These are exciting times for our organization. Our educational mission is taking off at great speed and I am delighted to report to our members that the following projects are progressing extremely well.
These are some of the activities we are currently developing:
1. ISCP Cardiovascular Treatment book series. In partnership with Springer, ISCP will produce a series of specialist books on cardiovascular pharmacotherapy (ideally 3 to 5 titles per year).
It is my hope that all governors and distinguished members of the Society will join in this effort. We will need you to contribute as book editors and chapter contributors.
Mak Khan, our Programmes Director, will soon let you have the list of titles we are planning to edit in the next three years.
2. Annual ISCP meeting in Chile. This event promises to
be a memorable one. Edgardo Escobar is working extremely hard with his colleagues in the Chilean Society of Cardiology to set the scene for a high quality scientific event.
The programme is truly outstanding and several governors have generously agreed to take part in the scientific event. We will be giving four Young Investigator Awards to outstanding scientific contributions in the area of cardiovascular pharmacotherapy.
3. We will hold annual ISCP meetings instead of the currently bi-annual events. It is my intention that these meetings take place in three or four carefully selected venues and be totally independent.
We need to work towards achieving this goal as this will allow the organization to develop several educational lines that are essential to fulfil our mission.
4. We are working with a new website provider to replace the website run by Thomson Reuters. Work is progressing well and we expect to have the new ISCP website up and running in April 2011. We cannot implement any changes to the old site due to contractual issues with TR.
I therefore apologise on behalf of ISCP for the inconvenience caused by the hibernating status of the old website.
Many other initiatives are currently being considered by the different committees that will help our society to achieve its educational goals. To have an independent voice is of paramount importance for the ISCP.
Independence from industry -albeit collaborating with it in an ethical fashion- and independence from other institutions -albeit establishing appropriate links- is in my view the right way forward.
Best wishes to all
JC Kaski
President