ESC Congress 2013: What’s in it for the Media?

The world's greatest event in cardiology, ESC Congress 2013, will take place in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, from 31 August to 4 September, and as ever promises journalists a rich source of front-page news and feature background.The spotlight of this year's event is “The Heart Interacting with Systemic Organs”, reflecting an interaction which, says Professor Keith Fox, Chairman of the Congress Programme Committee, will encourage critical discussion of new research and techniques with other organ experts and their transfer into clinical medicine.

ESC Congress 2013 will take place at the
Amsterdam RAI congress centre
Europaplein, Amsterdam
from 31 August to 4 September
Journalists planning to attend are invited to register
via the congress press section of the ESC website

ESC Congress 2013 in Amsterdam is expected to attract more than 30,000 registered participants (as well as 750 registered press), making it the  world’s  premier  conference  on  the  science,  management  and  prevention  of cardiovascular  disease, and a guaranteed source of important news stories. In cardiology, says Professor Fox, the ESC Congress has indisputably become the number one international event, reflected in the high number of submissions from non-European countries and in participant registrations.
This year's congress will feature:

• Five days of scientific sessions
• More than 4000 presentations of new studies selected from 10,500 abstracts submitted
• 20 Hot Line presentations, featuring the first results from major clinical trials
• Updates from earlier landmark trials
• 200 exhibiting companies and 70 sponsored sessions

Press support in Amsterdam will be concentrated on three press conferences per day (from Sunday to Tuesday), which are led each morning by the late-breaking results of clinical trials selected for Hot Line sessions. These are studies (many of which are reported simultaneously and under embargo in the leading medical journals) whose outcomes will shape the treatment of cardiovascular disease in the years to come, and which traditionally provide front-page news across the world. This year, four Hot Line sessions will feature results from 20 major trials in thrombosis, coronary intervention and devices, diabetes, and heart failure and acute coronary syndromes.

Included among them are results from the Hokusai VTE study, the largest single-agent phase III trial for the treatment and prevention of recurrent venous thromboembolism. Also presented will be results from the phase III EXAMINE (EXamination of cArdiovascular outcoMes with alogliptIN versus standard of carE in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus and acute coronary syndrome) trial, a cardiovascular safety study of alogliptin in patients with type 2 diabetes and acute coronary syndrome. Results will also be presented from the ATOMIC-AHF (Acute Treatment with Omecamtiv Mecarbil to Increase Contractility in Acute Heart Failure), a phase IIb clinical trial of an intravenous formulation of omecamtiv mecarbil. Of interest too in its centenary year will be a Tour de France study - an analysis of mortality data from post-1947 participants whose deaths have since been reported.

The press conference programme will also feature new developments derived from other studies submitted as abstracts and collected under eight themed headings:

• Statins (for all and for ever?)
• Everyday life (seasonality, air pollution, leisure time, aircraft noise)
• Obesity (problem or paradox?)
• Smoking (never too late to quit, effects of smoking bans)
• Heart and stroke (mass screening?)
• The pacemaker lead (and the leadless device)
• Aortic stenosis (sex differences, inheritability)

Press releases in support of the press conferences will be issued under embargo a few days in advance. Accredited journalists can also make use of a well serviced press room, with wi-fi and work space available.

In the meantime, we encourage you to mark the dates in your diary, and to contact the ESC Press Office for further information.

* ESC Congress 2013 will take place from 31 August to 4 September at the RAI Congress Center, Europaplein, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
* Information on the scientific programme is already available online

* More information on ESC Congress 2013 (including details for press registration and accommodation) is available here and from the ESC's press office at press@escardio.org.