Young National Ambassadors – building the future of interventional cardiology together

Young National Ambassadors – building the future of interventional cardiology together

Gabor G. Toth, MD, Chair, EAPCI New Initiatives For Young Interventionalists Committee

The New Initiatives For Young Interventionalists Committee of the EAPCI was created with, as its central principle, the role of supporting young interventional cardiologists’ education and career goals. From the beginning, it was obvious that this aim could not be achieved without a well-functioning network, linking the young communities all over Europe and beyond. This was the idea behind setting up the network of Young National Ambassadors (YNAs).

After the first call for the term 2016-18 we selected YNAs representing 48 countries from Europe, the Middle East and Asia, reflecting a “worldwide” interest in being informed and a desire here in Europe and internationally to participate in EAPCI affiliated events.

YNAs are our first-line contacts when we want to reach the young communities on a national level for several key reasons: 1) to announce upcoming events, such as the Fellows Course; 2) to receive direct feedback, such as in the Survey on Interventional Training; or 3) to announce opportunities such as participation in building the programme for EuroPCR 2017. In addition, using this network, the young communities can also reach each other directly, allowing the creation of international cooperative projects in research or in training. Concerning the latter, we can see today some excellent examples, such as the efforts of Francesco Costa from Italy or Radoslaw Parma from Poland.

As this is only the first full term of the YNAs programme, we can say that it is in its infancy. Still, I believe that the results are very convincing and that this programme has already proven that the support of YNAs are really beneficial, not only for the New Initiatives For Young Interventionalists Committee and the EAPCI, but the whole young interventional community as well.

Gabor G. Toth, MD,

University Heart Center Graz, Graz, Austria

E-mail: [email protected]

http://www.escardio.org/The-ESC/ESC-Young-Community/Young-interventionalists/eapci-young-national-ambassador?hit=eij