CANADIAN ADULT CONGENITAL HEART NETWORK


	News & Event Archive Dr. Erwin Oechslin, President`s Message - Spring 2010 2010-04-10 CCS 2009 Consensus Conference on the Management of Adults with Congenital Heart Disease is published! The Canadians pioneered the development of... + read more What you missed from the 2009 Patient Conferences 2009-05-09 View the Presentations: Adult Congenital Heart Disease - Tsunami by Erwin Oechslin, MD, FRCPC, FESC Heart Failure by Dr.... + read more ACHD Guidelines Submitted! 2009-05-04 First of all, I congratulate Dr. Candice Silversides for her great job putting the entire document together. This was tremendous... + read more Poster Award for CACH Network! 2009-04-03 The CACH Network Poster entitled "A Contemporary Perspective on Eisenmenger Syndrome in Adults: A Multicentre Study" has received the Poster... + read more -------------------------------------------------- Sign-Up for Updates First Name Last Name Email Address Click here to unsubscribe			PRINT ARTICLE Dr. Erwin Oechslin is the new President of the CACH Network Date: 2009-03-18 On behalf of the Board Members, it is my great pleasure to welcome you each as a member of the Canadian Adult Congenital Heart (CACH) Network. First, I would like to thank the previous Presidents of the CACH Network, Dr. Gary Webb and Dr. Judith Therrien, the Board Members and all CACH Network members for their leadership role and proactive approach to improve the care for Adults with Congenital Heart Disease (ACHD) during the last 18 years. The Canadians were pioneers from the very beginning and aspired to maintain a leadership role in the improvement of care for ACHD patients. CACH Network is an umbrella for all caregivers in adult congenital heart disease (cardiologists, surgeons, cardiac anesthetists, psychologists, heart failure specialists, pulmonary hypertension specialists, interventionalists, electrophysiologists, nurse practitioners, etc.). Our goal is to improve clinical care and research in the field of adults with congenital heart disease across Canada. These goals require support from health professionals across the disciplines, administration of the hospitals, universities and the government. However, this support is suboptimal and does not match the increasing needs of the growing population of adults with congenital heart disease. Lack of Public Awareness Why are ACHD patients and their health care providers not adequately recognized? There are likely many reasons, but lack of public awareness, is certainly an important one. ACHD deserves much better public awareness. The medical and political community needs to recognize that ACHD patients are not a minority any longer. The adult population with congenital heart disease is larger than the pediatric population and there are more ACHD patients than patients with Parkinson disease, HIV or cystic fibrosis who have got public recognition. MPP Helen Jaczek announced a statement in the Ontario Legislature on March 3, 2009. This was a major event and an important step for the congenital heart disease community: ‘…In speaking to this issue today I want to highlight the need for health and quality-of-life improvements for those dealing with CHD’, Dr. Helen Jaczek said. To read the full statement click here. Goals In addition to focusing on improving public awareness of ACHD, I have the following goals which I would like to achieve during my Presidency: To improve the ties among the 15 CACH Network centres; To improve the ties between ACHD cardiologists and pediatric cardiologists; To strengthen the relationship with the Canadian Pediatric Cardiology Association; To strengthen the existing links with other national and international groups / societies / associations in the field of congenital heart disease; To promote multicentre research; To promote the importance of nursing in ACHD. As an initial step I have requested an affiliation (affiliate status) between our organization and the Canadian Cardiovascular Society (CCS) to improve visibility at the CCS annual meetings, to increase awareness among professionals, and to improve the profile of ACHD. Reorganization of the Board Reorganization of the Board is also a high priority in order to improve the effectiveness of our organization. I would like to increase the number of Board Members and assign specific tasks to each Board Member. A draft will be proposed to the members for suggestions and approval during this year. Update of the ACHD Guidelines The 2001 CCS guidelines on the management of ACHD are being revised under the leadership of Dr. Candice Silversides (Toronto) and Dr. Judith Therrien (Montreal). The updated guidelines are currently under revisions. Our goal is to present the 2009 ACHD guidelines at the CCS annual meeting in Edmonton (AB) in the fall of 2009. There are many challenges. Your personal active engagement in the CACH Network is needed to pursue our goals and to succeed. Each community strengthens its power by linking the ties among the members: *United we stand, divided we fall.* Erwin Oechslin, MD, FRCPC, FESC President, CACH Network