Heartbeat

The new Heartbeat Conference Centre (HEC) at Southampton General Hospital, which is funded and run by Wessex Heartbeat, is continuing to grow in popularity as a major conference facility in this area.

Formally opening in February 2007, the HEC was created by local charity Wessex Heartbeat and amongst it's aims the centre provides a purpose built facility to help in the training and development of staff at the hospital's Wessex Cardiac Centre, which the charity has supported for over 15 years.

In April this year, the centre was chosen to host a groundbreaking 2 day conference in which the state-of-the-art facilities were shown to their ultimate effect. During the conference, entitled ‘Ebstein's Anomaly - A Comprehensive Approach', live surgery was demonstrated to the watching delegates in the 120 seat lecture theatre, via the video conferencing facility and triple screen projection.

Ebstein's Anomaly is a rare anomaly which has a wide range of forms and can present at birth or later in life. Treatments, both surgical and cardiological, vary from centre to centre. This conference allowed some of the world's experts to explain treatment options and watch live surgery via video link to the conference centre. This enabled the gathered group of consultants and senior trainees to have a deeper understanding of this complex and rare disease, and hopefully will allow for improved treatments for these patients in the future.

The conference was attended by over 70 consultant cardiologists and senior and trainee surgeons involved in the management of patients with this condition and speakers included recognised experts from the UK, France, Canada and the famous Mayo Clinic in the USA.

The organisers of the conference Dr Marcus Haw and Dr Nicola Viola, both based at the Wessex Cardiac Centre, explained that the facilities of the HEC were ideal for the conference:

"The facilities offered by the Heartbeat Education Centre have allowed the attendants to meet this great group of undisputed experts in Ebstein's Anomaly in a comfortable and friendly environment. But in addition live surgery was brought right to them in the conference hall, where everybody could interact with the surgeons in a way that only selected surgeons normally would. This was the highlight of the meeting." said Dr Nicola Viola

Conference organiser and Southampton cardiac surgeon, Mr Marcus Haw, explained that the facilities of the HEC were ideal for the conference: "‘We are very grateful to our colleagues from overseas who made this conference so memorable and to the Heartbeat Centre for the use of their fantastic facilities. I think everyone attending this symposium has gone away with an enhanced understanding of a very difficult subject. That can only be good for patients in the long run."