ESC Congress 2017 in Barcelona: Where the World of Cardiology Came Together.

Abstract

This summer brought cardiologists from all over the world to Barcelona, when the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) hosted ESC Congress 2017 in August 2017 (Figure 1). With 31 175 attendees from a record-breaking 153 countries and participants being able to choose from 780 sessions running in 28 parallel rooms, the 4.5-day event was 1 of the largest cardiovascular congresses ever. ESC’s call for abstracts attracted >10 804 submissions, of which 4514 (42%) were selected for oral or poster presentation. Interestingly, the country from which the most abstracts were submitted—and accepted—was not in Europe. It was Japan, which has held first place in abstract submissions for the last 7 years. The United States, Korea, and China were also among the top 10 abstract submitting countries—a fact that highlights the increasingly global character of this conference. Figure 1. The ESC Congress 2017 was hosted in Barcelona, Spain in August 2017 . For the educational component of ESC 2017 in Barcelona, >1574 faculty members from 74 countries had active roles. With ESC’s efforts to increase the role of women in the program, a record 24% of invited presenters were female, up from 20% in previous years. As is typical, 3 areas of the ESC Congress attracted particular interest. There was the regularly featured Congress Spotlight, which in 2017—in line with the 40th anniversary of the first percutaneous coronary intervention performed …