Dear Colleagues, Dear Friends,

The singularity of the Cardiostim Congress has, thus far, hinged on several factors, including a truly international participation, both in terms of delegates and presenters, important contributions from industry, which has liberally disclosed its latest technological advances,  free movements of participants throughout the Congress, and its offering of a platform of expression, particularly beneficial for young investigators --indeed, a large number of European scientists have presented their first research at Cardiostim.

These have been its main characteristics until 2008. In market research conducted during the last 2 editions of the Congress, the attendees convincingly asked for more education and debates. This request is consistent with one term of the accord passed between the European Heart Rhythm Association (EHRA) and Cardiostim, by which the latter would assume responsibilities centered around medical practice, including "Meet the Experts" sessions, hands-on sessions and debates, while Europace would continue to operate in a more academic style.

Time has then arrived to upgrade the form of Cardiostim, by offering programs that review current knowledge in the various domains of our specialty, while extending its application to the real world of day-to-day practice.
Therefore, the majority of structured programs will include representative clinical cases to illustrate the presentation. In many sessions, the audience’s opinion will be probed by an automatic voting system. Other sessions will strictly be educational, returning from patient records to basic electrophysiology, and from data stored in memory to device functions.
Finally seasoned participants will find sessions where complex electrophysiologic recordings will be presented, prompting dynamic discussions, while the RETAC group will present the potential contributions expected from new instrumentation and devices.

The Cardiostim tradition, which heralds new technology that might have an impact on our daily practice, will continue. The Jacques Mugica Conference is the ideal venue reserved for the presentation by industry of the latest fruits of their research, and for the audience to share its impressions.

The number of sessions and their allocated space, based on the number of accepted abstracts, will also be modified. In 2008, the abstracts were presented all congress long, until Saturday morning.
In order to further recognize and honor the work of all our colleagues who entrust us wit their high quality posters, and give them the best impact possible, the abstracts sessions will be 1) fewer, and 2) concentrated between Wednesday and Friday, on a larger space.

We look forward to this next edition and to hearing your opinion regarding these changes, which will be the object of another survey.

You can follow the preparation of this upcoming edition of Cardiostim 2010 on our web site and read our newsletter.
Finally, do not forget the FIRM January 11, 2010 deadline for abstracts submission.

We look forward to seeing you in Nice, June 16 to 19, 2010.

Philippe RITTER, Chairman

Invasive & Non-Invasive Electrophysiology  Catheter Ablation  Pacing & Defibrillation  Heart Failure  Cardiac Imaging |Angiogenesis & Genetics  Emerging Cardiovascular Technologies