (ESTS). The new Board hopes to achieve its goal by establishing the qualitative norms for the field of thoracic and cardiovascular surgery, by establishing procedures to determine whether these norms are met and by recognition of thoracic and cardiovascular surgeons in Europe.

The Board is very well aware of the fact that the requirements, as given in the regulations, are sometimes very different from those now existing in several European countries. It is also recognised that the existing national requirements and procedures have been accepted at the cost of enormous effort made by our colleagues in the field in the respective countries. Nevertheless there is an absolute need for harmonisation within Europe and the basis for the requirements, as laid down in the regulations, is given by the professional demand as accepted by many experienced surgeons from all over Europe and with some advice from our American colleagues.

In order to avoid any problems with ongoing processes in European countries for creating an independent specialty status in their countries, a basic rule for the Board is to ask for recognition according to the rules in the applicants own country. No one thereafter will have a strict obligation to apply for European recognition, but it would be an enormous step towards an independent specialty status for thoracic and cardiovascular surgery if everyone would apply.

The structure of the Board leaves open the choice for a specialty in either thoracic, cardiac, cardiovascular or combined specialty and therefore can support any existing satisfactory structure in Europe. The European Board will be lead by a Management Board consisting of nine members: two from each of the EACTS, the ESCVS, the ESTS and three co-opted members. In addition the Management Board will have a General Secretary. All major decisions on so called A-regulations (dealing with eligibility, recognition and major issues) will need the approval of the Councils of the three founding Societies.

The first examination will take place in September 1997. Application forms according to the grandfather clause will be sent to you with the next Newsletter. Statutes and regulations of the Board can be obtained on request from European Board of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgeons, c/o Leiden University Hospital, Deptartment of Cardio-thoracic Surgery K6-S, P.O. Box 9600, 2300 RC Leiden, The Netherlands.

EACTS Homepage on internet

The domain name of EACTS has now been preserved for the Association, and from January 15 you can easily find our homepage now by searching <EACTS.org>. Paul Sergeant has put much effort in establishing this information on the worldwide web. Although homepage is often referred to in singular there are well over 30 pages on EACTS. We hope that you will visit them often.

Important Deadlines

1 March Applications for the Francis Fontan Prize. Application forms are provided by the Secretary General (address below).

1 April Abstract submissions

10 May Applications for membership

Future Annual Meetings

EACTS

1997 Copenhagen, Denmark 28 September - 1 October

1998 Brussels, Belgium 20-23 September

1999 Edinburgh, Scotland 19-22 September

2000 Frankfurt, Germany 22-25 October

The Society of Thoracic Surgeons

1997 San Diego, California February 3-5

1998 New Orleans, Louisiana January 26-28

1999 San Antonio, Texas January 25-27

2000 Fort Lauderdale, Florida January 31 - February 2

The American Association For Thoracic Surgery

1997 Washington, DC May 4-7

1998 Boston, Massachusetts May 3-6

1999 New Orleans, Louisiana April 18-21

EACTS Management Course

1997 Hotel Son Vida, Palma de Mallorca 22 - 25 November

Council 1996/1997

President Ernst Wolner

Vice President Eugène Baudet

Secretary General Torkel Åberg

Treasurer Marcos Murtra

Editor Marko Turina

Councillors Gérard Bloch

Jules Dussek

Bohumil Hucin

Toni Lerut

Alessandro Mazzucco

Jan Svennevig

Programme Committee

Ex. off. Ernst Wolner

Ex. off. Eugène Baudet

Ex. off. Torkel Åberg

Ex. off. Marko Turina

Ulrich Althaus

Axel Haverich

Leon Lacquet

Keyvan Moghissi

James Monro

Jean-Marie Wihlm

Chairman Local Organising Committee Gösta Pettersson

Membership Committee

Chairman David Wheatley

Alejandro Aris

Uberto Bortolotti

Robert Dion

Emmeram Gams

Philippe Levasseur

Jarle Vaage

Nominating Committee

Chairman Ramiro Rivera

Jaroslav Stark

Armand Piwnica

Hans Borst

Toni Lerut

Speciality Committees

Congenital Heart Disease Committee

Chairman James Monro

Tjark Ebels

Martin Elliott

Siegfried Hagl

Bohumil Hucin

. Francois Lacour-Gayet

Thoracic Surgery Committee

Chairman Toni Lerut

Jules Dussek

Franz Eckersberger

K Jeyasingham

Joachim Hasse

Guilano Maggi

Jean-Marie Wihlm

Education committees/bodies

European Board of Thoracic and

Cardiovascular Surgeons

Chairman Hans Huysmans

Secretary General Tom Treasure

Hans Borst

Jules Dussek

Post-graduate Education Committee

Chairman Geoffrey Smith

Ottavio Alfieri

Gérard Bloch

Pierre Fuentes

Guiliano Maggi

Thomas Molnar

Alain Pavie

José Revuelta

Hans-Joachim Schäfers

Gaetano Thiene

Stephen Westaby

Chairman Local Organising Committee Gösta Pettersson

Communication and relationship committees

Journal Committee

Chairman Hans Borst

Editor, ex officio Marko Turina

Ottavio Alfieri

Manuel Antunes

Daniel Loisance

Alessandro Mazzucco

Jarda Stark

EU Liaison Committee

Chairman Hans Huysmans

Toni Lerut

Benedetto Marino

Hagen Schulte

Jan Svennevig

Kenneth Taylor

Tom Treasure

Industrial Relations Committee

Chairman Jaroslav Stark

Dominique Grünenwald

Reiner Körfer

Dominique Metras

Ludwig von Segesser

Paul Sergeant

East European Committee

Chairman Hans Borst

Bohumil Hucin

Heinz Neef

Ernst Wolner

IT Committee

Chairman Paul Sergeant

Alessandro Fabbri

Bruce Keogh

Alessandro Mazzucco

Jan Svennevig

Miralem Pasic

Dirk van Raemdonck

Joint Committee EACTS/STS Torkel Åberg

Toni Lerut

Marcos Murtra

Marko Turina

Ernst Wolner

Research and Allied Committees

Database Committee

Chairman Kenneth Taylor

Jon Aksnes

Jules Dussek

Martin Ellliott

Yves Logeais

Paul Sergeant

Christian Vahl

Research and Research Funding

Committee

Chairman David Wheatley

Siegfried Hagl

Axel Haverich

Daniel Loisance

Paolo Macchiarini

Regulatory Committee

Audit and Guidelines Committee

Chairman To be decided

Gerard Bloch

Jules Dussek

Michael Polonius

Tom Treasure

Seasons Greetings

Wishing you a prosperous and Happy New Year!

Torkel Åberg

Secretary General EACTS

Dept of Cardio-Thoracic Surgery

University Hospital

S-901 85 Umeå, Sweden

Phone +46 90 785 36 76

Fax +46 90 785 36 01

E-mail eacts.secretary@mailbox.calypso.net