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Welcome: Dr L Steingo welcomed all the delegates.
Apologies: Prof A Mitha, Prof B Mayosi, Prof R Essop,
Prof A Doubell, Prof D Marx, Prof PJ Commerford, Dr O Thaning, Dr A Mbewu.
2. Matters arising from previous minutes: The minutes were accepted. Proposed Dr C Badenhorst. Seconded Dr G Cassel.
3. President’s report: Dr L Steingo reported back on his last year as President of the Association. See printed transcript. There were no questions arising from the report. Proposed Prof P Manga. Seconded Dr G Cassel.
4. Treasurer’s report: Dr R Jardine reported back on the Association’s finances. The financial status of the South African Heart Association remains healthy. Proposed Dr T Dalby. Seconded Dr A Horak.
5. Report back from Standing Committees (read reports)
a. Full time practice
Prof P Manga reported back. No questions arose. Dr G Cassel commented that many private practitioners were keen to be involved in the academic departments. However the reception of these offers was not enthusiastically welcomed by the academic staff in the Department of medicine at Wits University. He emphasised the need for public private partnership. Dr L Steingo agreed. It was agreed that 2008 should be the time to develop these relationships actively.
b. Education committee
Prof TM Mathivha reported back. Importantly she highlighted the current number of accredited training posts in cardiology. The numbers are small especially in the paediatric cardiology group where only 7 posts were accredited.
No questions arose. Dr G Cassel expressed his concern at the lack of specialists in the future. Dr A Horak mentioned that even if specialists are trained no jobs are available in the public sector and many leave to go overseas.
c. Ethics and guidelines standing committee
Dr T Dalby reported back. Dr L Steingo added that Multi Slice CT scanning had been discussed with Discovery in a very productive manner. He also mentioned that very few scans had been done since the inception of the pilot project. He also mentioned that the website would be further developed to allow better access to information.
d. Private Practice Committee
Dr A Stanley reported back on the year. Dr M Sender said he did not feel that the Specialist Advocacy Group was divisive. He felt Dr Stanley’s comments were unfair. Dr Stanley replied that the Association would benefit from a unified approach and expressed a wish that more members would be actively involved in these matters. Dr M Sender also expressed a lack of confidence in the South African Heart Association Exco and in the South African Medical Association Private Practice committee. (It was difficult to gauge support for this notion and this should be polled in the next quarter).
Dr D Smith raised the issue of the Discovery rate and Exco. He revisited the perception that Exco had misguided members re acceptance of this rate. Dr L Steingo emphasised that Exco had always followed the principle of freedom of choice but had initially advised caution when dealing with the Discovery rate. Dr T Dalby who co authored the original letter with Dr C Schamroth said that the letter had been misunderstood. He mentioned that it had been written in the early phase of the process before any degree of clarity had been reached.
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6. Report backs from Special Interest groups and Regions:
i. Special Interest groups (read reports)
a. Lipid Association of Southern Africa. Accepted
b. South African Cardiac Surgical group. Accepted
c. Cardiac Arrhythmia Society of South Africa. Accepted.
d. South African Society of Cardiac Intervention. Accepted
e. Paediatric Cardiac Society of South Africa. Accepted.
f. Nuclear Cardiology group had nothing to report.
g. Heart Failure Society of Southern Africa. Accepted.
ii. Regional branches (read reports)
- Johannesburg branch. Accepted.
- Cape Town Branch. Accepted. Noted that the first Louis Vogelpoel Scholarship was awarded to Dr S Lecour.
- Pretoria branch. Accepted.
- Bloemfontein branch. Accepted.
- KwaZulu Natal branch. Accepted.
- Tygerberg Branch. Dormant
7. Motions and points of discussion:
i. Funding and Discovery Health. This had been discussed under private practice matters.
ii. Cath lab registry.
Dr L Steingo made a short presentation on the project. Salient points were:
Monthly costs are expected to be in the region of R70 000 per month, which will be borne by the Association initially until the Registry can become partially self-funding. Exco agreed to appoint Mrs Elizabeth Schaafsma as the project manager, to drive the Registry project forward more aggressively and get the Registry rolled out and installed to all members.
The issue of who will capture the data is the biggest stumbling block going forward. There is a plan to get the hospital groups to support the project to a greater extent, especially with regard to data capture. It will be proposed that the hospital groups make it part of the cathlab nurse’s duties to enter the data into the Registry.
A new version of the Registry has been developed due to changes in technology over time and to make it more user-friendly. This version should be finalised by the end of February and then rolled out.
Projected costs will include ethics committee approval, contracts and legal opinions, travel expenses, and IT related expenses. A more formal management structure has been proposed, with a new Registry sub-committee being formed, comprising some of the original Working Group members and Exco members.
Mrs Elizabeth Schaafsma then presented an overview of the system with an analysis of some basic demographic features. This was well received.
A lively discussion then ensued with costs, practicability and compliance being discussed. Dr M Sussman expressed his concern over the viability of the project. Prof DP Naidoo expressed scepticism as to the database generating meaningful data without being driven as a research project.
Dr Steingo then called for a vote. The meeting decided unanimously to continue with the project with enthusiasm and to reassess progress in August, six months after the roll-out begins. Definite time lines have been drawn up. The potential benefit of the project was appreciated.
8. Introduction of new Exco members
Dr Steingo called for nominations for positions in Ethics and guidelines and Dr Makotoko was nominated by Prof T Mathivha and seconded by Dr L Steingo and elected to the Ethics and Guidelines Committee and Prof DP Naidoo was nominated by Prof Manga and duly seconded and elected to the Fulltime Salaried Practice Committee.
The Exco is unchanged with Prof B Mayosi as the new President. The composition of the standing committees is -
Education - Prof K Sliwa, Prof MR Essop, Dr T Mabin, Dr M Ntsekhe, Dr M Ntsekhe, Prof F Smit, Prof T Mathivha
Ethics and Guidelines - Dr T Dalby, Prof A Mitha, Prof J Brink, Dr M Makotoko
Private Practice Committee - Dr A Stanley, Dr S Dawood, Dr L Rampini, Dr N van Rensburg
Fulltime Salaried practice - Prof P Manga, Dr J Hewitson, Dr A Cilliers, Prof D Naidoo
Dr L Steingo once again thanked the Exco and wished Prof B Mayosi the best of luck for his term as president of the South African Heart Association. He then closed the meeting.
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