Reminiscences of East European Heart Valve Postgraduate Course

26^th – 27^th September 2007, České Budějovice, CZECH REPUBLIC.

In September 2007 the East European Heart Valve Postgraduate Course was organized under the auspices of the Society for Heart Valve Disease (SHVD) & European Association of Tissue Banks (EATB) in České Budějovice, Czech Republic. Local scientific organizations (Czech Society of Cardiovascular Surgery and Czech Society of Cardiology) provided important support as well.

The aim of the Course was to organize the top quality postgraduate event in reasonable price, so as the East European participants would be able to attend.

The high quality teleconference (5 live transmission of aortic & mitral surgery) was presented together with interesting invited speeches.

The Course Director Professor Sir Magdi YACOUB got together International Faculty of 14 experts. Professor Alain CARPENTIER (one of the main scheduled protagonists) was not able to arrive finally. Hopefully, he was very efficiently replaced by one of his followers Professor Gilles DREYFUS (Harefield & Royal Brompton Hospital, London, UK).

The Course was very succesfull thanks to the reasonable help of SHVD members Dr. Johanna J. M. TAKKENBERG (Rotterdam), Dr. Adrian CHESTER (London), Dr. William NORTHRUP, III (Lincoln, Nebrasca) and Professor Vytautas SIRVIDIS (Vilnius).

The personal contribution of cardiologists (SHVD non-members) Dr. Alain BERREBI (Paris) and Dr. Zdenek SLAVIK (London / Prague) was reasonable as well.

The satelite event „Hands On“ Workshop „Cardiovascular Tissue Banking“ (under the EATB auspices) was another highlight of the event. The basic information was offered to those who were interersted in that particular issue. The experience of EATB (European Association of Tissue Banks) members Professor Jan KOLLER (Bratislava) and Dr. Ramadan JASHARI (Brussels) guaranteed the top level of the session.

The final evaluation of the event:

190 registered participants (160 medical doctors, 15 exhibitors, 4 nurses, 2 transplant coordinators, two medical students and one technician) arrived from 16 countries.

Evaluation by participants  (62% of them filled the evaluation form) was very positive. Most of them were satisfied with the program (choice of patients, surgery itself, as well as with invited speakers presentations) and also with the venue, technical quality of telebridge and presentations, and time available. Most of them were recommending repeating the event, if possible!

See the evaluation results & participant’s comments

„Hands On“ Workshop Cardiovascular Tissue Banking (17 participants) was considered as very successful as well. 76% responded with filled evaluation forms. Again the evaluation was positive, or highly positive in most cases.

See the evaluation results

In conclusion: The aim of the course was fulfilled. The organizers were able to attract many Middle & East European colleagues to attend. Event quality was considered to reach high level by most participants.

SHVD was introduced to participants, and 35 of them applied for SHVD Membership.

The cooperation between SHVD & EATB was launched, and our opinion is that it could be fruitful to establish regular contacts for cardiovascular tissue bankers and mutual participation in scientific and meeting activities.

Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic, May 2008