Editorial - June 2020

Dear Members of the WG on Coronary Pathophysiology and Microcirculation,

We hope that this newsletter finds all of you in good health and that you are able to slowly return to a near “normal life” after several difficult months of dealing with COVID19 and with the imposed social distancing measures to contain the pandemic. We wish all the best for you and your families!

Unfortunately, but understandably, COVID19 will also prevent us from meeting in person during the ESC2020 in Amsterdam. Nevertheless, the activities of our Working Group need to continue and through our bimonthly newsletter we try to keep you updated about these activities.

Since our last Newsletter, we initiated an expert Consensus Paper on COVID19 and Cardiovascular Disease, written in collaboration with the Working Group on Thrombosis and the Associations for Acute CardioVascular Care (ACVC) and European Heart Rhythm (EHRA). The manuscript is currently under review for publication in one of our ESC journals. In addition, we are happy to report that our position paper “Depression and Coronary Heart Disease” has just been published in European Heart Journal in the May issue (see Publications / Working Group Position and Consensus papers).

This year, the Working Group will launch the third call for Mobility Travel Grant (MTG). However, due to the current mobility restrictions and the possibility that these may last for several months to come in the different countries across Europe, the call will be postponed to September. More details will be provided in our next newsletter.

Herewith, we would like to invite all Working Group members to participate in writing a ‘commentary’ on a relevant recent publication to be published on our WG-webpage (see our webpage for recent commentary examples). Therefore, we encourage you to send your proposals for an article that you would like to highlight in a commentary at your earliest convenience to Dr. Padro. Every other month, one article will be selected, and the proposer will be invited to write a commentary, that will subsequently be placed online together with the bimonthly newsletter. 

Finally, we want to thank and recognize here all members who have submitted their candidacy as Ordinary Nucleus Member for the period 2020-2022 and to remind all of you that the election period is currently open and closes on June 22nd. Please don`t miss this opportunity to exercise your right to vote for the candidates of your choice, thereby actively contributing to the election of Nucleus representatives in your Working Group! 

Best wishes,

Prof. Dirk J. Duncker, Chairperson

Dr. Teresa Padro, Secretary