Letter from the President
Dear Friends,
It is my real pleasure to address you as the third President of our young society with now over 100 members representing the Belgian Cardio-thoracic Surgical Community in Belgium.
Since our Association was founded in November 1995, it has been very successful under the leadership of Wim Daenen (1995 - 1998) and Pierre Rocmans (1998 - 1999) and with the critical support of every member of the Board and of the BACTS.
With the election of new and young members in the Board the Newsletter is becoming a reality. Cardiac and thoracic surgery are in constant and fast evolution. It is of atmost importance not only for the young but also for older surgeons to keep ourselves informed on the new developments in our speciality.
General surgery does not exist anymore in Western Europe and the number of subspecialities with each their own societies and scientific meetings is increasing. The board of directors of those surgical societies should, in the future, collaborate in organizing symposia where information from different fields of surgery can be exchanged. A good example will be the first surgical week of the Royal Belgian Society for Surgery that will take place in Knokke 27-29/04/2000 with the participation of the Belgian experts in minimally invasive thoracic surgery representing the BACTS. I invite you all to attend and I hope it will be very successful.
We also plan to have a two hour session on cardiac surgery at each annual meeting of the Belgian Society of Cardiology.
In this Newsletter, you will find more information on the activities of our Association.
I am looking forward to a productive year as your President.
Jean Louis Le Clerc, M.D.
President BVCTH/SBCCT 1999 - 2000
The Board and Committees of BACTS
During the last General Assembly of our Society held in Brussels on 6 November 1999, Jean-Louis Le Clerc (Bruxelles) was elected as new President (1999-2000), Paul Van Schil (Edegem) as first vice-president (1999-2000) and Christiaan Van Kerrebroeck (Genk) as new second vice-president (1999 - 2000). The positions of Dirk Van Raemdonck (Leuven) as secretary and Hugo Vanermen (Aalst) as treasurer were reapproved. The other members of the Board of Directors (1998-2001) are Wim Daenen (Leuven), Luc Haenen (Bonheiden), Marc Joris (Jumet), Philippe Noirhomme (Bruxelles), Pierre Rocmans (Bruxelles), Guido Van Nooten (Gent), and Francis Wellens (Aalst). You may find here further details on how to contact one of the Board members.
Our Society is composed of different working committees: Accreditation (chair: Wim Daenen), Board of Directors (chair: Jean-Louis Le Clerc), Communication (chair: Christiaan Van Kerrebroeck), Database and Quality Control (chair: Paul Sergeant), Membership (chair: Toni Lerut), and Scientific (chair: Guido Van Nooten). The committee on Extracorporeal Perfusion has temporarily stopped his activities. You can find more information on the activities and the complete composition of the different committees within our Society at "http://www.bacts.org/committee/bacts". The Board has recently decided that members may have insight into the agenda of the meetings of the Board and are welcome to send any items to the Secretary for discussion by the Board. Please visit to have a regular update on the agenda of the meetings of the Board.
Members and application for membership
During the last General Assembly, 7 new members have been elected, 6 active members (Philippe Bettendorf, Bruxelles; Georges Decker, Leuven; Pierre-Yves Etienne, Bouge; Jacques Goldstein, Bruxelles; Paul Herijgers, Leuven; Hans Van Overbeke, Gent) and 1 honorary member (Walter Weder, Zürich). Our Society is now having a total of 109 members (92 active members, 5 junior members, and 12 honorary members). See listing of all members. The membership fee is fixed to 2.000 BEF (49,58 Euro) for active members and 1.000 BEF (24,79 Euro) for junior members. You have already been invited to pay your annual fee via a separate mailing from the treasurer in March 2000.
Colleagues working in the field of cardiovascular or thoracic surgery (as well as fellows in training) are invited to become (junior) members of our Society. An application form for membership will be mailed upon request to the secretariat or you can print this form from our website. The completed application form should be sent to Prof T. Lerut, Chairman Membership Committee BACTS, Department of Thoracic Surgery, University Hospital Gasthuisberg, Herestraat 49, B-3000 Leuven.
