On 25-27 June 2009 at the ESC headquarters in Sophia Antipolis, course directors Professor Raffaele De Caterina, FESC, IT and Professor Steen Dalby Kristensen, FESC, DK had the pleasure of welcoming 42 delegates and 9 faculty members from 17 countries, to the 8th Anti-Thrombotic Therapy course(1). The faculty combined an interesting mix of nationalities including included F. Andreotti, FESC, from Italy, F-J. Neumann and H. Schühlen from Germany, K. Huber, FESC, from Austria, D. Moliterno, FESC, from USA, A. Siegbahn from Sweden and R. Storey from England.
This educational seminar has now been successfully running at the European Heart House since 1996 but a breakthrough for the ESC Working Group on Thrombosis’ initiative was to actually manage to fund travel grants for the very first time, thus enabling young scientists to attend the course.(2)
The course was highly rated by the participants and held in a hard-working yet friendly atmosphere. A lot of discussion and interaction was exchanged between the faculty and the participants. The two dinners gave participants a chance to indulge in some relaxation in a pleasant summertime atmosphere while encouraging even more discussion among peers.
Says Professor Steen Dalby Kristensen FESC, left, co-course director, “I was very happy to see so many young faces among the participant. It is great to see the new generation attending”.
The lectures were focused on new strategies in anti-thrombotic therapy. The programme started off with a session on pathophysiology and methodology followed by an update in pharmacology and devices. The following day focused on clinical pharmacology, stable coronary artery disease, non-ST elevation ACS and acute ST-elevation MI. The final day addressed atrial fibrillation and a range of issues such as clinical cases, triple anti-thrombotic therapy with aspirin, thienopyridines and vitamin K antagonists.
Professor Raffaele de Caterina, FESC, has been co-organising all the past eight courses with Steen D Kristensen, FESC, and was the driving force behind the present course. Professor de Caterina, FESC, says: ”The course was at a very high scientific standard due to excellent contributions from the speakers. The course is organised by the ESC Working Group on Thrombosis, which is very nice forum for networking and exchanging of scientific information”.