UEMS - Cardiology Section

Professor in Cardiology University of Oslo, Rikshospitalet.

President of the European Union of Medical Specialists (UEMS), Cardiology Section.

The accomplishments of today's cardiology are impressive, particularly when seen in historical context. But the spectacular development is probably still in the nature of basic foundations, of beginnings. Real progress has been made in understanding the aspects of heart diseases and in the learning of how to treat the diseases and their complications. Much however, has to be learned about the importance of genetics, inflammation and humoral responses in diseases in the cardiovascular system.

In the next twenty years, diagnosing and treatment of cardiovascular diseases will take more and more of the health resources within Europe and the rest of the World. The growing challenge of chronic diseases will cause major gaps in meeting the requirements for health personnel, lack of access to good diagnostic equipment, and even drugs.

UEMS Cardiology Section is the professional organisation for all European Cardiologists, and is an EU organ in the UEMS family with 37 Sections. In addition to the EU countries, there are full members from Iceland, Norway and Switzerland, and associate members from other European Countries.

The main mission for UEMS Cardiology Section is harmonisation and quality improvement in training programmes in Europe.

The importance of technical skills in procedures and knowledge in pathophysiology etc., have become increasingly important.

The need for long training to perform an adequate echo/doppler examination is obvious.

Technical skills besides theoretical knowledge are even more important when performing ablation of arrhythmias and percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI).

The main mission will therefore be to teach cardiologists throughout Europe to serve their patients with the best possible care within acceptable costs. The education is taken care of by the European Board for the Speciality in Cardiology (EBSC), a joint venture between the UEMS Cardiology Section and the European Society of Cardiology, where the chairman is a board member from the UEMS Cardiology Section.

The UEMS Cardiology Section wishes to encourage postgraduate training. We recommend a European CME-Programme in cardiology. (Ref.UEMS/EACCME Doc D 9907, D 9908). The European Board for Accreditation in Cardiology, which is also a joint venture between ESC and UEMS Cardiology Section with chairman from UEMS, takes care of this accreditation process.

The preventive cardiology will become even more important in the future. About 30 years ago, the importance of tobacco smoking and lipids in connection with coronary artery disease were opposed by many cardiologists. Today, no serious cardiologist would question the massive documentation of the fact that tobacco smoking and high cholesterol are damaging the arteries in every part of the body. In 2004 massive preventive care should therefore be undertaken.

In addition to the specialist training and postgraduate training UEMS Cardiology Section also communicate with the EU Commission and the EU Parliament. An example is the 2004 update of the 1994 Council Resolution of Cardiovascular disease.

Under Article 152 of the Treaty, the European Union should significantly improve the health of European Citizens by identifying and promoting the best possible practice in cardiovascular prevention, and among that stroke prevention. The Resolution should be updated, in line with the Public Health Framework Programme, which has identified cardiovascular disease as one of the 5 major burdens of diseases on society, when taking the 10 new EU member states into account.

The process was started in 2003, and will be further promoted in 2004.

The European Society of Cardiology (ESC) is the scientific organisation in cardiology in Europe. Since advanced cardiology is closely linked to research, a close collaboration between ESC and UEMS Cardiology Section is necessary.

The guidelines proposed by the European Society of Cardiology are therefore generally supported by UEMS Cardiology Section.

When practising cardiology in the modern world, we have to be aware of the human right issues as well as social issues and ethics. Human right issues are in the first instance to guide the action of governments, whereas ethics much more are dealing with the specific action and relationships of individual cardiologists, researchers and professional organisations. This is often presented as guidelines.

Human right issues and social justice are often presented as laws.

UEMS Cardiology Section is working in this difficult field of medicine where ethics, laws and advanced cardiology practice have to be taken into consideration in the discussions and decisions, when promoting the best training programmes.

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