WELCOME LETTER

Dear Colleagues,

Modern health care systems across the globe, irrespective of their geography, organisational structure and economic status, aspire to deliver effective, readily available, easily accessible, safe, qualitative and efficient health care services to those in need. Nonetheless, this endeavour has been more challenging than ever before, due to a combination of prevailing demographic, technological, societal and economic trends.

Despite immense efforts over the past decades many inequalities, gaps, and inefficiencies exist in the care of citizens across and within different countries and socio-economic groups, creating a sub-optimal and unacceptable reality. The aforementioned impose a vivid need to develop new sets of personal and organisational skills, to challenge the status quo, to share learnings and best practices, to change our way of thinking and to find innovative approaches to the health care business.

The management in cardiology forum will bring together a plethora of stakeholders, including health care professionals, managers, academics, decision and policy makers, as well as analysts, from a variety of geographical and institutional settings. The forum will give them the opportunity to interact and to exchange ideas, knowledge, experiences and best practices around health policy, health economics, health management, and health leadership matters.

In particular, well acknowledged and reputable leaders will analyze and discuss in depth the dynamics and trends in the epidemiology and burden of disease, the evolution and appraisal of new medical technologies, the role of information and data, and the factors determining the effective organization and financing of healthcare services.

The course, on the other hand, will also focus on themes such as leadership, management, change, innovation, partnership, human resource handling, and motivation. Through the active and interactive engagement of aspiring leaders with a multi professional and multicultural group of professionals, this event is bound to be prolific for all the parties involved.

In this context, allow me, on behalf and as Chair of the Organizing Committee, to invite you to Vienna next June.

Prof. Panos E. Vardas MD, PhD (London)
Professor of Cardiology, University of Crete
Immediate ESC Past President
Chairman European Heart Agency (ESC) Brussels