Dear ECHSA Members and friends,

During planning of this year’s meeting, we had hoped to be able to gather in the traditional fashion with a physical meeting in springtime Athens. But we also planned for a hybrid event with a possibility to participate on the same virtual platform, that worked so well last year. This we did realizing, that Covid and travel restrictions could still be with us.

As registrations for the physical meeting were slow to come and many of the invited faculty responded that they would only participate virtually, we asked you last week to let us know, if you intended to join the meeting in Athens. Your answers made it clear that the meeting would not have a sufficient number of attendees to be sustainable and to provide the physical experience of meeting everyone in scientific and social discourse, as we all desire. It is evident that concerns regarding the uncertainties of the pandemic and world affairs still loom.

For this reason, the ECHSA Board has decided that the ECHSA Annual Meeting 2022 will have to be in a virtual form only. This necessary decision was made with great regret, as ECHSA meetings are traditionally fruitful, informal gatherings of friends in which scientific exchanges flourish. We will now change the Scientific Program to a shorter version, taking place on 6 and 7 of May 2022, more suitable for the virtual format, while at the same time keeping an exciting scientific content and our ECHSA business meeting in the Spring, as stipulated by our bylaws.

The Scientific Program observes the customary framework of our Congresses. Professor Bertsimas of MIT, a world expert on Artificial Intelligence, will lecture on the amazing innovative uses of Machine Learning in Pediatric Cardiac Surgery. Professor Robert Anderson will lecture on the interaction of Cardiac Morphology with modern imaging technology. Other lectures by the Presidents of our collaborating Scientific Societies (CHSS, WSPCHS, and AEPC) will complement your research and clinical contributions, in the form of video, oral or e-poster presentations, and best–worst case reports.

We are also proud to host two Special Sessions, dedicated to honoring two long-time colleagues and friends for their immense contributions: Bohdan Maruszewski and Marshall L. Jacobs, both of whom are stepping down this year from their important roles as ECHSA Database Committee Chair and WJPCHS Editor, respectively. Furthermore, we have planned State-of-the-Art Sessions, on the topics of DORV, and the Lymphatic system, where leading experts will be sharing their insight and experience.

The Meeting will be concluded, as customary, with reports by the Database and Research Committees providing updates on the exciting developments and achievements of this past year, the ECHSA Presidential Address, and, lastly, our ECHSA Business Meeting.

We invite you all to be part of this experience, by registering as well as submitting your own abstract contributions. We thank you in advance for your understanding and continued support of ECHSA and its activities, and look forward to welcoming you to the ECHSA 2022 Annual Meeting.

With our best regards,

Morten Helvind
ECHSA Secretary General
Chair of the ECHSA 2022 Annual Meeting Organizing Committee

George Sarris
ECHSA President
ECHSA 2022 Annual Meeting Local Host