Cardiovascular CT society holds first annual meeting

The CME-accredited courses introduced new CT technology and techniques and offered discussions of typical and unusual cases.

ARLINGTON, Va. — The Society of Cardiovascular Computed Tomography held its 1st Annual Scientific Meeting in July, here.

More than 800 meeting attendees could participate in lectures about technical principles and limitations of cardiovascular CT, interpreting CT data sets and clinical indications for CT scanning. In addition, meeting organizers planned a didactic track of sessions for new users of cardiac CT and an advanced track for more experienced users.

The Society of Cardiovascular Computed Tomography’s (SCCT) mission is to foster optimal clinical effectiveness of cardiovascular CT through education and development of evidence-based guidelines, ensure state-of-the-art application of CT, support research efforts, serve as an advocate within all aspects of the health care industry and cultivate relationships with cardiovascular, radiology, vascular surgery and vascular disease societies.

The SCCT president is Stephan Achenbach, MD, assistant professor of medicine at the University of Erlangen in Erlangen, Germany. The society was founded in March 2005 and is based in Damascus, Md.

A growing society and meeting

Presenters included President-Elect, Michael Poon, MD, director of cardiovascular medicine and integrated imagining at Cabrini Medical Center in New York; Daniel S. Berman, MD, director of cardiac imaging at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles and professor of medicine at David Geffen School of Medicine at University of California, Los Angeles; Tracy Q. Callister, MD, director of the Tennessee Heart and Vascular Insitute in Henderson; and Paolo Raggi, MD, professor of medicine and radiology at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta.

Norbert Wilke, MD

The meeting was important for cardiologists involved in imaging because they need to understand modalities other than nuclear and echocardiography, said Norbert Wilke, MD, founding member and board member of SCCT. This first year has “absolutely met my and my associates’ expectations. This is one of the most impressive first annual meetings in terms of participants…,” Wilke said.

In future meetings, he expects more discussion on better image quality, patient care and treatment decision options, patient comfort, radiation dosage, risks and reimbursement.

“We need also to expand and offer this information and invite more subspecialties, such as vascular biologists, CV surgeons, pediatric cardiologists, vascular surgeons, [emergency department physicians], preventive medicine physicians, internists and [family practitioners]…,” Wilke told Cardiology Today. He is an associate professor of radiology and medicine and chief of cardiovascular MR and CT at the University of Florida in Jacksonville.

The Center for Continuing Education at Tulane University Health Sciences Center, located in New Orleans, jointly sponsored the meeting, which was held in cooperation with the 7th International Conference on Cardiac CT. –by Lauren Riley

For more information:

• Visit the SCCT Web site at: www.scct.org.