The Board has recently decided that from now on new members can apply for either cardiac, thoracic, or cardio-thoracic membership. Furthermore, we would like to ask all current members to inform us on their subspeciality. Please complete this information on the separate sheet and send this form back to our administrative secretary in the provided envelope.
Website
The website has recently been refreshed with new information on the evolving things within our society. If you want to keep in touch with your society, the website is the ideal medium to see changes on a regular basis.
We would like to urge you the check and to complete your personal information at "http://www.ctsnet.org/members/index.cfm". If you do not already have your picture on your homepage, you are welcome to send us a recent photograph that will be scanned into your personal homepage. If you are planning to attend one of the international meetings (AATS, EACTS, STS), you can also visit the CTSnet booth to have your picture taken directly. As a member of BACTS, you have access to your personal homepage through a password to regularly update your information. If you don't remember your personal User ID and password, please contact our BACTS web editorial office, Department of Cardiac Surgery, UZ Gasthuisberg, Herestraat 49, B-3000 Leuven (phone +32-16-34 43 39, fax +32-16-34 46 16; E-mail carine.vandeweyer@bacts.org).
Mini-symposium on Minimally Invasive Thoracic Surgery
A mini-symposium on minimally invasive thoracic surgery will be organised during this year's First Surgical Week of The Royal Belgian Society for Surgery (KBGH/SRBC) that will take place in the Casino, Knokke on Friday, 28 April 2000 from 14.00 to 16.00 hours. You will find more information on the programme, the speakers, and the abstracts.
5th Congress on Cardio-thoracic Surgery
The 5th Congress on Cardio-thoracic Surgery will take place on Saterday, 18 November 2000 at the Sodehotel-Woluwe, Avenue Mounier 5, B-1200 Bruxelles. This meeting is open to members and non-members. The concept of the scientific programme this year will remain unchanged including featured abstracts and a state of the art lecture. This year's invited speaker will be a cardiac surgeon. Marc R de Leval from Great Ormond Street for Children, London, U.K. has accepted to give a talk on "Thinking beyond the third dimension".
CALL FOR ABSTRACTS: you are now invited to send your abstracts to Prof G. Van Nooten, Chairman of the Scientific Committee BACTS, Department of Cardiac Surgery, University Hospital Gent, De Pintelaan 185, B-9000 Gent. The deadline for receipt of the abstract is fixed on 1 July 2000.
RIZIV/INAMI Accreditation
Information on the accreditation by the RIZIV/INAMI of our National (BACTS) and other International Cardio-thoracic Surgical meetings (AATS-EACTS-STS-ESCVS-ESTS) is being updated regularly.
The European Board of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgeons
In 1996, the European Board of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgeons (EBTCS) has been founded in order to establish common standards for thoracic and cardiovascular surgery in Europe. The primary goal is the recognition by the European Union of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery as a monospeciality. This Board is lead by representatives of 3 European Societies: the European Association for Cardio-thoracic Surgery (EACTS), the European Society of Cardiovascular Surgery (ESCVS), and the European Society of Thoracic Surgeons (ESTS).
According to Article 19 of the Regulations, surgeons in established practice of at least five years at the time the Board was Founded, with independent responsability and meeting the other eligibility criteria, may be recognised without examinations. This option is available until 1 September 2001! I would therefore urge you all, who did not do so, to apply for fellowship under the so-called "grandfather clause". You can print the application form directly from the web address. All other surgeons will have to undertake a formal examination in either general thoracic or cardiovascular surgery (or both) to become recognised in one of the two (or both) categories. This year's interviews and examinations will be taken just after the ESCVS meeting in Dresden, 27-28 June 2000 for the Cardiovascular part and after the ESTS meeting in London, 3-4 November 2000 for the Thoracic part.
Surgeons accredited by the Board will receive a diploma recognizing them as Fellow of the Board of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgeons giving them the right to put the suffix FETCS behind their name.
Further information on the Regulations and Application can be obtained from the following address: The European Board of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgeons, P.O. Box 2023, 1990 AA Velserbroek, The Netherlands (phone +31-255 520 950; fax: +31-255 523 353; e-mail: ebtcs@wxs.nl).
Dirk Van Raemdonck, M.D.
Secretary BVCTH/SBCCT 1998 - 2001