ESC Communications: What is your current role at the ESC?
Steen Dalby Kristensen, FESC: I am an interventional cardiologist working at the Skejby Sygehus, Aarhus University Hospital. My main interest is Acute Coronary Syndromes and in terms of research my interest lies mainly with the anti-thrombotic therapy.
I am currently ESC Vice-President for National Societies and Fellows and in addition I chair the Credentials Committee which is the body that approves fellowship applications. Moreover I am a member of the Congress Programme Committee and the ESC EU committee and my past roles involve chairing the ESC Working Group on Thrombosis and being a committee member of the Committee for Practice Guidelines and the Education Committee.
ESC Communications: What is the rationale for holding a Spring Summit on annual basis in the first place?
Steen Dalby Kristensen: It is a very important interactive forum allowing the ESC Constituent Bodies to discuss current challenges and share their vision of the future. The core structure of the ESC is based on membership so a two-way dialogue is more than essential.
This meeting is the opportunity to step away for a second from our daily clinical and scientific work to remind ourselves that we are all sharing the same goal which is to reduce the burden of cardiovascular disease in Europe.
Key players include presidents of the National Societies as well as leaders from other ESC Constituent Bodies such as the ESC Associations, Councils and Working Groups. It is basically a mix between the ESC leadership (Board Members & Management Group, ESC scientific bodies and National Society leaders).
ESC Communications: Professor Ferrari’s vision for the time of his presidency is based on proximity, being close to his staff and visiting his constituent bodies on a regular basis and as far away as needed, to build an even stronger community of European and affiliate countries’ cardiologists. How did you together decide on the main themes of the meeting and the breakout sessions that were held?
Steen Dalby Kristensen: We believe that the only way to create strong and lasting links between the ESC and National Societies is to ensure we all feel part of a family with similar values. This is even more important with the economical recession we are facing, eventually this worldwide crisis may influence what we’re trying to achieve and we’d rather strengthen the bonds before than after the damage is done! All topics were therefore chosen based on common issues the ESC and Constituent Bodies are currently confronted with, such as the identification of future leaders in cardiology.
ESC Communications: What was the outcome of one of the key themes of the meeting, the launch of joint sessions between National Societies and the ESC?
Steen Dalby Kristensen: We felt that a way of creating a better synergy between the ESC and its member countries could be to run joint sessions at their national meetings. Rather than just turning up with our latest products and publications and telling the National Societies about recent ESC achievements, we figured that shaping a joint session based on strong ESC products such as the successful ESC guidelines but with a local angle, possibly presented in the local language, would be much more profitable to the country. In this instance, through an increased dialogue, the ESC should understand local issues better and hopefully boost the local implementation of guidelines, an ongoing challenge for the ESC. As we know, however good the ESC Practice Guidelines may be, if the message isn’t relayed at national level, there is no value in writing them!
The idea of joint sessions was well received and we immediately launched into the practicalities of how this project could come to life. If you reading this interview, and would like to share your view on the subject, by all means, drop us a line! We have heard your wish to be listened more carefully and to be involved in common projects and we’re going to do just that, more and more. We have started coordinating these sessions and around 20 countries are already organising or planning to hold such like sessions but it is still time to voice your opinion.
The ESC leadership would like nothing more than to further break down the existing geographical boundaries and language barriers.
ESC Communications: Tell us about a new subject that hasn’t been discussed in previous years, the identification of new, up and coming cardiologists.
Steen Dalby Kristensen: Yes the idea is not to replace the existing leadership but to identify the best way to attract new talented leaders and involve them in the political arena. We dinosaurs aren’t eternal and will need to hand over our duties to the younger generation at some stage! We need to build upon future energies and ensure the ESC mission doesn’t lose its steam along the way. This issue happens to be crucial at both European and national level so it was well worth bringing it up. We brainstormed how this search is conducted in countries that were represented. We learnt with the Polish representative that their society has created a cluster of young cardiologists which is running their own meetings. The chair of these meetings is automatically granted a position at the Polish Society of Cardiology’s Board.
Once we have spotted these new talents in the crowd we need to get them involved in Working Groups, Councils and Associations. We need to find them responsible positions where they can show what they’re made of. This can be done in a very practical manner by involving them as nucleus members, committee members, abstract reviewers, web editors, Chairs for scientific sessions etc.
Again if you, as a reader, can think of a way to attract and give visibility to this new generation of cardiologists a leading role they could enjoy both at national and European level, we’d like to hear from you.
ESC Communications: Another theme announced by the ESC and open for discussion was the launch of two pilot registries, which will be monitoring 8 national member countries on Heart Failure and Atrial Fibrillation ablation. There again, how was it perceived?
