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The Chinese American Heart Association (CnAHA) held an annual meeting on June 17th, 2007 in Seattle, Washington during the 18th Annual Scientific Sessions of the American Society of Echocardiography (ASE).
This is the second CnAHA meeting during the ASE. There were a total of about 60 participants, which significantly outgrew the 40 attendees last year during the ASE in Baltimore, Maryland. Participants were professionals with Chinese origin specialized in cardiovascular imaging using echocardiography from US, Mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore and other countries and regions.
The conference chairs, Drs. Shuping Ge, MD, Vice President of CnAHA, from Baylor College of Medicine and Texas Heart Institute, and Dali Fan, MD, PhD, Board member and Membership Co-coordinator of CnAHA, from North Shore University Medical Center, opened up the conference by welcoming all the specialists from the US and worldwide.
Ms. Anne Lagrande, CEO of Philips Medical Ultrasound and the sponsor of the conference, also addressed the attendees. She talked about her many years of experience in the Asian and Chinese market and her vision of the growing impact of the Chinese specialists in China and overseas on the ultrasound industry and healthcare.
Dr. Randy Martin, ex-president of ASE and current Chair of ASE International Committee delivered an enthusiastic speech to CnAHA members and participants. He reviewed the over 50 year’s history of echocardoiography and the important impact on the cardiovascular disease diagnosis, treatment and prevention. He stressed the importance of collaboration between US and China in this field and the potential role of CnAHA in such collaborations. He pledged his and ASE’s support to future exchange between US and Chinese echocardiography specialists and institutions.
Dr. Leng Jiang, MD, President of CnAHA, from Tufts University, gave a superb “the lay of the land of CnAHA”. Dr. Jiang spoke eloquently about the Missions of CnAHA and her and CnAHA’s vision to work closely with our members and other organizations to achieve these goals. She read the poems written to congratulate the CnAHA conference by Drs. Haozhu Chen, MD, a pioneer of cardiovascular medicine and Xinfang Wang, MD, a pioneer in echocardiography in China. You can read the poems at the CnAHA website (http://www.cnaha.org).
Dr. Navin Nanda, the Founding President of Association of Cardiologists with Indian Origin, from University of Alabama, also came to congratulate the event. He is an old friend of CnAHA. He shared his story of how their organization grew from a handful of members to thousands of members through their perseverance. It is always an inspiration to hear his talk.
Dr. Xianhong Shu, MD, Director of Echocardiography, from Fudan University/Shanghai Cardiovascular Institute in Shanghai, introduced the 15 professionals from Mainland China. She also gave a brief update on Echocardiography in China. Other specialists from China including Drs. Hao Wang, MD, PhD, Director of Echocardiography, from Fu Wai Hospital/Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Cardiovascular Institute and Zhi-an Li, Director of Echocardiography from An Zhen Hospital in Beijing, among many other prominent specialists who attended the meeting.
We are very happy to report that Drs. Shoa-Lin Lin, President of Taiwan Society of Echocardiography and his colleagues, Drs. Fun-Chun Lin and Fong-Lin Chen also attended the meeting, representing about 400 echocardiography specialists of their association. In addition, Dr. Fang Fang from Hong Kong and Dr. Poh Kian Keong from Singapore also came the conference.
Kevin Appareti, from Philips, gave a lecture on the development and potential applications of 3D transesophageal echocardiography. This is a novel technology and the first of this kind available with important application in intra-operative monitoring of open heart surgeries. The lecture generated a lot of excitement and heated discussions about this new technology and future applications.
We thank you for your participation in this exciting event. Special thanks for Grace Palma for her tireless work on the organization of the meeting, and Philips Medical Ultrasound for an educational grant to have made this conference a possibility.
Last but not least, we want to thank all of you to attend this meeting. Your support made this event an overwhelming success. We want to hear your feedback so that we can improve on future meetings. We hope CnAHA will play an important role in your professional life and will become a bridge to your friends and colleagues in cardiovascular medicine and research in the US, China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, and worldwide.
We want you to mark your calendar for the future CnAHA, joint, or related events:
1. The 1st Annual IEEE International Conference on Nano/Molecular Medicine and Bioengineering (August 6-9, 2007) in Macau, SAR, China
2. CnAHA/GW-ICC Symposium on Evidence Based Practice in CVD during Great Wall International Congress of Cardiology. (October 10-13, 2007), Beijing, China
3. CnAHA/ACRE joint conference during AHA Scientific Sessions (Nov. 3-7, 2007), Orlando, Florida, USA (Pending).
Once again, we thank you for all your support to CnAHA and your participation in this exciting event. We hope to see you in future meetings.
Shuping Ge, MD Dali Fan, MD. PhD.
Co-Chair Co-Chair
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