| Danial Norjidi |
THE 22nd Asean Federation of Cardiology Congress (AFCC) 2017 continued with its second day yesterday at The Rizqun International Hotel.
The second day began with a keynote lecture on the diagnosis and treatment of Wolff-Parkinson-White Syndrome.
This was followed by some concurrent scientific sessions, including paper presentations and discussions, as well as live case sessions highlighting complex medical technology.
There were two lunch symposiums, one of which dealt with the topics of ‘Redefining treatment strategies in hypertension: Evidence based combinations that improve survival’ and ‘Heart rate at the core of heart failure management’. The other lunch symposium featured presentations on ‘Suitable patient population for the intensification of lipid lowering regimen: Insights from IMPROVE-IT’ and ‘Disease burden from a local perspective’.
Yesterday also featured a keynote lecture entitled ‘Cardiac CT – Emerging Applications in Ischaemic Heart Disease’.
The 22nd AFCC, organised by the Brunei Cardiac Society under the auspice of the Asean Federation of Cardiology, and involves the participation of over 600 faculty members and delegates from Asean, Australia, China, India, Europe and the United States to share information on health-related issues.
Dr Sofian bin Dato Paduka Haji Johar, the Organising Chairman of the 22nd AFCC said in an interview yesterday, “This is an excellent opportunity to learn from each other, and to hear from the invited experts.”
He highlighted that the conference allows participants to hear from experts from the US, Europe and Asean as well as from local experts about various aspects of cardiology. “In addition, we are showcasing some of the procedures that Brunei is doing at the moment, in order to highlight what is available in Brunei, and hopefully, we can all learn from that.”
On what he hopes to see result from the congress, he said, “I hope we provide some education, heighten the awareness of cardiac disease. We also hope to highlight what we can offer to patients in Brunei Darussalam.”
Speaking on the features of the Congress’ second day, he said, “We have a guideline session from the European Society of Cardiology. They have three invited experts from Europe: Michel Komajda from France, Bogdan Popescu from Romania and Diederick Grobbee from the Netherlands who will be talking about various aspects of cardiology in the session today.
“We also have a lecture from Christopher Kramer representing the American College of Cardiology. He’s talking about CT scan and emerging applications, which is basically a way of diagnosing heart problems and we’d like to hear his exciting insights into how we can help patients identify problems before they become a problem.”
Meanwhile, the Asean Federation of Cardiology President, Datuk Dr Richard Ng in an interview praised the Brunei Cardiac Society, saying, “They have staged a very successful and meaningful congress, having all the Asean speakers together and participants, as well as inviting overseas keynote speakers who can tell us the latest of the state-of-the-art in various aspects, whether it’s in surgery, in stenting, in medical care, and other aspects of cardiology.”
He also said that the event shows that Brunei Darussalam “can put up a very good, high standard congress for the region and this will not just encourage local confidence and participation, but will also be an inspiration to other newer Asean member countries that are even newer”.
Dato Paduka Dr Haji Mohd Isham bin Haji Jaafar, the President of the society also spoke in an interview. Speaking on the congress, he said that he hopes with the number of experts that have been brought in, people will “understand what’s available and what can be done in Brunei, and what we are doing, and they can see for themselves what we are doing here is actually on par with the developed countries”.
He also said that, from a medical point of view, they are hoping to enhance the visibility of the Brunei medical fraternity in Asean. “By doing this it not only allows us to share knowledge in Asean but also broadcasts or makes us visible in the whole of Asean for what we are actually capable of.”
The 22nd AFCC will be continuing into its third and final day today, covering talks and lectures ranging from ECG sessions, hypertension and the Asia Pacific Heart Rhythm Society.
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