Invitation to attend

Dear colleagues,

As you know Euroecho has become the largest echo meeting in the world in terms of attendance and original scientific content presentation. We would like to drive your attention on the novel educational opportunities introduced in Euroecho 2009 to meet delegate expectations even more.

At present, the scientific committee is finalising the scientific programme of next Euroecho 2009 which will be held in Madrid, on 9-12 December 2009. The main themes are cardiomyopathies (organised jointly with the Working Group on Myocardial and Pericardial Disease, and with the Working Group on Cardiac Magnetic Resonance) and three-dimensional echocardiography (organised jointly with the American Society of Echocardiography).

Three new educational formats have been introduced:

• The Clinical pathways on contrast echocardiography, left ventricular myocardial function, and left ventricular diastolic function. Those sessions will start with a 20 minute review lecture taken by an expert, followed by a panel discussion of 4 clinical cases.
   

• The Imaging Campus where delegates will be provided with 90 minute practical training on the latest technological developments in echo or on the latest clinical applications of existing techniques. 

• The Euroecho Highlights session will close the scientific programme with well known colleagues summarising the best of Euroecho 2009 in different topics.

Several other changes have been introduced compared to previous meetings.
First of all the scientific programme has been organised into five educational tracks (heart valves, congenital heart disease, stress echo, right ventricle and left ventricular function) in order to avoid overlap among sessions dealing with the same topic and facilitate delegate attendance.
 
Wednesday courses have been rearranged with the help of colleagues who have taken the responsibility of the course programmes, and by introducing two new courses. The first one(organised by Prof. George Sutherland and Prof. Bart Bijnens) on cardiac mechanics and haemodynamics is designed to help echocardiographers to better understand data about myocardial mechanics coming from tissue velocity imaging and speckle tracking techniques, and use the results to address patient’s management. The second one on contrast echocardiography (organised by Prof. Petros Nihoyannopoulos) to illustrate the clinical advantages of using echo contrast agents to solve clinical problems and to give attendees the technical hints to obtain the best results.

The remaining courses will be on stress echo (organised by dr Rio Aguilar on behalf of the Spanish Working Group on echo), deformation imaging (by Prof Jens-Uwe Voigt), congenital heart disease (by Prof John Simpson and Prof Luc Maertens), transesophageal echocardiography (by Dr. Rob Feneck and Dr Mauro Pepi), and imaging in small animals (by Prof Genevieve Derumeaux).

Finally, particular effort has been devoted to promote original scientific contributions (oral abstracts and posters).  The room for oral abstract presentations will be located centrally in the congress centre. One of the chair of oral abstract sessions will be an EAE Board member to underline the importance we put on original scientific contributions, and the other one will be an expert on the topic who will use the last 10 minutes of the session for a talk which will put in perspective the presented results.

Our last remark is about the importance of being a member of EAE.
Join the echo community, interact with colleagues and peers, participate in EAE activities  and benefit from exclusive privileges such as the EAE Members Lounge at Euroecho.

We really hope to have updated you on the next Euroecho 2009 scientific programme and to have given you several good reasons to join us and the Euroecho Scientific Committee members in Madrid, next December.

 
With our warmest regards