Cardiovascular course customised for Africa returns for second time

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Bringing together interventional cardiovascular specialists and cathlab staff from throughout the continent and internationally, the challenge to its participants is to adapt internationally recognised standards of care to what is appropriate specifically for the African environment in order to provide the best cardiovascular care possible throughout the continent.

With its unique pathologies requiring particular expertise, Africa poses distinct challenges for the cardiovascular community. The continent is extremely diverse, in both patient types and the kind and quality of infrastructures that exist. Human resources vary, making education and training some of the top priorities. The African experience is thus of great relevance and interest to other developing areas of the world, such as China and India, which have similar levels of diversity and developmental concerns.

Led by internationally renowned course directors Drs Farrel Hellig of South Africa and William Wijns of Belgium, with the assistance of both international and local course co-directors, the congress will provide specialists the opportunity of examining issues, exchanging ideas and clinical knowledge with specific relevance to the treatment of cardiovascular disease in Africa. It will focus on what is essential for providing the highest level of cardiovascular care in Africa today and will continue to build on a wide variety of themes identified during the first Congress in 2014.

Subjects

The course has been conceived as a dialogue within Africa itself, as well as with Europe and the rest of the world. All PCR courses are designed to be effective educational tools and AfricaPCR will offer a combination of African and PCR experience, with the goal of facilitating the exchange and expression of clinical knowledge and practice. Growing out of an in-depth analysis of unmet needs by the public and private sectors, as well as interaction with participants during last year's congress, this year's sessions will include:

• STEMI (myocardial infarction), and its effective treatment in different African regions
  
• Exploring solutions to the challenges involved in setting up cathlabs and managing patients in those areas with limited resources
  
• The treatment of high-risk patients, ASD / PFO closure, left atrial appendage closure and left main interventions
  
• Approaches to periprocedural pharmacology
  
• Special sessions for allied practitioners as well as the popular "interactive case corner", where participants share and discuss their cases in a small, intimate environment
  
• A world-class line-up of trade partners exhibiting at the event
  
• Industry-supported sessions which will include Case-in-Point sessions and interactive product demonstrations in the Training Village

Dedicated to improving the African experience, course director Farrel Hellig describes AfricaPCR as being composed of a "predominantly African faculty bolstered by expertise from Europe and America which represent healthcare environments that can be aspired to, but which will never be exactly the same as those in Africa itself."

The course co-directors include Drs Bernard Gersh (US), Sajidah Khan (South Africa), Tom Mabin (South Africa), Ganesh Manoharan (UK), Christoph Naber (Germany), Mpiko Ntsekhe (South Africa) and Harun Otieno (Kenya).

For more information, go to www.africapcr.com.