Annual Report 2007

ANNUAL REPORT OF THE PAEDIATRIC CARDIAC SOCIETY OF SOUTH AFRICA, 24 OCTOBER 2007

1. INTRODUCTION

The Paediatric Cardiac Society of South Africa (PCSSA) is a voluntary association of paediatric cardiologists, cardiac surgeons, cardiac anaesthesiologists and paediatricians, all with an interest in children with heart problems. The objectives of the Society are to improve quality of care for children with congenital and acquired heart disease though promoting research and supporting education and training of children’s heart specialists. PCSSA is the primary advocacy group for children with heart disease in South Africa.

2. EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

President	Christopher Hugo-Hamman
Vice President	Steven Brown
Secretary	Deliwe Ngwezi
Treasurer	Steven Brown
Without portfolio	Jeff Harrisberg John Hewitson Ebrahim Hoosen

3. FINANCIAL STATEMENT FOR YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2007

The Society is in a healthy financial position with reserves having increased from R 290 000.00 to R 454 000 in the past fiscal year. The Annual Financial Statement for year ended 31 March 2007 prepared by our Treasurer Prof S Brown, is appended. After expenditure, reserves show a growth of 55 percent compared with 31 March 2005.

4. GUIDELINES ON ECHOCARDIOGRAPHY IN CHILDREN

The guideline entitled, “Standards of Practice for Echocardiography in Children in South Africa” has been submitted to SA Heart and South African Paediatric Association for comment and publication in the Journal of the SA Heart Association.

5. CHILDREN’S HEART DISEASE MULTIMEDIA EDUCATION PROGRAM

PCSSA has launched a “Children’s Heart Disease Multimedia Education Programme”. Our aim is to provide reliable and accurate multimedia and online resources for the dissemination of information on congenital and acquired heart disease in children. This web based project would initially target patients, family members and grow to meet the needs of medical and allied professionals.

The programme will address the unique needs of South Africans dealing with cardiac disease in children. To this end, resources aimed at patients and their families will place emphasis on providing a multilingual platform to cater for the diverse languages spoken in South Africa.

After advertisement to our membership, Dr Deliwe Ngwezi has been appointed Director of this exciting project.

6. RECOMMENDATIONS FOR CARDIAC CATHETERIZATION IN CHILDREN

In further recognition of our professional and ethical responsibilities, the PCSSA considered the development of guidelines for cardiac catheterisation in children in South Africa. The scarcity of Paediatric Cardiologists in our country and the limitations on public sector financial resources compared with Asia, Europe and north America, makes a strong case for the development of such guidelines. The PCSSA, with guidance of Dr Shakeel Qureshi, hosted a seminar on the development of these guidelines in Stellenbosch on the 28th of October 2006. Our thanks to Dr Jeff Harrisberg for convening the programme and to PARAGMED for there sponsorship of this meeting. The proceedings of this meeting ands the Recommendations are still in preparation.

7. NETCARE PAEDIATRIC CARDIAC SYMPOSIUM: OCTOBER 2006

Our annual scientific symposium was held in Somerset West between Sunday 29 October and 1 November 2006 within and parallel to the Annual Congress of SA Heart Association. The Symposium was organised by Prof Steven Brown. There was an excellent scientific faculty with University of Witwatersrand graduate and echocardiography giant Prof Norman Silverman retuning to South Africa from San Francisco, the internationally acclaimed interventionist Prof Ziyad Hijazi visiting from Chicago and the outstanding scientist and surgeon, Prof Emeritus at Great Ormond Street Marc de Leval, from the United Kingdom and Dr Shakeel Qureshi, Consultant Paediatric Cardiologist at the United Medical and Dental Schools of Guy’s and St Thomas’ Hospitals, London. Now in its 5th year, we are grateful for sponsorship received from NETCARE toward the Symposium. That sponsorship was passed directly to the SA Heart Congress Committee from PCSSA. It is with regret that we record that to date, 1 year after this Congress, the PCSSA has still to receive a share of the profit recorded at this Congress. This issue, together with the status of the Paediatric Cardiac Society at the Annual Congress of SA Heart and in SA Heart, is a matter presently being addressed through the President of the SA Heart Association.

8. PAN AFRICAN SOCIETY OF CARDIOLOGY/KENYAN CARDIAC SOCIETY CONFERENCE ON “HEART DISEASE, DIABETES AND STROKE IN AFRICA”

The PCSSA arranged and financed the paediatric programme for the “First Pan-African meeting on heart disease, diabetes and stroke in Africa”. This conference was held under the auspices of the Pan African Society of Cardiology (PASCAR) and Kenyan Cardiac Society in Nairobi between 13 and 16 May 2007. Speakers in the meeting included John Hewitson, Jeff Harrisberg, Phillip Bonhoffer from Great Ormond Street, James Wilkinson from the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne and Anna Olga Mocumbi from Mozambique.

The meeting was well attended with around 200 delegates from across Africa. To address intra-Africa collaboration, in an extra ordinary meeting, a Paediatric chapter of the Pan African Society of Cardiology was established with its first aim the creation of an internet based “African paediatric heart network”. The organizers hope to make this meeting a Biennial with the next in 2009 at a venue to be announced.

John Cushing the CEO of the international charity “Children’s HeartLink” attended the meeting and we are grateful for their sponsorship. We also acknowledge with thanks the generous sponsorship and support received from Mike Howe-Eley of Medtronic and Gary Pakes from Paragmed.

9. PAEDIATRIC INTERVENTIONAL CARDIAC CATHETERISATION WORKSHOP, SUNNINGHILL HOSPITAL 6TH – 7TH AUG 2007

In August 2007 the Paediatric Cardiac Society of South Africa, ran a workshop on interventional procedures in congenital heart disease. Dr Ziyad Hijazi from Chicago demonstrated and tutored participants on complex and challenging congenital cardiac conditions. Ziyad Hijazi is well published in interventional procedures, he coordinates and runs the annual PICS (Paediatric Interventional Cardiac Symposium) meeting - the largest interventional meeting on congenital heart disease held in the world. The Paediatric Cardiac Society thanks Netcare, all individual donors as well as the medical companies (Paragmed, Bracco, Boston Scientific and Statmedical) who generously contributed financially as well as all the individuals who gave their time towards making this meeting a success. Most especially we acknowledge the massive effort made by our colleague Jeff Harrisberg.

10. WORKSHOP ON PAEDIATRIC CARDIAC SERVICES IN SOUTH AFRICA –22 NOVEMBER 2007

We believe the PCSSA should take a leading role in setting objectives for the development of heart services for children in South Africa. To this end we will host a workshop on 22 November in Sun City. The workshop will have the following outputs:

• A document describing the burden of cardiac disease in children and their needs for cardiac interventions and surgery.

• An audit of private and public cardiac services for children in South Africa.

• A description of the institutional requirements necessary to run a successful paediatric cardiology and cardiothoracic service in the country and within regions.

• A presentation of the shortcomings in present service delivery.

• Presentation of the manner in which services ought to be developed.

• Create a platform through which we can "lobby" for the improvement of services particularly in the state sector.

Dr Christopher Hugo-Hamman
President PCSSA