British Congenital Cardiac Association
BRITISH CONGENITAL CARDIAC ASSOCIATION
Dr AG Stuart, Honorary Secretary, British Congenital Cardiac Association
Bristol Congenital Heart Unit, Bristol Royal Hospital for Children, Upper Maudlin St, Bristol BS2 8BJ
Tel: 0117 342 8852 email:
20/12/07
Via post and email
BCCA Newsletter – Winter 2007
Dear Colleagues,
Greetings from BCCA! The frenzy that is “Christmas” is upon us. My wife bought me a tin of Humbugs last year which betrays my own feelings about the commercialism that surrounds us. This year I expect I’ll receive an Ebeneezer Scrooge mug or perhaps even a visit from Marley’s Ghost….(1)
On a much cheerier note, we had a superb BCCA Annual Scientific Meeting 2007 in Leeds. John Thomson and Kate English organised an excellent scientific programme. I doubt if any of us left the meeting without coming away with several new insights, challenges or ideas that will shape our practise in the next 12 months. On behalf or the BCCA I would like to thank all the speakers, in particular Professors Pedro del Nido and Carole Warnes. Pedro and Carole gave a series of thought-provoking lectures which confirmed that there are some pockets of true excellence in the USA (even if one of those is an exile from Yorkshire). Pedro gave a particularly challenging talk on surgical attempts to prepare the infant with hypoplastic left heart for eventual biventricular repair. This sat in challenging juxtaposition to Carole’s talk on the disappointing long term outcome following the Fontan operation.
The BCCA AGM marked the retirement of Dr John Gibbs as President. John was thanked by his successor Mr Bill Brawn. John was presented with a “swear box”
in recognition of his notable contribution to the BCCA Committee’s Anglo-Saxon dictionary and a fountain pen in sincere recognition of his huge contribution to the work of the BCCA over the last 4 years. Bill also thanked outgoing Committee members (Gurleen Sharland, Frances Bu’lock and Brian Craig) and welcomed to council Shak Qureshi (President-Elect), Jonathan Parsons and John Simpson.
There was a tie for the final post between Ed Ladusans and Kerry Cook (see below). Minutes of the BCCA Business meeting will be on the website shortly in the New Year) http://www.bcs.com/pages/page_about.asp?PageID=369 .
1. BCCA Election
Ed Ladusans and Kerry Cook received an identical number of votes for the remaining BCCA Council post. After much debate we felt that the only fair method was to rerun the election. Ed is a Consultant Cardiologist at the Royal Liverpool Children’s Hospital and Kerry is a Lecturer at Coventry University and an active member of the Congenital Cardiac Nurses Association. In future elections we intend to ask each candidate to give a brief summary of why they wish to be elected. (Televison advertising will be forbidden and large campaign funds discouraged!
I enclose an election form (not available electronically). I would be grateful if this could be returned to Azeem Ahmad, Affiliates Coordinator, by 22/01/08.
2. BCCA Constitution
The proposals for revision of the BCCA Constitution were accepted at the AGM. In brief, this increases the subscription fee slightly, introduces an affiliated organisation
category and a retired members category. The revised constitution is now on the website. If any members are interested in either of these categories, please let me know. We have also agreed to elect an additional Council member to represent paediatricians with an interest in cardiology. Elections for this post (and the additional council member representing adult congenital heart disease) will be held next year.
3. Reconfiguration of Services
There was a spirited debate at the annual meeting on the need for reconfiguration of services for congenital heart disease. It has been BCCA Policy for several years to support a planned service reconfiguration and move to a reduced number of appropriately funded and staffed centres. The Paediatric and Congenital Cardiac Services Review group reinforced this proposal in 2003. In June 06 there was a follow-up meeting hosted by Sheila Shribman and Roger Boyle (Paediatric and Cardiac “Tzars”). This meeting was attended by representatives (at least 1) of every unit in the UK. The summary concluded “..we should aim for large centres of excellence with a minimum of five surgeons and eight cardiologists per centre. A transitional stage would be to have joint alliances of current centres.” I enclose a copy of the summary of this meeting. BCCA Council would welcome comments on this. If there are dissenting voices then it is important that these voices are heard and views openly debated.
