ACVC General Assembly 2020

Message from Susanna Price, President 2018-2020

Dear members, colleagues and friends,

Acute Cardiovascular Care 2020 is now officially cancelled and will not be rescheduled.

As you have no doubt seen in the news, COVID–19 is spreading dangerously worldwide. With so many of you on the front lines of the current health crisis, you have a vital role to play and we know you now have other priorities. These are unpresented circumstances for our association and for so many others in the ESC family and we are deeply disappointed that we will not be meeting together this year.

Ending my mandate within such a challenging context is very sad after all of the hard work invested in the congress. I would like to reiterate my deepest regret that #ACUTECVD20 couldn’t happen.

We are now working on the next steps and will keep you informed.

As our General Assembly was cancelled too, you can read below a succinct reporting on 2019 achievements as well as the recent ACVC election results.

The association life still goes on and we will continue to serve you with a new board establishing itself in the coming days.

Please join me in thanking all of the board members who served during my mandate and to warmly welcome my successor, Christian Hassager.

 

Susanna Price

ACVC President 2018-2020

2019- 2020 Activity Report

Membership and Community

• Four levels of membership available: Regular, Ivory, Silver and Gold
• As of 1 Januray 2020 - 4,282 members (55% < 40 years)
  • 71% Regular Members
  • 8% Ivory Members
  • 20% Silver Members
  • 1% Gold Members
• 48,000 people receive the monthly bulletins in acute cardiovascular care
• +1,000 delegates participated in Acute Cardiovascular Care 2019

Young Community

• Key roles within the Board 
  • A young leader - ex-officio board member
  • Young members part of the research and education sections
• Closed community
  • A young community of 80 people 
  • Young National Representatives (nominated by the National Working Group in the field)

• Greater opportunities:
  • conduct surveys
  • present challenging cases at the congress
  • contribute to the "topic of the month"
  • benefit from mentoring opportunities

Education

Based on the ESC subspecialty curriculum which covers the full spectrum of acute cardiovascular care.

• E-learning: +40 topics published on the ESC eLearning platform
• Webinars:
  
  • How to individualise DAPT duration after an acute coronary syndrome
  • Implementation of the ESC 1-hour algorithm for the evaluation of chest pain
• Certification programme and exams: 39 registered and 36 passed
  
• ACVC School: five hands-on sessions and one plenary session with 48 delegates from 19 countries. Read the full report

Research

New Scientific Group on CTACC (Clinical Trial in Acute Cardiovascular Care)

This new scientific group aims at creating ideas for large-scale clinical projects/trials in acute cardiovascular care to close the currently existing gaps in evidence.

New Scientific Posters

• Fourth Universal Definition of Myocardial Infarction Essentials for clinical practice
• Frailty and the management of patients with acute cardiovascular disease
• Lung Ultrasound in Cardiology

More info

Scientific Documents 2020 Update

• Four scientific papers:
  
  • Atrial fibrillation in acute heart failure: A position statement from the Acute Cardiovascular Care Association and European Heart Rhythm Association of the European Society of Cardiology
  • Organisation of intensive cardiac care units in Europe: Results of a multinational survey
  • Diagnosis and risk stratification of chest pain patients in the emergency department: focus on acute coronary syndromes. A position paper of the Acute Cardiovascular Care Association
  • Acute Cardiovascular Care Association position statement for the diagnosis and treatment of patients with acute myocardial infarction complicated by cardiogenic shock: A document of the Acute Cardiovascular Care Association of the European Society of Cardiology
• Nine papers from ACVC study groups

Publications

• IACC Textbook - 2020 update in preparation

• Toolkit update in preparation
  • Updates with Clinical Practice Guidelines 2018-2019
  • A new section on MI
  • A new chapter on pregnancy

• Handbooks 2020 in preparation:
  • Mechanical Circulatory Support
  • Hemodynamic Monitoring

Advocacy

ACVC has initiated collaborative partnerships with:

• Sister societies for emergency physicians (EUSEM), anaesthesiologists (EACTA), intensive care (ERC, EuroELSO, ESICM), and many more specialists involved in the pathway to save lives
  
  
• National acute cardiovascular care working groups: A network of +50 national representatives in the field

• Overseas experts with nomination of ambassadors:
  • North America (Steen Dalby Kristensen and Kurt Huber)
  • Middle East (Uwe Zeymer)

Acute Cardiovascular Care 2019, Malaga (SP)

Annual event to share the latest science and get the best practice with international experts from the entire healthcare community.

