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Gisela A. Kristono
Wellington School of Medicine
Otago Medical School
University of Otago
Evelyn B. E. Lesiawan
School of Medicine
Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences
University of Auckland
The Cardiac Society of Australia and New Zealand
Annual Scientific Meeting and Australia and
New Zealand Endovascular Therapies Meeting 2018
2–5 August 2018
Brisbane, Australia
The first half of August was quite an important time for the cardiology
community; rivaroxaban became funded in New Zealand and the
Cardiac Society of Australia and New Zealand (CSANZ) updated
its 2011 Heart Failure Guidelines. Perhaps most excitingly, early Au-
gust signified an opportunity to attend the CSANZ Annual Scientific
Meeting and the Australia and New Zealand Endovascular Therapies
(ANZET) Meeting in Brisbane.
The CSANZ Annual Scientific Meeting is a conference where health-
care professionals and researchers can present their work, learn
about updates in the field of cardiology, and have a chance to net-
work. The majority of the delegates were from Australasia, but it
was an international conference with speakers from the United States
and Europe. The ANZET Meeting was held concurrently with the
Australasian CSANZ conference. In previous years this was part of
the CSANZ conference, but, with the growing field of interventional
cardiology, organisers decided to host an inaugural conference dedi-
cated to this evolving subspecialty.
CSANZ and ANZET comprised of separate academic sessions and
combined social events that included a welcome reception, dinners,
a poster session, a cocktail night, and a “wellness walk” to maintain
participants’ cardiovascular health. The academic sessions for CSANZ
were often divided into streams that occurred concurrently, cater-
ing for a wide range of interests. These topics included clinical, basic
sciences, imaging, heart failure, arrhythmia, paediatrics, and multi-dis-
ciplinary. The ANZET conference was mainly aimed at challenging cli-
nicians with difficult clinical scenarios through live case sessions from
various Australian hospitals. ANZET also provided different topics
such as imaging, latest devices, and those currently being developed.
What was unique about this conference was that they offered practi-
cal workshops for hands-on experience of infrequently used devices.
Both CSANZ and ANZET had mini-oral presentations that occurred
during the lunch breaks and poster session. Evelyn Lesiawan present-
ed at the poster session, while Gisela Kristono presented at one of
the mini-oral sessions.
Many aspects of the meetings surprised us when we compared them
to conferences that we had attended in New Zealand. One factor
was the size of these two meetings – there were over 18,000 del-
egates in total! It was mind-boggling to see such a large number of
people who were all interested in one medical specialty. Instead of
free pens, many of the stalls had baristas serving free coffees, which
was certainly a clever incentive to attract doctors. The coffees were
also a much-needed perk, as some of the days started with breakfast
sessions very early.
We were able to attend these meetings due to our involvement in
cardiology research projects, and it was amazing to see the volume
and variety of research being presented. There were sessions on
summaries of clinical trial findings, discussions that were based on
past studies, and talks on speakers’ basic science or clinical research
projects. CSANZ also had a greater focus on genetics this year, high-
lighting the increasing role it plays in clinical cardiology. One memo-
rable presentation was a research project that used zebrafish to look
at the role of the TTN gene and its protein in dilated cardiomyopathy,
an often hereditary condition that can lead to heart failure.
The academic sessions broadened Gisela’s knowledge in cardiology,
which was previously only made up of her pre-clinical learning and
her research project. She saw images from an optical coherence to-
mography for the first time and learned which nutraceuticals were
most effective for lowering cholesterol levels. There were many in-
teresting research projects that were presented such as creation of
a microwave transcatheter to ablate the renal nerve, which has been
shown to affect blood pressure. There were also a few talks that
were more generalised and directly applicable to us as medical stu-
dents, one of which was on well-being and one on maximising your
chances of publication in academic journals. The well-being talk was
novel, as it included topics rarely discussed in student well-being talks.
One of these was how we all had a role to play in influencing the
culture of our workplace, which has been underestimated in how it
affects our colleagues’ attitudes and well-being. It was reassuring to
see that well-being was being discussed amongst doctors as well as
medical students.
A unique feature of the ANZET conference is their live case sessions
where the Prince Charles Hospital, Brisbane; Royal North Shore
Hospital, Sydney; and Royal Victoria Hospital, Belfast would present
their challenging cases to a room of health professionals. Following
the presentation they would propose a question to the room and
ask everyone to cast their answers through the conference applica-
tion on their phones. This was followed by a discussion throughout
the room. It was fascinating to see the different perspectives from
varying clinicians regarding how they would manage the same patient
or how they would navigate through difficult procedures. Despite
how interesting this conference was, it was difficult to follow these
cases as the hospital representative presented the most challenging
cases they encountered to gather other clinicians’ thoughts regarding
particular scenarios.
Evelyn was fortunate to attend the wet lab workshop which was an
extensive session learning about cardiac anatomy. What was particu-
larly useful about this session was that at each stage of the dissection
process the corresponding echocardiographic view was presented.
