The Origins Of The Mitral Conclave With Dr. David Adams (Part I)
By Adam Pick on May 8, 2011
Since Friday, I’ve received several questions from patients and caregivers in our community about the 2011 Mitral Conclave in New York City. To share more insight about the Mitral Conclave, I asked Dr. David Adams, the program director, to describe the origins of this very unique event. Here is what Dr. Adams shared with me.
So you know, this is Part I of my interview with Doctor Adams. Please stay tuned… In the next few days, I will be posting Dr. Adams’ response to one of your questions about mitral regurgitation disease and mitral valve repair.
For those of you who are hearing impaired, I have provided a transcript of this video interview below.
Adam: Hi, everybody. It’s Adam and we are coming to you live from the Mitral Conclave in New York City and I am very fortunate to be with Dr. David Adams who is the Program Director of the Mitral Conclave and, Dr. Adams, I just want to congratulate you on a great first day here at the Conclave. I don’t know the exact count of surgeons and cardiologists who are downstairs, but I’m curious. What was your expectation coming into today and how long has this been in the planning process to get all these great folks together to talk about mitral valve treatment?
Doctor David Adams, M.D.: Adam, it was an amazing day. I must say I get to go to a lot of meetings, but I’m really proud of what happened downstairs today. I’ll give you a little background. We’ve been wanting to bring the world leaders in mitral surgery together for some time and I had an idea to approach The American Association for Thoracic Surgery last year just a few weeks before the annual meeting and the AATS is really the — Their tagline is we promote scholarship in cardiothoracic surgergy so they are the organization to go talk to about something like this and in typical fashion, they saw the vision and made it happen, basically. They have an incredible ability to put this kind of meeting together and because they have their brand, their reputation for scholarship is so good, that made my life very easy because then all we had to do was figure out the 35 or 40 top mitral surgeons in the world we wanted to invite. They all say, “Yes.”
David Adams, M.D.: Our expectation was these meetings take a few years to take hold. We were hoping to put together a meeting where we would bring all the top schools in mitral valve surgery together where we could have learn from each other. We could learn different techniques, different approaches. We could review the guidelines, talk about echocardiography, talk about decision making, and leave after a few days, all of us enriched by all the wisdom from all these really experienced surgeons. Our goal was four or five hundred surgeons. We ended up with almost 900, over a thousand in attendance today so this has been a fantastic day. It was highlighted by Alain Carpentier giving the honored lecture. It was appropriate for the “Father” of the field to come to a meeting and see a standing room only crowd of over a thousand people waiting to hear him and it was just a – It was a magical day.
Adam: Well, I congratulate you on the success. It’s a privilege for me to be here.
Keep on tickin!
Adam
Written by Adam Pick
- Patient & Website Founder
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Paul says on May 9th, 2011 at 1:43 pm |
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Hello Adam, Writing once again from Paris, France on behalf of my Greek wife (stentless porcine aortic valve replacement June 2009), whose written English isn’t as good as mine, to congratulate you. Advances in cardiac valve relacement techniques naturally fascinate us. Indeed, my dear wife – although relatively young – chose the stentless option precisely because of her faith in this great progress, and its continuing evolution. We certainly appreciate your news on many subjects, and this account of a great meeting of minds and skills is inspiring, reassuring and welcome. Long live networking! And long live you and your blog! |
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