• 1,200 delegates
• 110 international experts faculty
• Interactive stage
• Multidisciplinary sessions with sister societies
• Hands-on sessions (CPR workshops, LUS, ECMO, Ventilation)
• All resources available online in ESC 365

A New Dynamic 2020 - 2022

New Association Branding

Our association has recently undergone a major change in its image and positioning. As we move forward it is essential that we are consistent in our branding and it was decided to immediately align the association acronym with its journal (EHJ-ACVC).

From now on:

• ACCA becomes ACVC
• The Acute CardioVascular Care Association becomes the Association for Acute CardioVascular Care
• Our mission statement has been revised : “To improve the quality of care and outcome of patients with acute cardiovascular diseases”
• Our new logo will be
  

Board hand-over and election results

Susanna Price, ACVC President 2018-2020 addresses a special thank you to all board and ex-Officio board members who have served during her mandate for the outstanding scientific contribution to the Association and great spirit.

A warm welcome to Christian Hassager – ACVC President 2020-2022

Christian Hassager is a cardiologist and former (2004-2018) director of a specialised cardiology intensive care unit at the University Hospital Rigshospitalet in Copenhagen, Denmark, and now Professor in this field at Copenhagen University. He is also associate professor in Cardiology at the University of Southern Denmark.

In addition, he has had several national committee positions: Chair of the national working group on echocardiography as well as the working group on Acute Cardiac Care of the Danish Society of Cardiology and has been President of the Danish Society of Cardiology from 2010-2012.

He is currently Chair of the Danish Heart Foundation and Chair of the Danish Resuscitation Council.

He is co-author of more than 400 scientific papers and has been mentor for several Ph.D. students. His current major clinical research interest regards cardiogenic shock and post-resuscitation care after cardiac arrest.

Election results

Started on 15 January 2020 and ended on 15 February 2020.
Turnout: 526 (57%) of 922 electors voted in this ballot.

• President-elect: Kurt Huber (AT)
• Secretary: Alessandro Sionis (SP)
• Board member: Agnieszka Tycinska (PL)
• Board member: Rafael Vidal-Perez (SP)
• Board Member - Young leader: Guido Tavazzi (IT)

Board Structure

• Management Group: Susanna Price (Past-President), Christian Hassager (President), Kurt Huber (President-Elect), Marc Claeys (Treasurer), Alessandro Sionis (Secretary)
  
  
• Main strategic pilars - Composition to be announced soon
  • Congress
  • Membership
  • Research
  • Education
  • Advocacy
• Transversal activities - Composition to be announced soon
  • Young community
  • Communication
  • Industry relations
  • Scientific document group
  • EHJ-ACVC

European Heart Journal - Acute Cardiovascular Care ( EHJ-ACVC) New Editor In Chief

Welcome to Pascal Vranckx, EHJ-ACVC Editor In Chief

Prof. Pascal Vranckx, medical director of the Department of Cardiac Intensive Care at the Jessa Hospital in Hasselt, Belgium has been appointed Editor-in-Chief of the European Heart Journal - Acute Cardiovascular Care, from March 2020, taking over from Prof. Christiaan Vrints, who successfully established the journal in 2011 and has made it grow to become a unique, medical journal in the field of acute cardiovascular care, with a reputation on the international scene and an Impact Factor of 3.734 acquired in 2019.

Prof. Pascal Vranckx  explains: “My ambition is to keep growing journal’s success in Europe and beyond by expanding its scope to intensive and acute cardiovascular care and to increase the Impact Factor; Read more about his strategic plan 

For ACVC Members Only

The new association branding will implicitly lead to updating our Constitution with new acronym, association name and mission statement in the next days.
As those changes do not impact the association structure and functioning, a vote by the general assembly for approval will not be necessary.