The various views provided by this imaging technique reinforced the
learning. Additionally, the session highlighted the aortic valve anato-
my in relation to transaortic valve replacement, which is a growing
procedure carried out in interventional cardiology. The wet lab work-
shop was helpful for supporting our knowledge of cardiac anatomy,
especially the relationship between the different aspects of the heart.
Both CSANZ and ANZET had prizes for research and case presenta-
tions. One of these prizes was the Geoff Mews Memorial ANZET
Fellows’ Prize for the best case presentation given by an interven-
tional fellow. Five finalists presented at ANZET, one of whom was
Dr Ben Wilkins, an interventional fellow from Wellington Regional
Hospital. He presented a case of a 67-year-old man with no previous
cardiac history, who, during the procedure, developed thrombosis in
the guide catheter and stents they deployed to treat his lesion. Ad-
ministering heparin to counter this was not successful, but bivalirudin
proved effective. We were proud that Dr Wilkins, being the only
New Zealand finalist, took home the prize.
CSANZ and ANZET ended their academic programmes with a very
useful joint session: “What’s hot and happening: coronary artery dis-
ease, valvular heart disease and beyond!”. Speakers from each stream
gave a summary of current knowledge and what the upcoming man-
agement options of several conditions were. This was a thought-pro-
voking session where experts highlighted the benefits and limitations
that clinicians needed to consider when using different drug therapies
and devices. Cardiovascular medicine is an evolving field and the spe-
cialty has several innovations currently in development for the diag-
nosis and treatment of several conditions. Unfortunately, many of the
new therapies discussed are not available in New Zealand. However,
attending this conference has made us aware of these treatment op-
tions for when they do become available in New Zealand.
Although at times we may have felt out of our depth, these meetings
were an incredible experience and they were a privilege to attend
as a medical student. Overall, this conference was a strong reminder
of the importance of research for advancing our medical knowledge
and techniques. We would highly recommend CSANZ and ANZET
to any medical student interested in this field, as these two meetings
definitely sparked our interests in cardiology.
Acknowledgements
(See funding)
Conflicts of Interest
Gisela is the 2019 Deputy Editor for the NZMSJ. This article has gone
through a double-blinded peer review process applied to all articles
submitted to the NZMSJ, and has been accepted after achieving the
standard required for publication. The authors have no other conflict
of interest.
Funding
Evelyn was supported by the National Heart Foundation, while Gisela
was supported by the University of Otago’s Postgraduate Research
Student Support Fund.
Correspondence
Gisela Kristono: [email protected]
Gisela A. Kristono
Wellington School of Medicine
Otago Medical School
University of Otago
Evelyn B. E. Lesiawan
School of Medicine
Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences
University of Auckland
The Cardiac Society of Australia and New Zealand
Annual Scientific Meeting and Australia and
New Zealand Endovascular Therapies Meeting 2018
2–5 August 2018
Brisbane, Australia
The first half of August was quite an important time for the cardiology
community; rivaroxaban became funded in New Zealand and the
Cardiac Society of Australia and New Zealand (CSANZ) updated
its 2011 Heart Failure Guidelines. Perhaps most excitingly, early Au-
gust signified an opportunity to attend the CSANZ Annual Scientific
Meeting and the Australia and New Zealand Endovascular Therapies
(ANZET) Meeting in Brisbane.
The CSANZ Annual Scientific Meeting is a conference where health-
care professionals and researchers can present their work, learn
about updates in the field of cardiology, and have a chance to net-
work. The majority of the delegates were from Australasia, but it
was an international conference with speakers from the United States
and Europe. The ANZET Meeting was held concurrently with the
Australasian CSANZ conference. In previous years this was part of
the CSANZ conference, but, with the growing field of interventional
cardiology, organisers decided to host an inaugural conference dedi-
cated to this evolving subspecialty.
CSANZ and ANZET comprised of separate academic sessions and
combined social events that included a welcome reception, dinners,
a poster session, a cocktail night, and a “wellness walk” to maintain
participants’ cardiovascular health. The academic sessions for CSANZ
were often divided into streams that occurred concurrently, cater-
ing for a wide range of interests. These topics included clinical, basic
sciences, imaging, heart failure, arrhythmia, paediatrics, and multi-dis-
ciplinary. The ANZET conference was mainly aimed at challenging cli-
nicians with difficult clinical scenarios through live case sessions from
various Australian hospitals. ANZET also provided different topics
such as imaging, latest devices, and those currently being developed.
What was unique about this conference was that they offered practi-
cal workshops for hands-on experience of infrequently used devices.
Both CSANZ and ANZET had mini-oral presentations that occurred
during the lunch breaks and poster session. Evelyn Lesiawan present-
ed at the poster session, while Gisela Kristono presented at one of
the mini-oral sessions.
Many aspects of the meetings surprised us when we compared them
to conferences that we had attended in New Zealand. One factor
was the size of these two meetings – there were over 18,000 del-
egates in total! It was mind-boggling to see such a large number of
people who were all interested in one medical specialty. Instead of
free pens, many of the stalls had baristas serving free coffees, which
was certainly a clever incentive to attract doctors. The coffees were
also a much-needed perk, as some of the days started with breakfast
sessions very early.
