The 6th World Congress 2013

CARDIOLOGY & CARDIAC SURGERY

CAPE TOWN INTERNATIONAL CONVENTION CENTRE, 2013

The World Congress of Paediatric Cardiology and Cardiac Surgery is the major international scientific and academic event for heart disease in children. In September 2005 four members of the Executive committee of the Paediatric Cardiac Society joined 3800 delegates at the 4th World Congress in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Two members of our Executive, Dr John Lawrenson and Dr John Hewitson, were invited members of the Faculty. We had attended previous World Congresses in Toronto, Honolulu and Paris so we appreciate the formidable organizational challenge that this increasingly popular meeting presents. Buenos Aires however, was the catalyst for Cape Town 2013.

The Cardiac Societies of Australia and New Zealand jointly host the next World Congress in Cairns, Queensland, in 2009. The World Congress is a highly prestigious event the hosting of which would bring great credit to South Africa, strengthen our society and help build a coalition of support for children with heart disease in Africa. This overview provides information about the Paediatric Cardiac Society of South Africa (PCSSA) and the background to our bid to host the World Congress in Cape Town in 2013.

The Paediatric Cardiac Society of South Africa

The Paediatric Cardiac Society of South Africa (PCSSA) is a voluntary professional association of paediatric cardiologists and cardiac surgeons. The objectives of the Society are to improve quality of care for children with congenital and acquired heart disease though promoting research and supporting the education and training of specialists in the field. The Society sets standards for good clinical practice and is the primary advocacy group for children with heart disease in South Africa. PCSSA has an established track record with conference organization as every year it organizes a Paediatric Cardiac Symposium in South Africa.

The university departments of Paediatric Cardiology and Cardiac Surgery are the foundation stones on which our Society rests and from which it derives its strength. These institutions are as follows;

• The Witwatersrand University at Johannesburg General and Chris Hani - Baragwanath Hospitals
• The University of Pretoria and Pretoria Academic Hospital
• The University of Kwazulu Natal and Chief Albert Luthuli Hospital (Durban)
• The University of Free State and Universitas Hospital (Bloemfontein)
• Stellenbosch University and Tygerberg Hospital (Cape Town)
• The University of Cape Town and Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital

There is also a strong tradition of cardiology and surgery outside the university hospitals. This is located in two major heart units at the

• Walter Sisulu Paediatric Cardiac Centre for Africa, Johannesburg
• Christiaan Barnard Memorial Hospital in Cape Town

At its Annual General Meeting in October 2005 the membership of the PCSSA voted overwhelmingly and without opposition in favour of the proposal to bid for the World Congress. This adequately reflects the strong support that the bid enjoys from our constituency.

Why Cape Town?

Cape Town is a city with irresistible appeal. Not only for the excellent facilities, event management experience and diverse beauty of the natural environment but more especially, for its long tradition and pioneering work in congenital heart disease medicine and surgery.

• With Table Mountain as a backdrop, the mother city is instantly recognizable as a major international tourist destination. Home to the Parliament of South Africa, Robben Island is of course infamous as the prison where President Nelson Mandela and his comrades were incarcerated. The compelling and competing attractions of Robben Island, Table Mountain, the Waterfront, the beaches and the wine-lands offer delegates and accompanying persons a formidable choice of tourist destinations and good reasons to extend their visit.
• The Cape Town International Convention Centre (CTICC) is a state of the art, flexible, first class international conference centre. There are excellent modern, information, communication and projection facilities in a spacious environment with ample rooms of diverse sizes. The management has a proven track record in congress management.
• Cape Town has adequate luxury and first class hotels with over 3500 hotel rooms of variable ratings within walking distance of the CTICC and a further 12 000 further a field.
• Cape Town and the CTICC has already successfully hosted the 2006 World Diabetes Conference with 12 000 delegates, the Cricket World Cup in 2003 and the 1995 Rugby World Cup. Existing infrastructure will be expanded to cope with the massive numbers of projected visitors expected to arrive for 2010 and the semi-finals of the Football World Cup.
• Although it was the pioneering work of Christian Barnard that really put Cape Town on the map, the truth is Groote Schuur Hospital had been a centre of excellence for heart disease decades before. There are two major centers for children’s heart surgery and trans-catheter interventional procedures in the city. The Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital offers cardiac services for public sector patients referred from the Western Cape and beyond. The Chris Barnard Memorial Hospital is a private facility in the city centre. The work at these two institutions is supported by specialists in paediatric cardiology and cardiac surgery from the Universities of Stellenbosch and Cape Town. There are adequate numbers of professionals with experience in conference organization to provide the management and scientific capacity for this event.

