Presidential Newsletter August 2016
Dear Colleagues and Friends,
After a very successful EACTA Annual Congress in Basel, Switzerland, it is now my pleasure and my honour to serve as the next president of EACTA. First, I want to thank the Local Organizers Professor Manfred Seeberger and Dr Jens Fassl for three days full of informative lectures, workshops, stimulating discussions, networking, and enriching face-to-face encounters. Secondly, I want to thank our Past President Peter Rosseel for his determination and skills in steering EACTA through troubled waters and to set the right course for me to take over.
The new EACTA Board of Directors (BoD) is set and I want to welcome Donna Greenhalgh as the Chair of the Annual Congresses and Fabio Guarracino as the President Elect. Altogether, with Joachim Erb as the Secretary General, Jörg Ender as the Subspecialty Committee Coordinator and Patrick Wouters as the Education Chair I can’t ask for any more, this is a dream team.
The new EACTA BoD has been through our first trial and proved the strength of the teamwork. As you all know, the next EACTA Meeting should have been the ECHO Course 2016 in Istanbul, September 3-6. However, the political situation in Turkey developed into a State of Emergency and the BoD decided to cancel the ECHO Course 2016 in Istandbul on July 20. We tried to find an alternative place to host the ECHO Course 2016, however, with such short notice it was not possible.
Fortunately, Dr. Jörg Ender can host an interim arrangement - a Certification-only Course over a weekend in November, 5th and 6th, 2016 in Leipzig. There will be facilities to simultaneously broadcast the course and we hope that our Turkish friends and colleagues will have the opportunity to participate from a local site in Turkey.
I would also like to draw your attention to the excellent initiative taken by the Social Network Subcommittee in introducing “The Article of the Month”. I am very impressed by the Social Network Subcommittee members’ engagement and in particular by Dr. Mohamed El Tahan in involving all EACTA Subcommittees. This will reach out to colleagues worldwide and potentially attract new EACTA members as well as be a forum for academic discussions. I urge all EACTA members to actively support and promote this valuable initiative for EACTA.
The BoD will focus on education and science. A strategic BoD Meeting will take place September 19th to 21st, 2016 in Manchester where we will define a five-year plan for EACTA. The EACTA Society will be actively involved in order to be able to encapsulate the vision of EACTA, to demonstrate the strength of EACTA and to reinforce the EACTA mission.
It is indeed a world of change calling for a medical society with openness, receptiveness, involvement and engagement of its members and its leaders. A society independent of borders with the goal to achieve the highest possible level of cardiothoracic and vascular anaesthesia and intensive care through focus on education, science and networking will be the focus during my period as President of EACTA. I will send out a monthly newsletter to keep you all informed about the activities within our EACTA Society, September being the first.
I wish you all a very nice summer and keep safe wherever you are or go.
With my very best wishes
Bodil Steen Rasmussen
President of EACTA