About the Congress

A key topic at the meeting is likely to be the 2016 ESC guidelines for the management of acute and chronic heart failure.

“It will be a very good moment to reflect on these guidelines because next year will mark the halfway point for them [new guidelines are published every four years]. This is the moment when we need to look back, reflect on what has happened in the two years since the guidelines were published, and consider whether there are updates. Also, we need to review whether any landmark trials have been published that will change the guidelines,” Prof. Lainscak noted.

Several of the new initiatives that were launched at this year’s congress, Prof. Lainscak commented, are due to be continued at next year’s meeting. For example, the HFA Career Cafe, the Grand Debates, and the HFA Championships should all be held again at Heart Failure 2018. Furthermore, next year, there are plans to have more hands-on practical workshops and sessions on how to treat common problems in heart failure that are not optimally managed. Additionally, conference organisers will be surveying delegates to establish how relevant content from this year’s meeting has been for their daily clinical practice. The feedback from these surveys will then be used to help create next year’s programme.

Given that this year saw a record number of abstracts being submitted to the congress, there will probably be a large number of people wanting to submit an abstract to next year’s meeting. Prof. Lainscak advised that if you want to submit an abstract next year, do not delay in gathering all of the data that you need.

He said: “If you would like to submit an abstract for 2018 and you are missing a bit of information, now is the right time to sort it out. You do not want to end up with an incomplete study or analysis, which might lead to you missing the deadline for abstract submission. You need to plan well ahead.”  Prof. Lainscak also recommended abstract writers to seek the opinions of colleagues and peers, particularly if they do not practice cardiology. “When you write an abstract, it is very important that it is straightforward and clear. If somebody who is not a cardiology specialist understands what you have written, then you are doing well and have a better chance of having the abstract accepted.”

Aside from the clinically relevant content at Heart Failure 2018, another benefit of attending the congress—Prof. Lainscak highlighted—is networking.

He said: “With four days of congress, you have the chance to get together with colleagues and experts in the field, and in the breaks you can approach people that you do not have access to on a daily basis. It opens the door to collaboration at a national or international level, or both. It is important for both clinicians and researchers; you can then either get involved in trials or research, or you can use networks to visit other centres of clinical excellence and develop clinical fellowships.

“The Heart Failure congress is the most important heart failure meeting in the world. It is the place to get condensed up-to-date information that you can then translate into clinical practice. If you are working with heart failure patients you cannot afford to miss the 2018 congress,” Prof. Lainscak concluded.