ESC Congress 2007

We would like to extend a warm welcome to all the participants at ESC Congress 2007 in Vienna. We expect the congress to provide all of you with the best of science and education. The ESC is a unique forum where medical professionals can meet their colleagues from all around the world, and exchange ideas and information in the field of cardiovascular medicine.

The highlight theme of this year’s Congress is heart failure. This area is extremely important, as we are experiencing an exponential growth in patients presenting with heart failure. Next to the state-of-the-art in diagnosis and therapy, the latest developments in therapeutic options in the field of medical therapy, device therapy and advanced cardio-vascular surgery will be discussed.

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, have been designed to appeal to the largest number of professionals in the field.
In addition, the practical how-to, meet and read with experts, have been considerably expanded in number. Emphasis is placed on clear take-home messages that can easily be transposed into clinical practice by the medical professionals who take part in the ESC congress. Also, the newest guidelines will be discussed in dedicated sessions.

In the Association Track, all ESC Associations will present the most important data from their meetings. The results of the different Euro Heart Surveys will be presented in special sessions, to evaluate current practice patterns, and the impact of guidelines implementation on patients outcome. The Highlight Session will close the congress on Wednesday morning.

Abstract submissions again exceeded all expectations and have been accommodated by further increasing the number of posters. Overall, a total of 3501 abstracts were accepted and will be presented in one of the 125 oral sessions or in the Poster Area either as regular posters or moderated posters. New this year is the State of the Art and Featured Research Track, on Wednesday morning, which consists of sessions including a keynote lecture by an expert in the field, in combination with four oral presentations of the highest ranked abstracts on a specific topic.

Another important component of the ESC programme is basic science, organised in the basic science track. Headed by the Council for Basic Cardiovascular Science, an exciting track will be offered in bench-to-bedside format, focusing on the translational aspect of basic science, but also highly specific basic science research will be presented. The best scientific contributions will be highlighted in The Science Hotline.

We are delighted to be returning to Vienna and hope that our 2007 Congress will enable all of us to share and celebrate our common passion for cardiovascular research and education.