Steen Dalby Kristensen:: The idea is that the continuous collection of this data will enable the ESC to obtain a benchmark on the current level of treatment of these two conditions from all over Europe to enable potential disparities to be addressed. The launch of these two new registries was received well by the audience. If we are going to beat the CVD pandemic and create a healthy Europe then we need figures and therefore common registries to tackle these issues. We all know there are significant difference from one country to another and this “North South East West” approach will be instrumental in getting us the documentation we need from all four corners of Europe and this comes to an evident cost for which the ESC is happy to chip in.
ESC Communications: What was ESC Vice-President for ESC Working Groups and Councils Professor Raffaele De Caterina main messages to the audience?
Steen Dalby Kristensen: On the ESC Working Groups level, he said that improvements to the election process will be made, that ESC Working Groups will benefit from an increased support from the ESC Board and communications tools will be further developed to help the latter promote their initiatives better. To me this is good news as they generate tremendous scientific content but this content has to be backed up by sufficient resources and structured first to be able to communicated to the outside world next.
In terms of ESC Councils, he gave an account on the current status of membership, and an overview of new or ongoing projects such as meetings, awards, courses, accreditation pilots etc. He explained that ESC councils have forged themselves a reputation for being the champions of networking due to their many interactions with other constituent bodies such as the associations! The Cardiovascular Nursing and Allied Professions Council for instance can pride itself in actively cooperating with the ESC Associations, 25 European groups in Cardiovascular Nursing, the AHA and the PCNA.
ESC Communications: What about the breakout session? What was the outcome of these discussions?
Steen Dalby Kristensen: The chosen theme was how to create more interaction between ESC Constituent bodies among themselves. Practical steps were suggested such as:
- Invite ESC Working Groups to participate in Cardiovascular Round Table discussions
- Help ESC Constituent Bodies identifying industry sponsorships
- Provide strategic pointers to ESC Working Groups while these should also advise the Society of their requirements
- Joint sessions (e.g. between ESC Associations and ESC Working Groups), even though they exist, ought to be formalised. There should be an official call for proposal for joint sessions, they should be defined well in advance with incentives to encourage participation e.g. ESC Working Group could be invited to part-take in a joint symposium. To really take off, the Board may have to be involved to ensure these meetings become more visible in the congress programme.
- Encourage further interactivity outside the ESC Congress itself. Direct communication channels need to be devised as the website alone doesn’t fill the gap.
ESC Communications: Where do interactions between National Societies and the above-mentioned groups stand?
Steen Dalby Kristensen: At the breakout session it was recognised that ESC Associations are already tying in nicely with ESC National Societies. Discussions around how to entice those National Societies not yet participating took place and we asked representatives who had come to the Spring Summit to help recruiting colleagues at national level.
From a clinical and scientific perspective, the Working Groups, Associations and Councils of the ESC represent the engine that is vital to spark up the Society. An improved cooperation can only help us steer in the right direction down the windy roads!
Our priority will be to continue to find ways to improve our collaboration at national and international level with these entities.
ESC Communications: Would you say the meeting delivered its promises and that the ESC leadership managed to give a feel good feeling to those who made the trip?
Steen Dalby Kristensen: Yes there was definitely a good spirit throughout with lots of brain waves flying about! The audience was keen to get up, get to the microphone and actively contribute. The breakout sessions gave those who prefer a smaller room the chance to participate too. I would like to think we all explored the various possibilities those topics offered and that the interactive spirit of the meeting gave everyone the feeling of belonging to the ESC, because they’re the ESC!
ESC Communications: in your current role of ESC Vice-President, what would be your personal wish list, what would you like to see happening during your time both for National Societies and Fellows of the ESC alike?
Steen Dalby Kristensen: I am keen to develop a stronger interaction between the ESC and National Societies and improve it through tools and initiatives such as the afore-mentioned joint sessions, Spring summit discussions and those taking place at the ESC Congress.
It is also one of my missions to encourage leading cardiologists to become Fellows of the ESC, and make the FESC title even more visible.
I am pleased of what we’ve accomplished with the Editors' Club so far and would like to continue to encourage this excellent network of national journals editors to disseminate the ESC messages as they’re doing a great job so far!
I’d like the National Societies to fully appreciate that, no, the ESC is not necessarily “doing it better” but is there to make it better for them, with their valuable input from the field.
Simultaneously, the ESC does need to remain the umbrella organisation for European cardiologists and will still need to relay its messages one way or another. This is our role so we will continue doing just that, but I personally prefer the interactivity we have seemed to trigger in this Spring summit than the top-down approach, which has its limits...