The Association for Acute CardioVascular Care of the ESC (ACVC) was established by vote at the General Assembly of the ESC Congress 2012 held in Munich, Germany.
The ACVC took over the role of our former Working Group on Acute Cardiac Care which had been created in 2000 under the chairmanship of Professor Yonathan Hasin. The Working Group was successively chaired by Professor Gerasimos Filippatos, Doctor Marco Tubaro, Professor Nicolas Danchin, and Professor Christiaan Vrints.
Professor Peter Clemmensen becomes the first President of the new Acute Cardiac Care Association.
The ESC Working Group on Acute Cardiac Care was formed to properly define the role of the cardiologist when managing acute patients in intensive cardiac care units (ICCU).
The scope of our work has become much wider and we have all witnessed great progress in the diagnosis and management of acute cardiovascular conditions. Over those 12 years, our focus has also evolved into a multi-disciplinary approach that brings together professionals from the majority of medical disciplines. As well as all of the cardiology sub-specialties, we have welcomed the excellent contribution of experts from emergency medicine, intensive care, anaesthetics, radiology, nursing, medical technology, paramedics, and many other healthcare professions.
Early 2011, the Working Group revised its objective to reflect the new scope and to extend our remit beyond the walls of the ICCU. Our new mission, to improve the quality of care and outcome of patients with acute cardiovascular diseases, is intended to encompass the period between the pre-hospital phase all the way up to the end of the first week of hospitalisation. It was agreed that this ambitious objective would be best achieved by forming a unique scientific body to facilitate the integration of experts and sharing of techniques in the management of acute cardiovascular care across Europe. This decision has directly led to the European Society of Cardiology establishing the new Acute Cardiac Care Association (ACVC).
The creation of the ACVC will be influential in guiding National Cardiac Societies towards a set of common standards for the delivery of state-of-the-art treatments to patients admitted to intensive care units. We are particularly grateful to Professor Christiaan Vrints, whose energy and enthusiasm for the project is gratefully acknowledged.
Our mission: To reduce the burden of cardiovascular disease.