APSIC, ready to jump!

Abstract

Asian Pacific society of Interventional Cardiology (APSIC) was first conceived by a group of cardiologists from the Asia Pacific region, at a PCI meeting in Sydney, Australia. Four months later in July 1993, the first official meeting of APSIC was convened in Singapore in conjunction with the Third SingLive Course. Followed by a series of augmentation, the Society was officially registered on 17 November 2000. The former purpose to form the APSIC aimed to promote interventional cardiology, particularly in the field of coronary intervention, in the Asian Pacific region. Over the past decade, the Society has met its goal in promoting the development of percutaneous vascular intervention in many of its membership countries. Mutual collaborations and technical assistance within the membership nations of the Society and external support from many Western nations have helped in the maturation and growth of vascular intervention, especially percutaneous coronary intervention in many membership countries in the Asia Pacific region. ACC i2 Summit Cardio Vascular Research Foundation (CVRF) The Paris Course on Revascularization (EuroPCR) Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics (TCT) The Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions (SCAI) Angioplasty Summit-TCT Asia Pacific – Korea Asian Interventional Cardiovascular Therapeutics (AICT) – go by nations China Interventional Therapeutics (CIT) – China Complex Catheter Therapeutics (CCT) – Japan MyLive – Malaysia Singapore Live Course – Singapore In 2006, we felt that APSIC has matured adequately to organize fellowship convocation yearly and the first convocation was held at the Asian Interventional Cardiovascular Therapeutics (AICT II) in New Delhi, India. Following this, the Second Convocation was also held in association with the AICT III and MyLive in Kula Lumpur, Malaysia. Then, the Third APSIC Convocation was accomplished in conjunction with the Angioplasty Summit-TCT Asia Pacific 2008 in Seoul, Korea. And this year, the fourth fellowship convocation was just completed in conjunction with the Complex Catheter Therapeutics (CCT 2009) in Japan. During my presidency, I thought it's the right time to set up a permanent office to cope with our expansion. Since March 2007, we launched the permanent secretariat office in Hong Kong which in accordance with its geographic location in Asia Pacific is the strong support for Ms. Joe Chan, the Executive Secretary. To cope with our new direction, I introduced a new format of the council and it won the majority quorum from the member countries/nations. This new format represents a higher stature and reputation of APSIC with the expansion and establishment of various committees such as the Nominating Committee, the Honorary Board, and the post of Executive secretary. Whilst the formation of Credentials Committee, the Scientific Committee, Business Affairs Committee, and Audit constitute the Executive Committee. The new council was successfully functioned and has taken an important role in the election of the next presidency which we designed at maintaining our continuity and quality of the leadership. Dr. Shigeru Saito is one among the top leaders representing interventional society in Japan, especially in CTO area. Also, from the history of APSIC, we can see that Dr. Saito had greatly contributed to the Society Constitution at the beginning of the era. Because of this reason, Dr. Saito has an inner feeling that APSIC is like his child, and I'm sure that under his vision, dedication, and commitment to our Society, the APSIC will be far more realized as one of the global interventional societies under the great leadership of Dr. Saito. I strongly believe that our society already reached a more mature level, with the functional system and rules in place. With immense support of the next presidency from Japan and the member countries/nations, we will once again dream about the jumpstart to the greater future of APSIC in the Asia Pacific.