International Surgical Meetings: Mutual Benefits From Joint Planning

The biennial meeting of the International Cardiovascular Society was held in Athens, Sept 6-10, 1981. The society was founded 30 years ago and membership has increased, with strong European, Japanese, Latin American, and North American chapters, and members at large in Australasia, Africa, and the Middle East. The North American chapter holds its annual meetings jointly with the Society of Vascular Surgery. Membership is structured to include qualified surgeons who are leading practitioners in the community as well as those with a strong academic background. A similar distribution of membership is found in the other chapters, and the programs every two years are enhanced by significant contributions by the European and Japanese surgeons, and by members from other countries. Programs are selected from abstracts of clinical experience with selected panels of internationally recognized members, with a balance between vascular and cardiac subjects. This society is the largest and most significant