Computing in Cardiology President’s Newsletter – January 2016

Dear CinC Attendee,

It is again that time of the year when we plan conferences. For that reason, I would like to bring you up-to-date on news related to CinC, including dates, deadlines and events, but also on initiatives which are new for this year, namely, the Clinical Needs Translational Award (CTA) and Special Sessions Proposals, as well as the recently introduced Mortara Travel Fellowships, see below.

First, I wish to thank the past President, Peter Macfarlane, as well as all others in the Board of Directors for their support and help during the 2015 Nice conference, which I was unable to attend for family reasons. Many thanks to all of you!

The Local Organising Committee in Nice, headed by Drs. Olivier Meste and Aline Cabasson, put on a hugely successful conference with a record number of attendees. On behalf of the Board of Directors, I wish to express our sincere gratitude to them and their team.

I would now like to bring your attention to the following:

Conference Proceedings

The 2015 Proceedings are now provisionally available on line, with direct access from the CinC web site. This year, we have made use of a new software tool for collecting papers and revisions which has required more work than expected. Unfortunately, this has led to a delay, for which we apologize, but all papers are now in their final form, and should be available for download within the next week (a notification email will be sent). Also, the papers will soon be available from the IEEE Xplore Digital Library. We are indebted to the Editor Alan Murray, and the IT team, particularly Sheri Prucka, for all of the work which they have put into the production of the Proceedings.

Web site

Last year, the Board decided to redesign the web site, so that CinC community interaction would be better facilitated. The new web site was launched a few days ago, with the hope that navigation and information retrieval have become easier and more functional. Many thanks to Dewar Finlay who is responsible for setting up the new web site. Feedback on the new web site is encouraged and should be sent to Dewar Finlay (d.finlay@ulster.ac.uk).

CinC 2016: 11-14 September, Vancouver, Canada

As many of you know, the 2016 meeting will be held in Vancouver, Canada, a magnificent city located on the West Coast of North America where sea and mountains meet. The conference will be held at the Vancouver Marriott Pinnacle Downtown Hotel, located in the heart of Vancouver. Further details can be found at http://www.tourismvancouver.com/cinc2016/.

NEW – Joint WG e-Cardiology ESC – CinC: Clinical Needs Translational Award (CTA)

With the aim of promoting and further stimulating the translational component of CinC research, a joint initiative between the Working Group in e-Cardiology of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) and CinC is being launched, named the Joint WG e-Cardiology ESC – CinC: Clinical Needs Translational Award (CTA). The paper which best addresses current clinical needs will receive the award, consisting of $500 dollars + €500 (funded by CinC and ESC WG e-Cardiology) which will be presented to the research team(s) behind the paper. To participate, a full 4-page paper must be submitted no later than April 15, 2016. A panel composed of researchers with a clinically oriented profile will assess the submitted papers. One of the winning team will have to present the paper at the plenary session on the last day of the conference. There is no conflict between the YIA and CTA as the first author can, if desired, participate in the YIA competition as a young researcher and be part of a research team entering the CTA. A diploma will be presented at the awards ceremony.

NEW – Special Sessions

In an effort to stimulate the dynamic nature of research, the Board has opened a call for CinC Special Sessions. The aim of special sessions is to offer conference attendees a window for promoting an emerging research theme. You are therefore invited to propose such a session by submitting the following information:

  • Names, email addresses, affiliations, and short biographies of the organisers who are expected to have a PhD or MD degree and a good publication track record in the proposed area.
  • Title of the session.
  • Aim and rationale for the special session.
  • A list of proposed speakers, together forming an oral session with 4 presentations. It should be emphasised that abstracts submitted for a special session will be subject to review just like any other submission.

Proposals should be emailed to the secretary Leif Sörnmo, leif.sornmo@bme.lth.se, no later than March 1, 2016. Proposals will be evaluated by the Board based on the timeliness of the topic, its uniqueness, and ability to bring together key researchers. The Secretary will notify the proposers about the outcome no later than March 15.

Mortara Fellowships

Dr. David Mortara, President of Mortara Instrument Inc., generously supports CinC by providing five Mortara Fellowships to young investigators, in addition to the annual sponsorship offered by Mortara Instrument Inc. These Fellowships take the form of financial awards which allow young presenters to participate in the CinC meeting when travel costs might otherwise limit abstract submission and attendance. The Fellowships are intended to offset up to $2000 of the cost of attending CinC for successful applicants who a) should be 32 years old or younger, b) do not reside in the country of the current year’s conference, c) have previously presented their work at CinC, and d) submit acceptable papers on the topics of ECG or Patient Monitoring, which may include mathematical modelling. Full details can be found on the website, but please note that applications for these fellowships require a full 4-page paper to be submitted by the time of the conference abstract deadline. This is an excellent opportunity for a young investigator qualifying for the award not to have the distance to Vancouver as a barrier in attending CinC 2016.

CinC Challenge

Similar to previous years, there will be an exciting PhysioNet Challenge, organized in co-operation with PhysioNet. The theme of the 2016 challenge will be: Classification of Heart Sound Recordings: the PhysioNet/Computing in Cardiology Challenge 2016. Participants wishing to participate will need to submit an abstract describing their work on the Challenge no later than April 15, 2016, and must attend the conference to present their work. Details on the challenge are expected to become public in early February, at http://cinc.org/ and, later in http://physionet.org/challenge/2016/.

CinC 2015 – Abstract Deadline

Please note that the abstract deadline is April 15, 2016. Please remember that all young investigators submitting a 4-page paper by the time of the abstract deadline, and attending the conference with their mentor/supervisor, will receive a 50% discount in registration, even if their paper is not submitted for YIA or selected as one of the four YIA finalists.

Facebook and Twitter

For a few years, the Board has had a Facebook page and a Twitter account. You can access the pages via https://www.facebook.com/ComputingInCardiology and https://twitter.com/CinC_tweets

See you in Vancouver!

I sincerely hope that you are planning to submit an abstract for CinC 2016 so that we can continue to ensure that Computing in Cardiology remains the top conference for those interested in the field. The Board of Directors looks forward to seeing you in Vancouver, Canada, in September 2016.

Pablo Laguna

President