The 3th Asia Cardiac Arrhythmia Summit & The 9th China Cardiac Ablation Summit
“The Asia Cardiac Arrhythmia Summit (ACAS) in this year inherited the excellent style and successful model of previous conferences, focusing on hot spots such as full three-dimension electrophysiology mode, ventricular arrhythmias of pulmonary valve origin, arrhythmias related to the His bundle-Purkinje system, epicardial mapping ablation, and His bundle pacing. A new debate session was set up to discuss the hot topics. The highlight of the conference is that, starting from this year, we have added a "Master Lecture", in which a top international expert is invited to give a thorough lecture on a disease or topic each year. In addition, a new forum for female electrophysiologists is also a major attraction of the conference. The conference requires all speakers to speak about their experiences and innovations, and even lessons learned, so that every attendee can gain something." This was the key summary made by Prof. Yan Yao of Fu Wai Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, the current chairman, at the opening ceremony of the 3rd Asia Cardiac Arrhythmia Summit (ACAS2018) held in Beijing on July 20, 2018.
ACAS is organized by the Asia Heart Rhythm Association (ACAS), hosted by the National Cardiovascular Center, Fu Wai Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, and is the only full English-language arrhythmia conference founded in China so far. The conference aims to promote extensive and in-depth academic exchanges between domestic and foreign colleagues, to improve the English expression ability of Chinese electrophysiologists, to learn from foreign advanced concepts and technologies, and to broaden the clinical and scientific horizons. On the other hand, in response to the national policy of "the Belt and the Road", the conference also aims to actively promote the advanced cardiovascular centers and excellent doctors in China, as well as their innovative therapies, procedures and concepts that are suitable for China's national conditions, to foreign countries. The "Voice of China" will ultimately promote the development of cardiac rhythmology in Asia.
ACAS was founded in November 2016 and has been successfully held for 2 sessions, which brought together not only the global Asian arrhythmia elites, but also the top Asian electrophysiology experts, including Samuel J. Asirvatham, Sunny Po, Wang Xunzhang, Josef Kautzner, Akihiko Nogami, Tom Wong, yoshito iesaka, yongmei cha and other international leaders in cardiac rhythmology, attracting nearly 20 countries such as USA, UK, Japan, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Singapore, Thailand, India, Indonesia, Vietnam, Korea, Pakistan, Malaysia, Nepal, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Philippines, Poland, etc..
he opening ceremony of the 9th China Cardiac Ablation Summit (CCAS) was attended by Prof. Sunny Po, Xue-Bin Li, Ping-Zhen Yang, Hua Deng, Zhao-Guang Liang, Jing-Quan Zhong, Jian-Gui He, Pi-Hua Fang, De-Yong Long, Rong-Hui Yu, Yan Wang, Chen-Yang Jiang, Jin-Lin Zhang, Yun-Long Xia, Yi-Fu Li, Xing-Peng Liu, Li Li, Yu-Mei Xue, Yue Yuan, Jian-Min Chu, Xiao-Qing Ren, Shu-Wang Liu, Xiao-Han Fan, Yan Dai, and Gao Lu, Guo-Dong Niu and other experts. Prof. Yao, the current chairman, introduced that CCAS was mainly for the young and middle-aged clinicians of electrophysiology in China, adhering to the principles of pragmatism, equality, communication, progress and innovation, aiming to provide a high-end platform for front-line operators to learn and exchange. The conference is closely related to the actual clinical problems, in the form of lectures and case discussions, interspersed with live broadcasts of interventional operation and some video recordings, focusing on atrial fibrillation, special supraventricular tachycardia, atrial tachycardia and ventricular tachycardia, etc., to promote new concepts and techniques, with a view to improving the overall level of cardiac catheter ablation in China.
The China Cardiac Ablation Summit has been successfully held for 8 sessions from June 2013 to the end of 2017, and through the joint efforts of the organizing committee and the participants, cutting-edge concepts and techniques including "full three-dimension electrophysiological mode", combined medical-surgical ablation of atrial fibrillation, ablation of special ventricular arrhythmias (left ventricular apex or papillary muscle origin, bundle branch ventricular tachycardia, etc.), hereditary arrhythmias (Brugada syndrome ventricular fibrillation, ARVC ventricular tachycardia), renal sympathetic nerve stimulation or vagal ganglion ablation for vasovagal syncope were strongly promoted, and even a number of innovative strategies, procedures or papers emerged from some electrophysiology centers in China on this basis.
Another feature of the conference is a special session on complications, which is also the first conference in cardiac rhythmology in China to offer a special session on complications, aiming to share complications to reduce them, focusing on operation safety and improve medical quality. The conference has established "Vascular Complications of Catheter Ablation", "Complications of Conduction System Injury", "Complications of Atrial Fibrillation Ablation", "Complications of Ventricular Ablation", "Complications of cardiac perforation or rupture", "Complications of thrombosis or hemorrhage", etc. The vast number of operators shared their experiences and lessons without reservation, exchanged and discussed frankly and equally, focused on practical experience, and shared their precious experiences, so that the lessons learned of one person could be transformed into group experience. Therefore, many doctors from Southeast Asia were attracted to come here, forming a new atmosphere of academic contention, free speech and common improvement.
It is worth pointing out that ACAS is attended in an invite-only format and mainly oriented to the frontline clinicians, who are the primary operators from the key hospitals in each region. Future-oriented concept means that mainly young and middle-aged doctors make more presentations in the conference, to provide them with opportunities and platforms to showcase themselves, while those very prestigious experts are invited mainly for the purpose of commenting and moreover sharing their rich experience to better help young people.
To this end, joint meetings with regional representative hospitals in Guangzhou, Harbin, Hangzhou and Kunming, were held to narrow regional differences in diagnosis and treatment levels and to promote the development of cardiac rhythmology in the region and even across the country.
In addition, as the number of female electrophysiologists in China constantly expanding, they are playing an increasingly important role in clinical and academic works. Therefore, this year, the conference has set up a special session for female electrophysiologists, inviting female electrophysiologists such as Yong-Mei Cha, Yu-Mei Xue, Li Li, An-Li Tang, Ping Zhang, Jin-Xin Li and Li-Hui Zheng to share their cutting-edge concepts, innovative strategies and technologies in the field of cardiac arrhythmia catheter ablation, to focus on the development of female physicians, and to build an academic exchange platform to showcase and improve themselves. We hope to raise more female voices in the electrophysiology field in China. It can be said that the special session of female physicians in electrophysiology has added a beautiful scenery to this conference.
During the three-day conference, experts and scholars from home and abroad came together, presenting an academic feast with prominent themes and strong atmosphere of learning. There were one main conference and four sub-conferences, with nearly 400 medical experts and scholars attending the symposium.
Prof. Yan Yao, the current chairman, had an extensive exchange with the participating experts during the conference. Prof. Yao expressed his hope that the conference would build a high-end platform for young and middle-aged physicians to showcase themselves and exchange academic viewpoints, so that they could have the opportunity to learn advanced concepts and technologies from foreign scholars, broaden their academic horizons and improve their English expression skills. At the same time, the innovative concepts and procedures of domestic hospitals will be actively promoted to foreign countries, and efforts will be made to narrow the regional treatment differences. Based on the principle of closely integrating clinical problems, ACAS invited top experts to preach and explain, so that the lessons learned of one person can be transformed into group experience, the conference has now attracted overseas colleagues to come.