Please diarise the dates for our 2010 meeting. The Holistic Heart Care Congress will be held from 8-11 August 2010 at Sun City. Contact Sue McGuinness for more information. Tel +27 (0)11-4473876 and fax +27 (0)11-4428094.

Dr Anthony Dalby attended the the American Heart Association Scientific Sessions in Orlando, Florida from 14-18 November. Read his report.

The 10th Annual Congress of the Association was held from 22-25 October 2009. Visit the congress website for details.

Key documents tabled at the 2009 AGM are now available online, including the President's report and reports from branches, special interest groups and standing committees.

The Spring 2009 issue of the SA Heart Journal is now online.

European Society of Cardiology Meeting 2009, Barcelona. The ESC has become the largest cardiology meeting in the world with around 30,000 delegates attending.  This year SA Heart was granted a small stand in the members' zone at which our Journal and details of upcoming meetings were displayed.  Many interesting trials were reported during the meeting.  Amongst other South Africans who attended, Dr Tony Dalby has submitted this report.

Applications are invited for the fourth annual Louis Vogelpoel Travelling Scholarship. An amount of up to R15000 towards the travel and accommodation costs of a local or international congress will be offered annually by the Cape Western branch of the South African Heart Association in memory of one of South Africa’s outstanding cardiologists, Dr Louis Vogelpoel. Read more...

Visit the "Cardiology at the limits" website and access all the presentations in full mutlmedia! The login is "2019" and the case-sensitive password is "SAHeart".

HPCSA abolishes the “full private rate”: The Health Professionals Council has scrapped the Ethical Tariff, claiming to have “consulted extensively” before moving to drastically curtail professional incomes.

The Cardiosmart website was launched by the American College of Cardiology at its annual meeting in March.  It contains a wealth of information about all forms of heart disease and is easily accessible to patients and their families. Although the recommendations on the site are based on American Guidelines and may differ slightly from our own ESC-South African Guidelines, patients should find the website extremely helpful in understanding their heart disease and its treatment.  Please encourage your patients to explore the website.  The address is http://www.cardiosmart.org. Patients should be alerted to the fact that the quoted laboratory values are not in SI units.

SA Heart has put out a position statement on cardiac imaging with CT and MRI.

Applications are invited for the SA Heart Research and SA Heart Travel Scholarships.

Guidelines available:

Guidelines for Paediatric Echocardiography in South Africa.

Training in Cardiology - These guidelines govern training in adult and paediatric cardiology. A list of training institutions is also available.

Use of eluting stents. SA Heart Association recommendations.