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Announcing the Global Interventional Summit organized by SCAI: Debutting November 2009 in Amman, Jordan

2009; Wiley; Volume: 73; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1002/ccd.21975

1522-726X

Ziyad M. Hijazi, Ted Feldman,

Global Health and Surgery

This month I have a very exciting announcement. The Society is organizing a 4-day educational program designed to promote cross-cultural collaboration and sharing of the latest advances in the care of patients with cardiovascular disease. This ambitious program, called the Global Interventional Summit (GIS), will feature the world's most renowned experts in the treatment of every form of cardiovascular disease in children and adults. Our goal is to bring together hundreds of the world's leading interventional cardiologists from as many countries as possible, including those who cannot typically attend meetings in the United States. To capitalize on this unique opportunity to confer with interventional cardiologists from around the world, we are planning round-table sessions to facilitate practice-based learning from the experiences of others. We are actively seeking partners to help make this meeting a resounding success. It is a very special privilege for me to co-chair the planning committee for the first GIS in the city where I was born, and a city that I love. I am grateful to Dr. Ted Feldman, my co-chair, and the other members of the Society who are working with us to organize this event, which will without a doubt benefit thousands of cardiovascular patients around the world. Dr. Feldman has kindly offered to join me in developing this President's Page and discussing the specifics, some of which are now coming to fruition, of this ground-breaking meeting. Dr. Hijazi: Welcome back, Ted. It is always a pleasure to work with you, and I'm especially excited about our latest shared undertaking. You will chair the adult educational track for the GIS, while I will chair the pediatric/congenital track. As we've discussed, one purpose of this meeting is to promote worldwide collaboration among the various international societies. Would you agree? Dr. Feldman: Yes. Our goal is to provide a forum for the exchange of practice experience that is truly global. Dr. Hijazi: I'm sure many of our members are wondering: Do we really need another meeting? Dr. Feldman: It's true that we have many meetings with all sorts of geographic distributions, but many of those meetings are not truly global. When we talk about international attendance, it means Europe and Japan. We plan to create a meeting that is global in the sense that Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East, Australia, and other countries all have a major role. Dr. Hijazi: I agree. And there are so many places, countries in Africa, for example, with interventional cardiology that is just beginning. The GIS will be a golden opportunity for attendees from these countries. This meeting will provide, in their own backyard, the latest, up-to-date knowledge and information on interventional cardiology. This meeting is for interventional cardiologists and other health care professionals in the United States, too. It's really for everyone who provides therapy for patients with coronary artery disease, peripheral artery disease, structural heart disease, and congenital heart disease. Dr. Hijazi: Do you envision a meeting with a core curriculum and specific topics covered by assigned speakers? Dr. Feldman: Yes, there will be a core curriculum, but we don't want to limit the program to people at the podium giving slide talks. Doing so would sacrifice the wealth of practical knowledge to be shared. Everybody worldwide has more or less the same interests in the same categories, but many experienced operators who are not involved in a lot of trial work don't get the chance to share this tremendous experience, a lot of insight, and all kinds of technical expertise. That's why we'll approach the GIS with a case-based approach. Dr. Hijazi: Yes, we will invite countries to put on sessions in their own format, in constant collaboration with the Society's planning committee. Ted, can you elaborate on how that will work? Dr. Feldman: Before we make assignments, we will determine how many cases we can have, come up with categories for cases, and then assign them to the participating groups. We all do more or less the same types of procedures, so for a case-based meeting you can ask one society to be responsible for a bifurcation stent case, another an adult structural case, or perhaps an example of a brilliant save in any category. Dr. Hijazi: So, when representatives from countries at the meeting have their own issues with regard to regulations, access to care, and economics, such as those with limited resources, they can get advice from others on alternative, innovative, and creative techniques? Dr. Feldman: That's right. The case material will give us a spectrum of approaches, procedural styles, and patient types, depending on where they're from. When you see how things are done in other parts of the world, you'll learn some tricks. There will be as much about use of resources as there is about medical decision making and technical expertise. That's what this forum will bring out of our community that you don't see at typical meetings. The idea came from taped case sessions we've offered at the Society's annual meeting for many years. Most of the time, the case sessions evolve into very animated interchanges between the presenter and all the other people in the room. Sometimes attendees are looking to understand the technical approaches, sometimes they're challenging the decision making of the presenter or the operator, and frequently it's the operator elucidating something that's new to them. It's a rich, interactive exchange. It's not one predictable discussion for any case, and that's the fun of it. You see the same case, but five observers will have very different ideas about where the discussion ought to go. Dr. Hijazi: If this meeting is a success, I hope it will become an annual event. The venue will change each year to a different country in that part of the world. It could be in Egypt, Israel, Turkey, Malaysia—wherever people in that region think it would be good to hold such a meeting. Dr. Feldman: And I think the kind of response we get in terms of meeting attendance will tell us whether the need is as great as we think. So far, the international societies have all responded immediately and enthusiastically. Dr. Hijazi: Yes, the response has been phenomenal. SCAI members from around the world are encouraged by this effort on the part of their Society to collaborate more closely—in person. I am eager to hear your thoughts on how to make the GIS a success. Please write to me about this, or any other topic, at [email protected].