Why South Africa?

South Africa is a developing country at the foot of the African continent which offers delegates to the World Congress an entirely new cultural and tourist experience in a unique physical environment. It offers delegates from Africa an extraordinary opportunity to participate in the most important international event on our calendar.

Perhaps more importantly, as a developing country on a continent still plagued by rheumatic fever and rheumatic heart disease, tuberculosis, cardiomyopathy and an ever increasing burden of disease from HIV and AIDS, it offers the World Congress a different set of challenges in the management of children with acquired heart disease. The limitations to distributing costly cardiac care defined by smaller financial resources and fewer human resources when compared with developed nations are problems shared by colleagues from developing countries all over the world. Our setting will offer clinicians and health policy developers, managers and planners an ideal forum to deal not only with the clinical problems but with the health systems issues which are so crucial to finding solutions to improving cardiac care for children.

Why Africa?

Africa, at the centre of our world, is the cradle of mankind. Africa is accessible to the world and the only continent in both the north and the southern hemispheres. And yet Africa has double jeopardy; it is the poorest continent with the largest burden of disease. From our perspective it is important to bring this international meeting to Africa as a way of engaging the political leadership of our continent with the challenges in child health. It is important to raise the profile of children with heart diseases. In so doing the congress will reinforce the notion that children with heart disease ought not to be denied the benefits of medical science.

This high profile congress in Africa will undeniably motivate and sustain the interests of surgeons, cardiologists and nurses for whom an attendance at international congresses is just a dream. The congress forum with broad participation from African colleagues will grow the networks essential to improving care for children with heart disease and will further develop our professional collaboration and cooperation.

The World Congress has never been to Africa and it is time it arrived!

Bid committee

John Lawrenson is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Cape Town, Principal Specialist in Paediatric Cardiology at the Red Cross Children’s Hospital and Head of Paediatric Cardiac Services in the Western Cape. He has trained in both adult and paediatric cardiology including a Fellowship in Paediatric Cardiology at the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium. He has organized several conferences for the PCSSA, most recently the Annual Congress at the CTICC in 2003. He was invited to join the Faculty for the 4th World Congress of Paediatric Cardiology and Cardiac Surgery in Buenos Aires and is a former President of the PCSSA.

Susan Vosloo is an internationally recognized and respected Cardio Thoracic Surgeon with a special interest in children. She is in independent practice at the Chris Barnard Memorial Hospital and a part-time specialist at the Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital. She is on the Council of the University of Free State.

Bongani Mayosi is a cardiologist with a particular interest in heart diseases with high prevalence in developing nations. His research activities are in diseases of heart muscle, tuberculosis of the heart and rheumatic heart disease. He is a former Nuffield Scholar at Wolfson College, Oxford, where he obtained a D.Phil. He has recently been appointed Professor and Head of the Department of Medicine at the University of Cape Town. He is President-Elect of the South African Heart Association and a member of the Executive of the Pan African Society of Cardiology (PASCAR).

Christopher Hugo-Hamman is President of the PCSSA and a paediatric cardiologist in independent practice. He is a lecturer at the University of Stellenbosch and a part time specialist at the Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital. A Rhodes Scholar at Jesus College, Oxford, with an MA in Philosophy Politics and Economics, he was previously Health Attaché at the South African diplomatic Mission to the European Union and later Director of Ministerial Services in the Ministry of Health. He was Convener of the annual congress of the PCSSA in 2005 and is Chairman of the Steering Committee for the 2013 bid.

Conclusion

Under the Patronage of the Premier of the Western Cape, Mr. Ebrahim Rasool, the committee is well prepared to meet the challenge of hosting the 6th World Congress in Cape Town. We enjoy enthusiastic support from two organizations - “Cape Town Routes Unlimited”, (the official leisure and events marketing organization of the City of Cape Town and the province of the Western Cape) and the Cape Town International Convention Centre. The final cog in the organizational wheel for 2013 will be the Professional Conference Organizer (CPO) which will be appointed in June 2007.