ECAS Congress 2006
- "ICPES" Symposium
- ECAS joint Session with HRS, EHRA
Projects 2006
. In January 2006 ECAS opened its official website www.ecas-cardiology.org, offering comprehensive information on the Society activities with an user friendly modality of approach.
. In June 2006 ECAS produced its first written Policy Statement. This document represented the joint effort of a group of experts who elaborated the official position of ECAS on the topic of "Device Failure". The document has been published in PACE 2006; 29:653-669. The main purposes of the Policy Statement were: 1) to advocate this delicate topic to the full control of the Medical Community; 2) to provide clear indications on how should physicians react on a case-by-case basis to the multiple re-calls that have been released by the different device companies over the last few years.
. 14th July 2006 - First European Consensus Conference on the Use of "easy-to-implant" large use and low cost medical devices for the primary prevention of sudden cardiac death. Chairperson Riccardo Cappato, MD - Massimo Santini, MD. This document reports the efforts of a working group of experts analysing the current development status and the future directions of a new implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) providing an alternative, potentially very effective mode of therapy to protect patients from the risk of sudden death secondary to fast ventricular tachycardia or ventricular fibrillation. Physicians involved: Epidemiology: Dr. Gerhard Steinbeck (Ludwig Maximilian University, Munich, Germany); Current Technology advantages and Limitations: Dr. Dietrich Andresen (Krankenhaus Am Urban I Innere Abt., Berlin, Germany); New Technologies: Technical, Medtronic and Cameron Health Engineers - Clinical: Riccardo Cappato, MD (Policlinico San Donato, Italy) - Advantages and limitations of new technology Richard Hauer (University Medical Center Utrecht, The Nederlands).
Fundamental requisites according to the opinion of the members of the consensus conference Dr. Wyn Davies (St. Mary's Hospital, London, UK); Applications of the new technology in clinical practice: the point of view of the Anaesthesiologist Dr. Leo Bossaert (University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium), the Cardiologist Pharmacologist Dr. R. Ferrari (Ospedale di Ferrara, Ferrara, Italy), the Cardiologist Interventional Dr. Johannes Brachmann (III Med. Klinik Klinikum Coburg, Coburg, Germany), the Expert in heart failure Dr. K. Swedberg. Cost-benefit analysis of new technology: Prof. Massimo Santini (Ospedale San Filippo Neri, Roma, Italy).
Following the publication of the manuscript, and in order to improve its distribution across Europe among colleagues with incomplete access to the English language,
the document on "Device Malfunctions" has been translated in 8 languages. To this purpose, the following Colleagues have served ECAS: Dr. Petrac for Croatia, Drs. De Roy, Alsteen and Dormal for Belgium (also assisting for French language), Drs. Dorwarth and Hoffmann for Germany, Drs. Tzeis, Sakellariou and Manolis for Greek, Drs. Ferrero and Cappato for Italy, Dr. Moreira for Portugal, Drs. Ardashev and Shavarov for Russia, Drs Paspour and Gorenek for Turkey, and Dr. Bardyszewski for Poland. The different translations are available on ECAS' official website,
www.ecas-heartrhythm.org
. In September 2006 ECAS closed the negotiations and signed a contract of co-partnership with the Publisher (Elsevier) and the Editor-in-Chief (Dr. Sanjeeev Saksena) of the Journal of Interventional Cardiac Electrophysiology (JICE). Through this partnership, JICE becomes the Official Journal of ECAS. The main missions of ECAS in this project are: 1) to distribute through JICE any written document representing the official position of ECAS in the different items concerning current Electrophysiology; 2) to promote the distribution of research outcomes by young European fellows in the International Literature. Both missions cherished by Dr. Richard Hauer from the University of Utrecht, The Netherlands, one of ECAS Vice-Presidents.
