Dr. Hisham Dokainish, Dr. Lawrence Rudski, and Patricia Pellikka at WES 2013, New Delhi, India
The second World Echo Summit (WES) was held from October 25-27, 2013 in New Delhi, India, and was a tremendous success. The WES is a biennial international echocardiography conference bringing together eight echo societies from around the world (India, China, US, South America, Europe, Japan, South Korea, Canada). The inaugural WES was held in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 2011 and was chaired by Dr. Roberto Lang of the USA, while this second WES was co-chaired by Dr. Partho Sengupta of the USA and Dr. J.C. Mohan of India. During this congress, physicians from around the world gathered together for three days of scientific sessions highlighting the strengths of the all nations in echocardiography, as well as their varied challenges. The conference started with a session reviewing the state of each echo society as well as interesting facts. Canada was represented by the Niagara’s Horseshoe falls, highlighting their resemblance to an annuloplasty ring, as well as a fusion between Montreal’s Olympic Stadium and the Saddle Dome, mimicking the mitral valve. This session was streamed live on YouTube and is available on the WES website (wsecho.org). Cutting edge talks as well as basic talks, and case presentations of pathologies that we never see in North America, taught us all valuable information. There was also a Young Investigators competition with original research entries from around the world. The CSE was represented at this meeting by Dr. Hisham Dokainish of McMaster University, who gave talks on speckle tracking and diastology and co-hosted an exciting Clash of the Continents Echo Quiz, in which Asia (India & China) and Pacific Region (South Korea & Japan) excelled over Europe and the Americas, while Dr. Lawrence Rudski gave talks on the right heart (with a twist) and pulmonary hypertension, and participated in a panel discussion/debate on the role of hand held echo systems. The CSE received much attention and there were calls for more collaboration between the CSE and the other seven major echo societies around the world. The 3rd WES is being planned for September 2015 in Beijing, which promises to be another exciting meeting of the minds.