There is no doubt that, over the last few decades, interventional cardiology has become one of the most advanced medical specialties in modern medicine making minimally invasive endovascular techniques—unthinkable just a while ago—available for patients, reducing risks, and speeding up recovery times.

Our country has also pioneered many other advances made. We just need to mention names like Dr. Julio Palmaz, MD or Dr. Juan Carlos Parodi, MD who, as we all know, invented the stent and aortic stent-graft, respectively. These were revolutionary devices that have been widely used and benefited millions of patients worldwide.

Twenty years have passed since the first transcatheter aortic valve implantation was successfully performed by Dr. Alain Cribier, MD. Since then, our specialty has not stopped growing and now we have all sorts of therapeutic options available for all kind of heart diseases. Today, we can say that with the abundance of technological advances with new devices and equipment, the sky is the limit regarding our interventional procedures.

Regarding continuous medical education, our specialty is no exception to the rule since our college is the only entity that can train specialists and guarantee quality standards by training and updating interventional cardiologists so they can perform all kinds of different therapies. Our college has been recognized by the Argentine Ministry of Health and has been training doctors for over 30 years not only in Argentina, but also in neighboring countries. Our teachers are highly specialized and have great experience in all areas, use simulators, and accredit centers where all these doctors do their residencies, which implies taking care of the entire medical personnel and patients involved in the cath lab.

Currently, keeping a “continuous medical education” program in our region is not easy due to several factors. However, the typical perseverance of Argentine doctors has made all the different therapeutic options available for our patients’ very many different heart diseases. There is no doubt that we face problems that complicate access to this education and training program to keep maintaining our specialty as one of the most renown ones in our country and the world. Therefore, all the different sectors involved should bring ideas and solutions to this problem to guarantee the training and constant update that today’s medicine requires always for the good of the population.

Our journal is a true example of this. Thanks to its constant growth, it plays an essential role stimulating health professionals to conduct studies and publish manuscripts of high scientific quality. These manuscripts are read by colleagues all accros the world. RACI English edition is very popular too, as well as its Twitter account, which is why it is very important to keep and support our journal as it heads into the future.

In this sense, we also believe that spreading contents to colleagues and the interventional cardiology community alike is essential, which is why we are working to optimize the tools we currently have. Soon we´ll have new means of communication available specially through social media.

This year, our new CACI Commission including colleagues who wish to keep looking for new roads to improve the routine daily practice of all the colleagues will be presenting new and important advances in our 32nd National Congress that will be held next December 2-4 at Termas de Río Hondo, Santiago del Estero, Argentina. We hope many of you will attend to keep promoting on-site events and enjoying scientific social events as it has always been the goal of our congresses.

All of us make our college what it is. And each one of us contributes differently to it. We should never forget where we came from and where we’re heading to. That iss why, I believe, we should all have a “proud feeling of belonging”.

Best wishes

Dr. Martín Cisneros, MD
President of CACI

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