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Authorities of the Argentine Society of Cardiology and international societies, ladies, gentlemen, colleagues, family, and friends.
This is a great opportunity to recall a verse from a famous song by Vox Dei that many of you will remember, perhaps the younger ones will not, titled “Present”. The verse goes: “Everything comes to an end, nothing can escape, everything has an end, everything ends...”
However, I must say that when we started managing the SAC three years ago, it seemed endless and never-ending.
The workload increased in 2023 when I took over as president. The goals we set required hard work, which can only be achieved through joint effort, in agreement with the full Executive Board, the Advisory Council, and all the leaders of the different councils, areas, and staff of the Society. Our shared love for the Society aligns us in this endeavor.
We restructured the SAC by dismissing the General Manager and Administrative Manager on April 21, 2023, as well as the legal advisor. We also incorporated a new law firm, WNS & Asociados, with whom we negotiated an agreement with Alejandro Delle Sedie. As a result, we outsourced the SAC.23 Congress to Plan A, a company owned by Andrea Juncos. During this period, we have also designated the new manager, Dr. Analía Llanos. The administration underwent restructuring, which involved adjusting existing resources and incorporating new ones, without increasing the number of employees
New guidelines have been issued regarding the inclusion of young people and individuals from different districts. The Communication Area has shared guidelines for disseminating information through networks, and two new areas of the SAC have been created: Design Area and Website Area. Regarding SAC’s image, a new website is being designed and created by a company. The website will be managed by the web development and Design Area of the SAC. Additionally, a company is developing the SAC’s Trademark Manual. Despite the country’s economic crisis and inflation rate of over 145%, the cost of SAC increased by only 30%.
The RAC has a new website in HTML format, which is a requirement for being indexed. We have implemented on-demand courses and developed a cardiology course for non-cardiologists. There have been more than 46 courses this year.
Two new fellows were incorporated to the Research Area, and we launched a SAC fellowship, which was awarded to six winners receiving funding of one million pesos each. This year, the Rosenbaum Award for the Best Scientific Paper published in the RAC between July 2022 and August 2023 was granted $1 000 000 to the winner. We hope to be able to offer a monetary award in future years.
We have introduced new benefits for our members, including a 30% discount for retired physicians and a 12-installment payment plan for technicians. We encouraged young people to become members of SAC councils and areas at the end of the two-year course. We coordinated activities between SAC Young Community, Districts and CONAREC.
In October, we organized the SAC.23 Congress in collaboration with CARDIOSUR, a successful event with 12 087 attendees and 14 423 registered participants. The Imaging Congress, held once again onsite, was attended by 1200 registered participants
The Heart and Women’s Area presented a bill in the Chamber of Deputies to establish October 9 as Cardiovascular Disease (CVD) in Women Awareness Day.
As an institution, the SAC requested a hearing from the National Ministry of Health regarding Law No 27177, which establishes the creation of the National Institute for the Prevention, Diagnosis, Treatment and Research of CVD.
The accreditation of the SAC as scientific certifying board for specialty certification was renewed for 5 years until 2028.
We have released a joint statement with other scientific societies regarding the issue of medical fees and supply shortages. The statement received significant support and attention
We invited CONAREC to participate in the areas of the SAC.
We renewed the agreement with the UCA (Catholic University of Argentina) for the Diploma Course in Hypertension, Dyslipidemia and Cardiometabolism. We will sign an agreement with USAL (Universidad del Salvador) for the planning and development of academic cooperation activities. We are still working on our University Institute project.
We bought a CPR manikin for the Argentine Foundation of Cardiology.
Our districts organized 10 regional conferences, 8 workshops and webinars.
We conducted the third edition of the Sonqo Calchaquí Program in the indigenous peoples of Cachi in Salta, Colalao del Valle in Tucumán, and Fuerte Quemado in Catamarca.
At the international level, we were invited to participate in various activities organized by the American College (Congress in New Orleans). We also participated in the European Congress of Cardiology in Amsterdam, in an official joint session and in the presentation of the Daily Highlights. We were also invited to Latin American meetings in Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Paraguay, Chile, Brazil and Uruguay
We actively participated in the Congress of the Russian Society of Cardiology, as well as in India and Africa (Morocco). We participated in a joint virtual session at the GWICC (Great Wall International Congress of Cardiology of China)
For the second year running, through an agreement with the New York Chapter of the ACC, we awarded a scholarship to a resident for an internship in a hospital in New York, and a scholarship to attend the 2023 ACC Global Leadership Institute (scholarship for the Argentina Chapter of the ACC for leader ship training in Washington).
We have completed numerous activities thanks to our exceptional team of colleagues. I would like to express my gratitude to Executive Board, Board of Directors, and the Advisory Council for their support during my tenure as President.
I am also grateful to Marina and Analía Llanos for their support and dedication, as well as to the entire staff for their excellent work, and to Pablo, Gabriel, Silvia, Diego and Belén from the Executive Board.
Special mention goes to two people with whom we worked hard: Víctor Mauro and Hugo Silva. We spent hours at the Society planning the changes, working side by side. At night, we continued at the bar
Things go well because of the commitment we agreed to work from all areas and councils, I really would not finish this speech, but I thank them all. I also want to tell you that I will miss all of you in this board, and as I said in my opening speech, one makes many friends.
I am grateful to the pharmaceutical companies for their constant support for our courses and congresses.
Thank you very much.
Claudio Majul, M.D. MTSAC
President of the Argentine Society of Cardiology
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