Dear friends,
Indeed I hope everybody is in good health in these strange corona times. For our patients with congenital heart disease these are for sure difficult times. Although the number of affected ACHD patients with corona-virus is still very low and luckily the number of demised patients limited, the impact of the crisis is enormous. Especially the psychological and emotional impact should not be underestimated. Many patients have fears and did not dare or were not allowed to go outside, while fresh air and exercise, in my opinion, are of crucial importance for our relatively young patients. We all know that a sedentary lifestyle has negative effects on stress-levels and even on life-expectance. Although our patients have a structural heart defect and are as “cardiac patients” characterized as high-risk, many are young and should not all be considered high risk. It is our role to guide them, reassure them where possible and reduce stress and inactivity. The Working Group is preparing a position paper on COVID-19 in adults with congenital heart disease.
Furthermore, most importantly, the new ESC Guidelines on the management of ACHD, co-chaired by Helmut Baumgartner and Julie de Backer, will be presented and simultaneously published in August 2020.
EuroGUCH 2021 is planned to take place in Seville, Spain from Monday May 3- Wednesday May 5, with local host Pastora Gallego. So please mark these days already in your agenda and I hope to see you all there.
The membership of our Working Group rose by 10% to 755 members between March 2019 and March 2020, with currently 27% of the members being young (under age 40). This is great news and the numbers keep on rising. At the moment the election for new nucleus members is running and I am looking forward seeing the results.
In August 2020 Gerhard Diller from Munster, Germany will become the new chair of our working group and I am convinced he will be a fantastic chair. I wish him wisdom and leadership and know he will further stimulate our field in many ways. It is also a great pleasure to announce that Michael Gatzoulis from London, United Kingdom, is appointed incoming chair of the working group per August 2020. I will stay in the nucleus as past-chair for the 2 coming years. I would like to thank everybody for the excellent collaboration both in the nucleus and in the larger working group and I would like to thank the support from the ESC, especially Alexandra Henry and Léa Bergamaschi and of course Professor Cecilia Linde. For me it was an honor and great pleasure.
Best wishes,
Chairperson WG Adult Congenital Heart Disease
Our mission: To reduce the burden of cardiovascular disease.