ANNUAL REVIEW 20 22

As your Secretary General I feel incredibly proud to introduce our annual review for 2022. EACTS has long held an important position in the cardiothoracic community, and I am thrilled that, despite facing some challenging times, we continue to thrive as a member-led association. This report captures some of our Association’s many highlights in 2022. It serves as a snapshot – a record showing that last year we emerged from the global pandemic as a stronger, more agile association. We have extended our reach worldwide by responding to the changing needs of our members and providing new, flexible ways of advancing education and science in the field of cardiac, thoracic and vascular interventions.

Our virtual Academy courses have been welcomed by many members of our community, delivering crucial educational opportunities to all corners of the world regardless of circumstance.

The 36th EACTS Annual Meeting also reinforced the value of meeting in-person and sharing experiences with colleagues face-to-face. Our Task Forces and Domains delivered a first-class scientific programme that brought together global leaders in their field and truly embraced the importance of multi-disciplinary approaches. The two Late Breaking Clinical Trials sessions featuring high-quality submissions encouraged us all to assess and critically appraise the available evidence that could lead to improvements in patient care.

A more diverse EACTS

We have taken a leading role in helping to deliver positive cultural change across the cardiothoracic community. New initiatives to empower more women in cardiothoracic surgery include the well-received webinar series, led by the Women in Cardiothoracic Surgery Committee. I am delighted that not only do we continue to welcome more women members to EACTS but the number of women surgeons attending the EACTS Annual Meeting also increased in 2022.

Our achievements reflect a huge collective effort by EACTS staff and members, including those who volunteer their time to support our Domains and Committees. It is thanks to their hard work that we are able to deliver value to our members whilst continuing to equip the cardiothoracic community with everything we need to achieve better outcomes for our patients.

Special thanks go to Can Gollmann-Tepeköylü for his work chairing the Residents Committee over the past few years. With the support of Resident Representative, Alicja Zientara, Can has been instrumental in raising the profile and influence of our Resident members. His achievements include the launch of the very popular Residents Case Corner, which is now a key online course in our Academy programme.

Finally, I would like to thank our past Secretary General, Rafa Sádaba, who stood down from the role in October 2022. His dedication and commitment to EACTS have been a huge factor in the success of the organisation. His strong leadership guided EACTS through challenging times and ensured we continued to support and deliver value to our members.

I look forward to building on these achievements.