info@arvd-symposium.org    

With this message the First International Symposium on ARVD on the Internet is officially closed. We would like to thank all participants and lecturers for their active contribution to this symposium. We are pleased to inform you that we had over 2100 participants registered during our congress, taking advantage of spectrum of interesting presentations and discussions.

The experience has been intense and vibrant, as it was actively reflected in the participation of the registrants from all over the world, who sent to the Discussion Forum their opinions, questions and clarified their doubts that were also actively answered by the most experienced researchers in the topic, from the most varied specialties and origins. And there were even more who followed with quiet interest all the presentations and debates made.

Once again, the power of the Internet, when used for these academic and scientific goals, has been proven by carrying out this event. Many colleagues are already veterans regarding their participation in these Symposia and Conferences through the Internet, and others have made of this their first experience.

The responses from cardiologists around the world exceeded our expectations, and clearly, this approach answered an unmet need and has major educational potential. Although we initiated the Virtual Cardiac Symposia with the idea of assisting cardiologists caring for patients with relatively infrequent cardiac conditions, we believe that this Internet-based educational approach will have similar applicability and value for cardiologists caring for patients with common cardiac disorders.

Unlike standard conventions and symposia that end when the last light is turned off in the conference hall, nothing prevents that our new colleagues may seize the teachings from this Symposium on the Internet, since all that has been published, including radio transmissions and the files of the Forum, remain available in the website. In fact, we still have new colleagues registering to get access to the LQTS Virtual Symposium from a year ago. We will keep current ARVD Virtual Symposium accessible for at least a year, contributing to further understanding and knowledge regarding this interesting disorder.

Once again, we would like to thank all the members of our faculty, who served with their expert knowledge so that the Symposium could excel as it finally did. The panelists who sent interesting questions that were replied day by day, especially by Drs. Guy Fontaine and Frank Marcus, pioneers describing this disease. We thank all the participants, without whom all the effort would have been meaningless.

We also would like to thank the team of the Akros Group, especially to Maria Isabel Ayala, Georgina E. Warlet, Ariel Guebel, Gabriela Hecht MD, Fernando Schapachnik BS, Martin Vidal, Celeste Justel, Susana Torok, and Alejo Schapachnik.
We very much appreciate financial support of this innovative form of education by Ela Medical and CV Therapeutics.

For us, this has been an extremely useful experience and the response obtained, generates strength for us to plan another Symposium of similar characteristics for the near future, which will deal with Atrial Fibrillation, to be held next October 2005.

Dr. Wojciech Zareba President

Dr. Sergio Dubner Director

Dr. Edgardo Schapachnik Director