17^th ASCVP Annual Scientific Meeting and AGM - Convenor’s Report

The 17th ASCVP Annual Scientific Meeting and AGM were held on 17^th and 18^th November 2000 at the Centra Hotel in Auckland.

The scientific programme attracted more abstracts than could be accommodated, so the organising committee was fortunate to be in a position of being able to choose rather than coerce.

The major highlight of this meeting (there were a few) was the keynote speaker Dr John Murkin, Professor of anaesthesia at the university of Western Ontario who is well known to the perfusion community as a frequent lecturer at international perfusion symposia and also as co-convenor of the very successful Key West Outcomes Meeting. Dr Murkin gave three outstanding presentations; The role of glucose management in adverse outcomes after CPB, Towards safer CPB: Techniques and Technologies for the new millennium and OPCAB v CPB: Is there a benefit to avoidance? however the meeting was greatly enhanced by his friendliness, his humour and his cogent interaction both in conference discussion and outside the meeting room. In short he was a star!

We were also delighted to have three additional invited speakers on the faculty; Dr Simon Mitchell, Medical Director of the Brisbane Wesley Centre for Hyperbaric Medicine, Mr Peter Raudkivi, senior consultant cardiovascular surgeon at Green Lane, Mercy and Ascot Hospitals in Auckland and Dr Peter Ruygrok, interventional and transplantation cardiologist at Green Lane. The programme was completed with contributions from 14 perfusionists from throughout Australia and New Zealand and also the UK and USA. The standard of presentation was equal to any international perfusion meeting and reflects a continuing growth of innovation in research and experience at the podium.

The meeting was very well supported by the corporate sector and we are very grateful for their continued interest. Meeting sponsors were Medtronic, Intermed Medical Ltd. (NZ), and Edwards Life Sciences. Award sponsors were Terumo, Medtronic, Pall, Cobe and Michev Medical (NZ). In addition exhibitors included Abbott Diagnostics, Device Technologies, Jackson Allison Medical & Surgical NZ

The venue The Centra - Auckland was a new for this meeting. The Centra team was lead by Natalia Robb (f&b sales manager) and their innovation and expertise made the organisation easy and contributed greatly to the success of the meeting. The meeting room was well equipped and containing the trade exhibits in an adjacent room where lunch and refreshments were served worked very well for both delegates and exhibitors. The Te Pou Wakarairo Cultural Group preceded the social events on the Friday evening with a stunning powhiri (Maori welcome) and entertainment. There were Aussie blokes up doing the haka and sheilas twirling pois! The Friday night dinner following the Montana wine tasting was held in the Team Magic Yacht Club and bar - A taste of the Pacific – and was a wonderful celebration of Polynesian food. The Buffet Banquet on the Saturday evening was a more formal affair – until the Great Debate – The corporate sector is more important to successful CPB than is the perfusionist. This was argued paradoxically by CCPs McMillan (D), Farrar and Ibbott for the affirmative and corporates Libby Sinclair, John White and Mike Moran for the negative. Not surprisingly the winner was adjudged by Drs Murkin and Mitchell to be that icon of this event – moderator Terry Letchford. The energetic hit the dance floor to the sounds of Joker’s Wild and with some reluctance the meeting at the Centra ended at 1am for some and considerably later elsewhere for others.

I would like to sincerely thank the organising committee; Taryn Evans – Publicity and venue liaison, Jude Clark -registrar, Jill Knight – programme liaison, Nathan Ibbott - accommodation and Karen Edney - registration desk. They even ended up in the black!

Tim Wilcox
ASCVP 17th Convener