4. Forthcoming Meetings
I enclose flyers (only included hard copy) for the following meetings which can also be downloaded now from the BCCA website at:
http://www.bcs.com/pages/page_about.asp?PageID=365
· Hands on cardiac morphology courses 25 - 27th February and 9 - 11th July
· Cardiology in neonates and infants 28 - 29th February
· Echocardiography for paediatricians 2 - 4th July
· Anatomy for electrophysiologists 7 - 8th July
There will also be a meeting on adult congenital heart disease in Bristol on
19 - 20th June. Full details to follow.
Other meetings
· European Pediatric Cardiac Intensive Care Society, 27 - 30th March 2008
The PCICS Europe Symposium 2008 is being held in Monte Carlo, Monaco,
March 27 - 30, 2008. Details available from the Secretariat: 17 rue du Cendrier,
P.O. Box 1726, CH-1211 Geneva 1, Switzerland.
Website: http://www.kenes.com/pcics/
5. BCCA Annual Scientific Meeting 2008
Please note in your diaries, the 2008 annual meeting will be in Birmingham at the Town Hall on 19th and 20th November 2008 with a Trainee Day at the Children’s Hospital, Birmingham on 18th November. Watch this space for further details!
6 Madeleine Steel Award
Please send applications for the Madeleine Steel award to me by the end of January 2008. Full details on the website.
7 The Michael Davies Award
The BCCA have been asked to encourage candidates to apply for the BCS Michael Davies Award. The award consists of £1500 and is presented at the BCS Annual Scientific Conference. The aim of the award is to encourage researchers who have recently established themselves as independent investigators and who have made
an outstanding contribution to cardiovascular science. The idea is that the investigators are a more mature age in their scientific development than the young research workers prize but not yet firmly established. This scheme is open to clinicians and non clinicians. Those eligible are researchers who have shown sustained outstanding productivity over several years resulting in significant contribution to cardiovascular science. They are expected to be typically within
5-10 years of achieving a higher degree and to be on track to continue a successful academic career. They should not normally be more than ten years from the higher degree the time of submission.
8 British Cardiovascular Society Annual Scientific Meeting,
2 - 4th June 2008, Manchester Central
In 2008 the BCCA will be involved in several sessions. This includes a session on
cardiovascular aspects of pregnancy (with BSH and HCP(UK), a session on plugging holes/tunnels and leaks (with BCIS) and sessions on long-term follow up and imaging.
9 NHS Net emails
I have been asked by Rob Johnson to extol the virtues NHS emails. I believe that they are portable from trust to trust, secure (you can include patient details), integrate with Outlook and can be used to send SMS and fax messages. Go to https://www.nhs.net/ and click register. Find your name. If you are not listed then you need to find the name of the gatekeeper for your organisation and ask them to identify you. Thereafter it is easy. Once NHS Net knows who you are you can
self-register. Your gatekeeper is listed under the details for your organisation e.g. Royal Liverpool Children’s NHS Trust etc.
10 Updating of membership database
I also attach a membership information update form, which I would encourage you to complete if not done so already. The information on this form will help us to improve our membership database, and ensure that you receive communications from us (mainly via email nowadays but on occasions for example, BCCA elections, by post).
11 How to join BCCA?
Please consider if any of your colleagues would like to be considered for membership of the BCCA. An application form is available on our section of the British Cardiovascular Society website:
http://www.bcs.com/documents/BCCA_application_form_-_revised_July2007.doc .
Finally, can I wish you all a Merry Christmas and Festive New Year. “Peace and Goodwill to all men” must surely be an appropriate message for 2008. Indeed, I think we should extend it to include women as well.
With best wishes,
Graham Stuart
Honorary Secretary, BCCA
Reference List
(1) Charles Dickens. A Christmas Carol in Prose, being a Ghost Story of Christmas.
Chapman and Hall, 1843.
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