If you were not in Skamania Lodge, you have truly missed something! From June 6-9, David Sahn had organized a terrific symposium-the 20th Annual Congenital Heart Disease in the Adult symposium -together with his co-directors Erwin Oechslin, Gary Webb, Craig Broberg and Pamela Miner. The beautiful environment inspired the faculty to give excellent talks and the participants were very enthusiastic and interactive.
The weather was beautiful upon arrival, which made the terrace with the terrific view irresistible. Sunday started with two parallel sessions, one on diagnostic methods and imaging and the other one with clinical case studies. Gary Webb, as moderator, made this a very lively and interactive session.
In the ISACHD lecture, I showed the campaign on patients lost-to-follow-up in the Netherlands, an enterprise that has been quite successful. A project like this could inspire other people to perform similar activities in their own region. For each country of course, the way to go will be different, depending on population characteristics, geographical factors and financial opportunities. Furthermore, cultural differences around the world are important for international communication. Various examples of the five dimensions of culture were shown, such as the "deflatable lady". I will write a separate newsletter on this topic. For all ISACHD members it's very important to realize the different habits and ways of communication amongst us.
Gary Webb presented the "ACHA Vision 2020", which addressed, amongst others, education and accreditation goals. Two patients presented their intriguing life story and personal experiences. In the afternoon we enjoyed an exciting debate between Mike Gatzoulis and Mike Landzberg on septal device closure in PAH. Mike Landzberg was irresistible as a rapper, while the whole audience was clapping the rhythm section.
During the next three days there were high-quality lectures on the right ventricle, heart failure, pregnancy, Fontan survivors, neurodevelopmental en psychological issues and anatomical problems. The workshops were extremely successful because of the well selected cases and the lively interaction with the participants. For the debate on "Every narrowing of the aorta should be dilated", Eric Horlick showed up, running with a sports towel around his shoulders, supported by blaring music and surrounded by four Toronto cheer girls. He wanted to compete with the handsome "Hugo Boss entourage", the group of young fellows I had brought with me from the Netherlands. It was decided that the word "every" should be avoided in future debates, otherwise I will never be able to win (unless I never accept the "pro" position again, which was suggested by Welton Gersony). Jane Somerville held a special and nice presentation on problems in setting up a GUCH center and Joe Perloff closed the course with the Mentor's Lecture on his impressive and unorthodox career.
The Sternwheeler Dinner Cruise, the fire ring with singing, guitars and bagpipe, and the group hike along the extremely wild water falls were other highlights of this course. What else can we do than to thank David Sahn and his co-directors for organizing such an exceptionally successful and unique course?! Just an advice: join this eminent course next year in Cincinnati!