President's Message – November 2015

International Union of Angiology: “The World Vascular Forum”

Dear colleagues,

As we head towards the end of 2015, we need to ensure that our plans are in place to attend the XXVII World Congress of the IUA, to be held in Lyon, France, from October 5th to 9th, 2016.

As was so well stated by Past President Peter Gloviczki in his address at the Opening Ceremony of the European Chapter meeting in Budapest in September, we are “The World Vascular Forum”. The IUA provides a key focus for scientific endeavour covering the complete spectrum of arterial, venous and lymphatic disorders, more so than any other international society dealing with aspects of vascular disease. The World Congress will be very relevant to all of the specialties and sub-specialties involved in the management of the wide range of vascular diseases encountered world-wide. We look forward to seeing all of our members (and potential future members) from across the globe at this very important IUA event in Lyon, October next year.

The XXVIII World Congress of the IUA will follow in Beijing, China in 2018. I had the privilege of recently attending the 2nd Chinese Chapter meeting, held in Beijing, October 22nd to 24th. IUA Executive Board members from outside of China who were also present in Beijing were Patrick Carpentier (who will be President following Lyon up to the Beijing congress), Tom Karplus (IUA Treasurer General) and BB Lee. We were most grateful for the hospitality shown to us by Professor Yong-Quan Gu and the local organising committee, and we congratulate Professor Gu and his team for putting on an excellent meeting of high scientific quality.

An Executive Board meeting was held during the Chinese Chapter meeting with the main focus of discussion being review of the preliminary plans for the XXVIII World Congress. Our Chinese colleagues have proposed holding the congress October 18th to 21st, 2018. This should be a good time of the year, and we all need to make note of that date now to ensure a strong attendance from all chapters in Beijing in 2018, and also, most importantly, to ensure that there are no competing IUA meetings around that time.

The European Chapter meeting in Budapest, September 6th to 9th, 2015 was another highly successful IUA Chapter congress, with Zsolt Pecsvarady and his organising team presenting a very comprehensive program. Our sincere thanks to Zsolt for all of his hard work in bringing this congress to such a successful fulfilment of key IUA objectives.

There is no European Chapter meeting in 2016, being the year of the world congress. The next ‘EuroChap’ in 2017 will be held in conjunction with the 3rd European Society of Vascular Medicine meeting in Vienna. The 2nd annual meeting of ESVM in 2016 is in Rome, May 8th to 10th, 2016, and this will provide a further opportunity to consolidate interaction between our two societies prior to the Lyon World Congress in October.

The 3rd IUA Summer Course for Young Vascular Specialists was held in Prague in July and was attended by 32 young vascular specialists from 15 countries. Thanks to Jan Pitha, together with dedicated support from 17 faculty members, for making this key IUA activity now such a successful annual event. The 4th course will be held from July 10th to 13th, 2016, again in Prague.

VAS, under the direction of Mariella Catalano, continues to be one of our most active affiliated societies. Key activities of VAS:

1. European advanced Postgraduate Course on Angiology-Vascular Medicine

2. Microcirculation of the Skin – Diagnostic Procedures

3. CESMA-UEMS European Exam in Angiology/Vascular Medicine (26 November 2015, Milan)

4. 12th European Angiology Days (27-29 November 2015, Uggiate Trevano, Como, Italy): Scientific Sessions, Discussion on VAS’ European Projects and Joint Session between VAS (Vascular Independent Research and Education European Organization) and the European Society of Microcirculation

5. VAS launches 4 Educational Grants:
- 2 VAS Prof Samama Grants for European Angiology Days

- 2 VAS Prof Bollinger Grants for Advanced Postgraduate Course – “Microcirculation of the Skin – Diagnostic Procedures”

For information please contact vas@unimi.it.

Best wishes to all.

John Fletcher
President, International Union of Angiology