Taiwan Society of Cardiology

Website

Structure

President: Dr. Wen-Jone Chen, FESC

Secretary General: Dr Tzun-Dau Wang, FESC  

Past-President: Dr. Charles Jia-Yin Hou, FESC

(for a full list of board members, please visit the society's web site)

Number of members: 1700

Year of Foundation: 1960

Year of ESC affiliation: 2008

Activities

Aim and mission

Taiwan Society of Cardiology (TSOC) aims to promote cardiology research, teaching, prevention and treatment.  TSOC promotes cardiology research, sponsors academic lectures and seminars, trains cardiology specialists and helps the government review policies and guidelines for the treatment of cardiac diseases. The number of the TSOC members is growing at a steady pace of 50 additional members every year. TSOC has created a total of seventeen committees.

Annual member's meetings and seminars

TSOC sponsors approximately 30 academic seminars, educational and training programs every year.  In May of each year, TSOC holds a two-day academic seminar at Taipei International Conference Center which is attended by scholars and experts locally and internationally.  More than 200 abstracts are presented every year. About 40 local and foreign companies exhibit up-to-date medical equipment and drugs at each event.

Training

Cardiovascular specialist doctors in internal medicine, surgery or pediatrics must satisfactorily complete educational and training programs of the cardiovascular specialty in accredited teaching hospitals for two years and pass the TSOC examinations before being accredited as cardiovascular specialist doctors.  The TSOC examinations for cardiovascular specialist doctors, held during September - October every year, consist of both written and oral examinations.  Examinees must pass written examinations before the oral tests. The written examinations last for three hours with 200 questions in multiple choices, the contents of which include basic, common and general cardiology in internal medicine, surgery and pediatrics.  In the oral examination, examinees are examined by professional examiners.  Currently the pass rate is approximately 75% but is scheduled to be reduced year-by-year.