The 2020 cohort marks the seventh year of the World Heart Federation Emerging Leaders Programme and will focus on the prevention of cardiovascular disease among people living with diabetes. Applications are now open until 16 February 2020.

The Programme, developed by WHF Past President Professor Salim Yusuf in 2014, provides training and networking opportunities in cardiovascular health policy and implementation research for healthcare practitioners, researchers, and global health advocates. Focusing on a different priority area each year, the objective of the training module is to reduce the global burden of cardiovascular disease in line with UN Sustainable Development Goal 3.4. Our 150 strong expert community has so far tackled a number of issues, including secondary prevention of cardiovascular diseases, raised blood pressure, tobacco prevention and control, access to essential medicines, stroke and heart failure.

WHF aims to reach as many potential candidates as possible on a global basis. Candidates from academia, civil service, private industry and cardiovascular medicine are encouraged to apply. Candidates may be affiliated with a WHF Member organization, but this is not mandatory.

All Emerging Leaders participants will be required to participate in online training, a five-day think tank seminar from 20-25 September 2020 in Lisbon, Portugal, and collaborative group work based on proposals developed during the seminar with seed funding support from WHF from meritorious applications.

If you are interested in applying, please visit www.whfel.org and make sure your colleagues and connections are aware of this opportunity. The closing date for applications is 16 February 2020.

For any further queries or information about the programme, please email emergingleaders@worldheart.org.

Prof Solly Levine and Pat Commerford have been nominated by a number of members for this honour and after due consideration the Board agreed to award this to them.

The Board has also agreed to bestow Honorary SA Heart Membership to all past presidents of SA Heart® in recognition of the work they have done for and time invested in the society. This special cohort of past-president Honorary members of SA Heart® is invited to remain actively involved with a special project they identify post their term, and/or with supporting the current leadership with advice, time and guidance.

The certificates were handed over during the AGM. Here you can see (from left to right) Mrs Laurel Wozhele-Muparadzi and Dr David Janekelow (President SA Heart) with some of the awardees, Dr Len Steingo, Prof Liesl Zühlke, Prof Karen Sliwa and Dr Adriaan Snyders. 

For more information, the programme and to register visit www.saheart.org/congress2019 

#saheart2019 #saheartforyou

A comment published in the Nature Reviews Cardiology .

Africa is witnessing an epidemic of cardiovascular disease (CVD), with staggering morbidity and mortality. The spectrum of CVD includes hypertension, rheumatic heart disease, cardiomyopathy, atherosclerotic disease, congenital heart disease and tuberculous pericarditis. Opportunities exist to alter the trajectory of CVD epidemiology but require committed policy makers, functional health systems and an engaged citizenry

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41569-019-0269-z

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41569-019-0269-z

Celebrate by joining the second World Heart Day Walk and Fun Run organised by the cardiology department of Charlotte Maxeke Hospital.

Johannesburg, 27 September at 7h00 WITS East Campus. 

Our annual congress has a variety of pre-congress workshops to choose from. 

Follow this link to register for the congress or any pre-congress workshop.

The first full week of August marks "Rheumatic Fever Week" in South Africa every year, with the intention of raising awareness of rheumatic fever and rheumatic heart disease throughout the country.

Learn more with these infographics

 on its committees. SAMED nominated Jaco as successor to Mr Rob Millar who held this post for several years, after Rob resigned from working in industry.

With qualifications and a background in pharmacy and drug therapy, Jaco moved to marketing and financial and business management and joined the medical industry some 19 years ago. He held leading positions in a number of well-known companies. Jaco is currently the country manager for Edwards Lifesciences.

In his editorial Prof Ntusi discusses Integrity in science and scientific writing and accountability of individual authors. A contribution from the Editors’ Network of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) then also  provides commentary on accountability of authors.They indicate that authorship confers credit and important academic rewards, but also argue that authorship requires responsibility and accountability.

Capistrant and colleagues explored whether there was a difference in the determinants of hypertension prevalence, diagnosis and control in individuals aged 50 years and above between South Africa and Ghana, and found that South Africans had higher age-standardised prevalence rates for hypertension. The main determinants of the prevalence of elevated blood pressure included rural residence, educational attainment, bodyweight and income.

Russel and co-authors studied the utility of admission bloodglucose for predicting major adverse events in hospital and 6 months post-discharge in acute myocardial infarction patients in a single-centre study from Durban.

Dellar et al explored the levels of knowledge on cardiovascular disease (CVD) in HIV-infected South African surgical patients attending a public hospital and found that the level of knowledge on CVD in publicsector surgical patients infected with HIV was poor. The authors suggest health promotion targeting CVD in HIV-infected South African patients.

Weich et al describe the first case of transcatheter aortic valve prosthesis implanted intoa calcified native mitralannulus (TAV-in-MAC) in South Africa. This is now a viable treatment option for mitral valve replacement in patients with severe annular calcification who cannot under go mitral valve replacement surgery.

Fan and colleagues present a rare case of extensive Stanford Type Aaortic dissection extending from the ascending aorta superiorly to the carotids and inferiorly to the infra-renalabdominal aorta in a 34-year-old male with history of hypertension and tobacco use. The patient presented withacute chest pain, dyspnoea, slurred speech and altered mental status. The authors review the efficacy of imaging using computed tomography in this clinical entity and remind us of the seriousness of aortic dissection.

Drs Greyling and Potts present a case of atrial flutter ablation through the azygous continuation in a patient with mirror image dextrocardia and interrupted venaca vain the Image in Cardiology section.

Test your skills with the popular EGC quiz.

The deadline to sumbit abstracts for the PASCAR/SA Heart/ AfricaPCR/ AHN / CMR congress is 7 July 2019.

Submit your abstract online and don't forget to register. 

For the provisional programme click here