We were able to attend these meetings due to our involvement in
cardiology research projects, and it was amazing to see the volume
and variety of research being presented. There were sessions on
summaries of clinical trial findings, discussions that were based on
past studies, and talks on speakers’ basic science or clinical research
projects. CSANZ also had a greater focus on genetics this year, high-
lighting the increasing role it plays in clinical cardiology. One memo-
rable presentation was a research project that used zebrafish to look
at the role of the TTN gene and its protein in dilated cardiomyopathy,
an often hereditary condition that can lead to heart failure.
The academic sessions broadened Gisela’s knowledge in cardiology,
which was previously only made up of her pre-clinical learning and
her research project. She saw images from an optical coherence to-
mography for the first time and learned which nutraceuticals were
most effective for lowering cholesterol levels. There were many in-
teresting research projects that were presented such as creation of
a microwave transcatheter to ablate the renal nerve, which has been
shown to affect blood pressure. There were also a few talks that
were more generalised and directly applicable to us as medical stu-
dents, one of which was on well-being and one on maximising your
chances of publication in academic journals. The well-being talk was
novel, as it included topics rarely discussed in student well-being talks.
One of these was how we all had a role to play in influencing the
culture of our workplace, which has been underestimated in how it
affects our colleagues’ attitudes and well-being. It was reassuring to
see that well-being was being discussed amongst doctors as well as
medical students.
A unique feature of the ANZET conference is their live case sessions
where the Prince Charles Hospital, Brisbane; Royal North Shore
Hospital, Sydney; and Royal Victoria Hospital, Belfast would present
their challenging cases to a room of health professionals. Following
the presentation they would propose a question to the room and
ask everyone to cast their answers through the conference applica-
tion on their phones. This was followed by a discussion throughout
the room. It was fascinating to see the different perspectives from
varying clinicians regarding how they would manage the same patient
or how they would navigate through difficult procedures. Despite
how interesting this conference was, it was difficult to follow these
cases as the hospital representative presented the most challenging
cases they encountered to gather other clinicians’ thoughts regarding
particular scenarios.
Evelyn was fortunate to attend the wet lab workshop which was an
extensive session learning about cardiac anatomy. What was particu-
larly useful about this session was that at each stage of the dissection
process the corresponding echocardiographic view was presented.
The various views provided by this imaging technique reinforced the
learning. Additionally, the session highlighted the aortic valve anato-
my in relation to transaortic valve replacement, which is a growing
procedure carried out in interventional cardiology. The wet lab work-
shop was helpful for supporting our knowledge of cardiac anatomy,
especially the relationship between the different aspects of the heart.
Both CSANZ and ANZET had prizes for research and case presenta-
tions. One of these prizes was the Geoff Mews Memorial ANZET
Fellows’ Prize for the best case presentation given by an interven-
tional fellow. Five finalists presented at ANZET, one of whom was
Dr Ben Wilkins, an interventional fellow from Wellington Regional
Hospital. He presented a case of a 67-year-old man with no previous
cardiac history, who, during the procedure, developed thrombosis in
the guide catheter and stents they deployed to treat his lesion. Ad-
ministering heparin to counter this was not successful, but bivalirudin
proved effective. We were proud that Dr Wilkins, being the only
New Zealand finalist, took home the prize.
CSANZ and ANZET ended their academic programmes with a very
useful joint session: “What’s hot and happening: coronary artery dis-
ease, valvular heart disease and beyond!”. Speakers from each stream
gave a summary of current knowledge and what the upcoming man-
agement options of several conditions were. This was a thought-pro-
voking session where experts highlighted the benefits and limitations
that clinicians needed to consider when using different drug therapies
and devices. Cardiovascular medicine is an evolving field and the spe-
cialty has several innovations currently in development for the diag-
nosis and treatment of several conditions. Unfortunately, many of the
new therapies discussed are not available in New Zealand. However,
attending this conference has made us aware of these treatment op-
tions for when they do become available in New Zealand.
Although at times we may have felt out of our depth, these meetings
were an incredible experience and they were a privilege to attend
as a medical student. Overall, this conference was a strong reminder
of the importance of research for advancing our medical knowledge
and techniques. We would highly recommend CSANZ and ANZET
to any medical student interested in this field, as these two meetings
definitely sparked our interests in cardiology.
Acknowledgements
(See funding)
Conflicts of Interest
Gisela is the 2019 Deputy Editor for the NZMSJ. This article has gone
through a double-blinded peer review process applied to all articles
submitted to the NZMSJ, and has been accepted after achieving the
standard required for publication. The authors have no other conflict
of interest.
Funding
Evelyn was supported by the National Heart Foundation, while Gisela
was supported by the University of Otago’s Postgraduate Research
Student Support Fund.
Correspondence
Gisela Kristono: [email protected]
