Welcome Address

We would like to extend a warm welcome to all the participants of the World Congress of Cardiology (WCC 2006). We expect that the congress will not only be the largest event of the year in cardiovascular medicine, but that it will also provide all of you with the best of science and education. The World Congress of Cardiology 2006 has been jointly organised by the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) and the World Heart Federation (WHF).

Together, we provide the opportunity for cardiologists and health care professionals from both developed and developing countries to present and learn about different problems and various approaches to management of cardiovascular diseases. This will be an enriching experience for all of us. All programme components of the ESC Congress, such as Hot Lines, Clinical Trial Updates, Named Lectures and FOCUS sessions devoted to interventions and imaging as well as to clinical practice, will hopefully attract as many participants as in previous years. More Meet-the-Expert sessions are added this year. All ESC Associations will present the most important data from their meetings. The World Heart Federation Science Initiatives is an added feature for this World Congress.

Through community and patient care interventions, the seemingly inevitable advance of cardiovascular disease in developing nations can be prevented. A special presentation line on the global perspective will be organised. The Highlight Session will close the congress. Abstract submissions exceeded expectation and have been accommodated by increasing the number of posters. Overall, a total of 3917 abstracts were accepted and will be presented in one of the 127 oral sessions or in the Poster Area either as regular posters, moderated posters or e-posters. One of our aims is to help to optimise clinical practice.

Therefore, a number of new ESC practice guidelines will be presented. The sessions presenting the results of European surveys and registries will analyse current practice patterns, and the impact of guidelines implementation on patients outcome. The highlight theme of this year’s Congress is cardiovascular diseases and ageing. This area is extremely important, since the community is advancing in age, and therefore the spectrum of our patients also changes. Several sessions, clearly marked in the programme, will be dedicated to this important topic.

For the last few years participation of basic scientists has greatly increased. We are now able to offer not only to them, but also to all participants, an excellent Basic Science Track, together with the Science Hot Line session that gained a lot of interest when first introduced in 2005. We are delighted to be returning to Barcelona and hope that our 2006 Congress will enable all of us to share and celebrate our common passion for cardiovascular research and education.