COVID-19 resulted in confinement instead of a meeting for the European Heart Rhythm Association (EHRA) 2020 Congress
Many of us were looking forward to attending a successful EHRA 2020 Congress in Vienna from 29 to 31 March 2020. Shortly before this was due to take place, the COVID-19 pandemic broke out and changed the course of events worldwide.
The EHRA Scientific Programme Committee had worked hard to put together a programme with the theme ‘Joining Forces to Overcome Arrhythmias’. This involved identifying hot topics in arrhythmias, while delivering science and education in a variety of formats to make the content enjoyable and address the needs of a wide range of delegates. EHRA is a global community and we ensured that faculty members from all corners of the globe were invited. Whilst acknowledging the value of established colleagues to share their experience and knowledge, we also explicitly opted to provide opportunities to take the stage for younger colleagues. This was reflected in the average age of the faculty, which for the first time fell below 50 years (see Figure 1, left panel).
Figure 1.
Evolution of the mean age of the faculty (left) and proportion of women faculty members at EHRA congresses over the last 3 years.
Another objective was to have better representation of female faculty members in the programme (see Figure 1, right panel). Adjustment of the gender imbalance will no doubt continue to evolve naturally over the coming years, as more women enter our field.
Attendance at EHRA 2019 in Lisbon had increased by 41% compared with EHRA 2018, which had been negatively impacted by the introduction of restrictive Medtech rules which curtailed sponsoring of attendees. We were extremely pleased with the numbers of registrations for EHRA 2020 which was up by 34% compared with EHRA 2019 for the same period and may even have topped the record number of attendees (6000+) of EHRA 2017 in Vienna! Although COVID-19 was at that time not yet labelled as a pandemic, the EHRA leadership as well as faculty members were increasingly concerned by the health risks for participants.
Furthermore, day after day, it was clear that severe measures must be implemented, and that physicians and hospitals needed to ready themselves to deal with the epidemic. As such, many congress faculties had to cancel their participation in EHRA 2020. As a result of these factors and our responsibility to protect the health of our faculty, delegates, and staff, the EHRA Board decided that cancelling the congress was the only responsible course of action.
Nonetheless, to help the community stay up to date on the latest scientific developments in arrythmias, we have put together the essentials—scientific updates and publications—carefully selected and freely available in one place ‘EHRA Essentials 4 You’ part of the Essentials 4 You campaign—Your hub for the latest science on cardiology.
The platform hosts a variety of features such as late-breaking science presentations, publications of scientific abstracts (>400 to date), a collection of clinical cases, and presentations from industry partners. All content can be commented upon to enable interaction between authors and viewers, which is an essential element of scientific dialectics. The ‘EHRA Essentials 4 You’, will soon also feature the recordings of a new ‘Global EHRA Webinars’ series of webcasts with our international sister societies. These international webinars highlight the importance of international scientific collaboration in times of isolation and quarantine. The Essentials 4 You platform has already registered >10 000 views and will undoubtedly continue to attract visitors as content is updated.
The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted our social and professional environment. Social distancing and travel restrictions have necessitated teleworking and telecommunication. Some of these measures have proven to be both attractive and effective, and are destined to remain after the pandemic blows over. One may even question the need to maintain the EHRA Congress in today’s digital world. Nevertheless, the vibe one experiences in a room during an inspiring lecture, the ideas sparked from discussing with peers presenting their science, the pleasure of meeting up or bumping into colleagues and friends, and the convenience of being informed of innovations from the many industry partners grouped under the same roof cannot be replicated in a virtual environment.
Few of us prefer exploring Google Earth to travelling to an exciting new destination, or prefer browsing Google Images to visiting a museum to behold its treasures. The new EHRA Scientific Programme Committee, chaired by Isabelle van Gelder and Tom de Potter, will undoubtedly find inventive ways to adapt to new realities for EHRA 2021 from 28 to 30 March in Barcelona. With every challenge comes opportunity!
