Traveling to Barcelona for the 2009 ESC Congress

I'm packing for Barcelona tonight.  I'm also on first call, so I guess depending upon how many calls I get or whether or not I'll have to go out, I might or might not get there with the essentials. Someone asked me last week why I do this.  Why do I travel to Europe and two American meetings annually to blog late-breaking clinical trials, pursue interesting and helpful tidbits, don tennis shoes to run from meeting to meeting, conduct interviews and network with some of the brightest minds in cardiology and medical journalism today?  The answer?  It's  all about two important issues: one, to  bring YOU, the practitioner or the researcher,  the latest information to pass along to your patients or apply to your subjects, and two, to help ME keep up with advancements that I otherwise wouldn't have time to read about or listen to.

Don't get me wrong, it's been interesting for the last few years. I usually embrace cultural differences, or at least most of them although sometimes it gets a bit challenging.  Though Vienna was beautiful, I've never seen more human beings with smoke pouring from their mouths like chimney stacks in any other part of the world.  They  smoke more than the folks in downtown Paris (before they went smoke free that is)! I saw a naked man in the Turkish sauna/shower in Munich (long story, but suffice it to say, I was completely innocent and he wasn't phased a bit).  I  was flashed by a regular at a local park while riding in a rickshaw, and in the four hours of free time we enjoy during a typical meeting week, I've seen things like the Vasa in Stockholm,  royal jewels gleaming alongside the chandeliers of Vienna, and was lost in a rainstorm in a part of a Sweden where no one spoke my language. I ate white sausage once and more herring than I'd care to admit.   I keep on doing it  because these meetings are one of the most intense learning experinces I've ever had the pleasure of experiencing. I also love our team at theheart.org.

You see, I am just like you.  I work long hours as a cardiovascular healthcare provider and have little time to read, so  I depend upon theheart.org for my patients' well being. I know I can depend upon our heartwire journalists to get it right, condense it and present the news in a concise, readable, and digestible format. I know the information is  accessible anytime I need it, but more importantly, it's accurate.   I can use our search engine to research specific topics and I can tune in to hear what other cardiologists think is the most practical application of the information.  I can actually watch the Topolog with Eric Topol, who authored one of the most outstanding  textbooks of cardiology of our time, and listen to researchers like Bob Harrington give his slant on topics in his regular podcast. We always assemble the brightest and most dyanmic thought leaders in cardiology for our CardioPanels. I count folks like  Clyde Yancy as both an expert in the field of CHF but also a friend. I'll always cherish my time with the late Dr. Phillip Poole Wilson, a true gentleman and a true genius whose acquaintance I owe to my work with theheart.org.  We have information on anything that  anyone could ever need to practice cutting edge cardiology, but it isn't that way by accident.  Each meeting requires an exhaustive team of journalists, techs, editorial staff, directors, producers, videographers, coordinators, and photographers. It's quite a production, really, and to pull it off in a different country every year is challenging.

I can hear the sounds of suitcases zipping and laptop carrying cases snapping shut all around the world tonight in preparation for  an exhausting but exhiliarating week ahead.

It doesn't hurt that we are traveling to beautiful Barcelona as our setting this year. Make no mistake, first and foremost our business is to bring you as close to the ESC as possible. I look forward to information on BiV pacing, Factor Xa inhibitors, hypertension trials, congestive failure advancements, and left main stenting.  I saw something about pediatric risk factors for adult CAD which should provide us with more information to pass along to our patients.  I encourage you to click on to heartwire for late-breaking clinical trials,  video and audio programs to provide wrap- ups of  late breakers and other interesting presentations each day.

Theheart.org team may be far away from you but we are really no farther away than the click of a button.  Come along with us to Barcelona.  We hope you will enjoy our coverage of the ESC 2009 Congress as much as we will enjoy bringing it to you!

Your comments

	Traveling to Barcelona for the 2009 ESC Congress
	# 1 of 3	August 27, 2009 05:12 (EDT)
	Ghassan-S Kiwan	Dear Melissa Good for you that you are going to one of the most beautiful cities of the mediterranean.we will be looking forward for your comments and interaction as well as your updated informations. I do hope that this ESC session will raise many interesting issues and bring us good solutions.Mixing of cultures and getting the best of them is the most important thing in life and the most enriching for self education and advancement in cardiology. enjoy the sun in Barcelona and feed us of all news. Ghassan-S Kiwan
	# 2 of 3	August 28, 2009 03:10 (EDT)
	melissa	Ghassan-S, thanks so much for your well wishes.  I'm currently delayed in the airport in Nashville.  Weather related delays have already started with the hurricane coming up the coast, however I'm determined!!!  I love Barcelona, not only the city, but the people and and the food are wonderful.  They also seem to understand the few Spanish phrases I've mastered to get around!  The heart.org team will certainly do our best to bring you the best of the ESC!! Enjoy!! Melissa
	# 3 of 3	August 29, 2009 12:15 (EDT)
	melissa	The ESC starts in just a few hours and it appears I will be arriving a little  late.  Currently, I'm grounded in Atlanta but slept well last night.  Seeing the weather pattern coming up the coast, I predicted this might happen.  I packed all of the toiletries that security will allow, an extra change of clothing and a few magazines.  I saw a glimmer of hope last evening as Delta tried to put me through Madrid to Barcelona.  I ran full throttle through the airport pulling my heavy carry on and my computer bag to no avail. Alas,  I arrived at the gate about 5 minutes too late.  That long wait on the runway in Nashville ruined all hope of connecting on time for so many of us.   Oh well, All that anyone can do is to take lemons and make lemonade.   I enjoyed the company of several travelers standing in long lines and then renewed our temporary friendships this morning over breakfast.  Drawn together by  the common quest of international destinations felled by Hurricane Danny, we all offered support and encouragement with a little casual conversation. There was a Siemans rep who couldn't get back home to Frankfurt.  Two military gentlemen were also trying to make it back that way.   A vacationer from Prague and a Nashvillian looking forward to a week in Milan were also stranded. An internist here in Atlanta for a family reunion had a lot of questions for me after he struck up a conversation.  He just walked right up  and asked me what I do for a living.  30 minutes later, we had fully covered the direction Obama's health care plan should take, the need for a smoke free America, calcium scoring, mass screening of asymptomatic populations and the virtues of omega -3's.       Delta did try their best to get us where we was going.  An off- duty gate attendant spent 20 minutes trying to  route me from Nashville by booking my Madrid connection.  The international desk clerk in Atlanta tried unsuccessfully to get me into Paris, Stockholm, London, etc.  but though she could get me in, she could not get me out. We finally gave up at 8:30 pm last evening on a journey that started at 11:00 am.   So, except for clean sox, I have everything I need and am planning a 5:45 PM EST departure tonight for Barcelona.  I've used the overnight bag provided by the airline to do a little laundry (those sox take forever to dry, but I've baked them with the hotel room iron and hung them over the air vent to try, so I'm optimistic). Breakfast was ample and I'm currently attending Senator Kennedy's funeral by way of CNN.  I "I-chatted" with my husband and my girls so I feel like I've just visited them which puts off the homesickness for a bit.  So, lemonade it is after a day of lemons.  It matters not.  If this is the worst thing that ever happens to me in the course of my travels, I will consider myself blessed and lucky all at the same time.  I'll do my best to make up the few hours of tardiness to you and hope this meeting will be everything it promises!! Maybe the next post, I'll actually be sending it from sunny Barcelona!!!

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