Visiting USA XII

Shigeru Saito, MD, FACC, FSCAI, FJCC
ShonanKamakura General Hospital

日本語はこちらです。

Attending the TCT meeting

I flew to Washington DC, USA by ANA direct flight from NARITA on October 22nd Sunday 2006 and arrived around 9:00 AM on the same day. After checking in the Renaissance Hotel, which was arranged to Faculty members by CRF (Cardiology Research Foundation), I went to have a lunch.

TCT meeting is a big live demonstration course for the treatments of heart diseases. It is run by CRF. All of the new treatment modalities based on new ideas are first presented in TCT meeting. Almost 100,000 people join the meeting from all around the world. I am one of the international faculty members for many years for TCT. Every year, my roles during the meeting are getting busier and busier. My first role was a lecturer during the TRI session between 13:00 and 17:00 on Sunday. I was denoted to talk about “TRI in AMI patients”.

After finishing my first role, I quickly moved to the next my role place, which was a case presenter during the session of “Chronic Total Occlusion: Basics and Advanced Techniques” between 05:58 PM and 06:13 PM.

October 23rd Monday 2006

Monday was again a busy day. I joined a meeting discussing how to develop a simulator for TRI training with Dr. Yves Louvard in a hotel from 10:00 AM. From 19:00 to 21:00, I participated in “Costar Global Investigator Meeting” as the Principal Investigator for Japanese Costar Drug Eluting Stent Trial.

After finishing my role, I hurried to have dinner together with Dr. Kimura, Dr. Aoki and Dr. Mori. All of them are studying in CRF in New York. This time, it was more exciting since we had Dr. Takebayashi from Fukuyama Jyunkanki Hospital as well, who finished his study in CRF a few years ago. The time with them are always funny and exciting. I can always recall my splendid days when I used to be still in my 30 years of age, if I spend time with them. They have a lot of opportunities, capabilities and talents. It was really wonderful time with them.