Canadian Heart Failure Society a new affiliate of the CCS

Did you know that the Canadian Heart Failure Society (CHFS), led by society President and Libin Cardiovascular Institute Member Dr. Jonathan Howlett, is a new affiliate organization of the Canadian Cardiovascular Society?

The first annual general meeting of the Canadian Heart Failure Society will take place Tuesday, Oct. 25 at 5:30 p.m. during the 2011 Canadian Cardiovascular Congress (CCC) in Vancouver (immediately following the CCS Heart Failure Guidelines Workshop).

The Libin Cardiovascular Institute of Alberta proud to be a Gold-Plus sponsor of the 2011 Canadian Cardiovascular Congress!

UCalgary Faculty of Medicine professor chosen as president of Heart Rhythm Society

By Kyle Glennie

“I’m obviously delighted. Being a member of this society has enhanced my professional development and enabled me to provide better care to my patients with heart rhythm disorders.”

Dr. Anne Gillis - Photo by Bruce Perrault

While Dr. Anne Gillis may be delighted by her appointment as 2^nd vice president of the Heart Rhythm Society-a post that will eventually lead to her becoming president in three years-her patients and her colleagues at the University of Calgary Faculty of Medicine must be ecstatic.

The international leader in science, education and advocacy for cardiac arrhythmia professionals and patients, the Heart Rhythm Society (HRS) is the primary information resource on heart rhythm disorders. Gillis, a professor in the Department of Medicine and a member of the Libin Cardiovascular Institute of Alberta at the Faculty of Medicine, is only the second non-American to ever be chosen as president of the HRS.

The level of achievement Gillis has accomplished with this appointment certainly hasn’t been lost on Dr. George Wyse, one of her colleagues at the Heart Rhythm Society and a Distinguished Alumni of the University of Calgary.

“Being chosen as president of this major international society is an important recognition of Dr. Gillis personally, and also a recognition of the stature of the cardiac arrhythmia program at the Libin Institute and the University of Calgary.”

Five-year presidential track

The HRS’ clear cut government structure will see Gillis become the second vice president this year, then she’ll graduate to first vice president next year before moving on to president-elect, president and finally past-president in the three subsequent years.

Establishment of Cardiac Surgery at FMC – 1988

An excerpt from …

CARDIAC SURGERY AT FOOTHILLS

Originally published July 1988 in the hospital newsletter Quest

Dr. Teresa M. Kieser

“Lest we forget” – here lie the victims of office relocation to accommodate these [cardiac surgery] plans: ninth floor Audiology and Ophthalmology moved to the main floor; main floor Respiratory Technology, Doctors’ Lounge and the Business Department moved to the ground floor; main floor and south tower respectively. Ninth floor Neurophysiology Labs moved to the eleventh floor and ninth floor cardiology offices migrated to the eighth floor. Eighth floor OBGYN and Medicine offices moved to the second floor and second floor Finance and Histopathology moved to the South Tower and eleventh floor; finally ground floor Physical Plan Services and Material Management moved to Hawaii.

Note from blogger:

Subsequent investigations have revealed that Physical Plan Services and Material Management actually moved to the basement and not to Hawaii.

Watch for the next issue of Libin Life, the Libin Cardiovascular Institute of Alberta’s newsletter, for the full article. Should be ready for distribution mid-January 2009.

Dr. E.P. Scarlett – Calgary’s first heart specialist

Dr. E.P. Scarlett, honorary degree recipient, 1969 - Glenbow Archives PA-2446-17

1930 was an important year in the history of the Cardiovascular Sciences in Calgary. It marked the arrival of Dr. Earle P. Scarlett to the city, who most will agree was our first heart specialist. Dr. Scarlett brought with him the city’s first ECG machine, but also a variety of personal interests including, ironically, history.

Here’s an excerpt of what he wrote in Vol. 1 No. 3 of the Calgary Associate Clinic Historical Bulletin, dated November 1936 under the heading, “The Consolations of Medicine”:

The span of a physician’s life might be written in three phases (if we choose to be Olympian in our view). The first period comprises the ten years of training in college, medical school, and hospital. There follows the second stage – the early years of practice while he is becoming what is popularly known as established, eking out a small living, doing unpaid work in clinics and hospitals, above all never appearing to be unsuccessful, and, through it all, if he is to remain vital, virtually consuming his stores of youthful idealism against the day of his success. At forty or shortly after, he passes into the third period, achieving his professional success, is caught up in the whirlwind of activity in practice and medical organizations, takes his place in those activities in public life expected of him, educates his family with whom he endeavours to become acquainted in short summer vacations; whirled in the maelstrom of modern life, he struggles to keep up with the increasing tempo of medical practice, is invariably late for appointments, snatches a little vicarious pleasure in occasional sport, and in odd moments of contemplation smiles wryly at the words of Osler, the medical prophet of a more leisurely generation, whose counsel to the physicians was “aequanimitas,” a calm spirit, but whose master-word was “work.” And finally, as often as not, while he is still bewildered, or in a mood of frustration, or meditating retirement, there comes an early death (the average age of death of physicians, according to figures, being sixty).

It is little wonder then that at times there are outbursts against the tyranny of it all.

The read the rest of this article, Click Here.