Dear members,
In my first editorial as Chair of our WG, I want to start thanking the hard work of our previous Chair, Carol Ann Remme for her dedication and new initiatives, and congratulating Jordi Heijman as chair elect, the new, and all nucleus members. All the nucleus members are happy to serve you.
2020 and the unprecedented global health conditions that we are living through have made the ESC Working Group on Cardiac Cellular Electrophysiology face unprecedented decisions. One painful decision was the cancellation of our annual meeting that was scheduled for June 2020 in Amsterdam. The nucleus is working hard to continue our actions despite the impossibility of in-person activities. As the situation is uncertain, not all details can be final at the time of this newsletter, so keep track of the website.
Our 2021 annual meeting, that was planned to be integrated in the EHRA congress, will be entirely virtual and stand for one day only. To keep our activities besides the annual meeting, we plan to organize regular webinars. At the beginning of 2020 we organized our first one, given by Prof. Edward Carmeliet, one of the founders of the EWGCCE “Cardiac Cellular Electrophysiology: Back to Basics”, which was a success. If you missed it you can find it here. We are currently organizing the next one and more information will be released later.
We have also decided to continue the scientific exchange grants for early career members to spend time abroad at another institute with the purpose of learning a new technique and strengthening collaboration between institutes. Access the website for further details.
Finally, our position paper about experimental models in cardiac electrophysiology is ready to be submitted and will hopefully be published in 2021.
On behalf of the Working Group nucleus,
Ana M Gómez, Chairperson 2020-2022
Our mission: To reduce the burden of cardiovascular disease.