The only way forward is through continuous dialogue! 

In March at the European Heart House we held the ESC Spring Summit, our most important political meeting with all of the leadership of our constituent bodies: National Societies, Working Groups and Associations. One of the very interesting topics, that had not been brainstormed at central level before, was how to transfer leadership to a new generation of cardiologists. Our Vice-President SD Kristensen tells you more about this in this interview.  

The first part of the meeting included a plenary session and the second part consisted of workshops with smaller discussion groups. On the first day, organised as a plenary session, we agreed on future political priorities. For those of you who didn’t get to be at the meeting, here are my personal key messages: 

• The European Society of Cardiology is proud of its European soul.  We should stay united and not disperse ourselves elsewhere;
• In the difficult economical times ahead, we need to concentrate on our core activities which are: constituent bodies, education and congresses;
• We need to strengthen an even closer bond with all National Societies, Working Groups and Associations on all projects - as they are the ESC.

Some areas need to be consolidated and, if possible, improved: 

• We should be able to generate more interest in ESC Grants and make young clinicians realise that the ESC can offer them international opportunities;
• Constituent bodies are now fully involved in the ESC Clinical Practice Guidelines process, the challenge - as seen in previous spring summits - remains to manage an efficient implementation at national level;
• Registries/surveys need to be improved in their format and conducted through national societies, associations and working groups.

You are the ESC and you need to be fully involved!

The second day was organised in four workshops where attendees had the opportunity to confront their issues with those of other countries, share their positive or negative experiences and debate ideas on how to fix problems. 

• A workshop close to my heart was about new pilot registries in the fields of Atrial Fibrillation ablation and Heart Failure. Registries are, in my view, the best method to measure the state of cardiology in Europe, to detect the diversity (north, south, east, west – small country, big country) of our continent and to influence the political agenda in Brussels with real data. 
• Another workshop was dedicated to the transfer of leadership to the new generation of cardiologists and how to integrate young and promising figures in ESC projects, how to encourage them to become Fellows of the ESC and to hold influential positions.  Our Vice President, SD Kristensen explains more.    
• A third workshop was organised on the new idea to organise joint ESC and National Societies’ sessions during annual national meetings.  A concrete, joint scientific effort, with a focus on Guidelines to be immediately implemented.
• The fourth breakout session was dedicated to “how to maximise the interaction between ESC Constituent bodies” such as Working Groups, Councils, Associations and of course National Societies which is summarised in Professor Kristensen’s interview. 

It is my belief, that the society structures are not cast in stone and it must continue to evolve in an intelligent way – we should not forget that there are 60,809 members, 3,036  Fellows and Nurse Fellows, 52 National Societies, 19 Working Groups, 5 Associations, 5 Councils, but only one European Society of Cardiology.   The only way to go forward is through continuous dialogue.

I hope these Spring Summit discussions are just the start to an era of animated debates, fuelled by topics that are of interest or concern to you all.

Yours sincerely,



Roberto Ferrari, FESC, ESC President