AIMS

The European Association of Cardiothoracic and Vascular Anaesthesia and Intensive Care (EACTAIC) aims to be an educational world leader in cardiac, thoracic and vascular anaesthesia and critical care in adults and children including echocardiography, cardiopulmonary bypass, heart and lung transplantation and mechanical support of the circulation.

The Chair of the Education Committee is a permanent member of the EACTAIC’s Board of Directors and is responsible for the maintenance and development of the EACTAIC’s educational programme.

EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMME

• EACTAIC plans to extend its educational activities beyond the Annual Congresses and Echo Courses.
• Developing programmes for continuing medical education (CME) is an especially important challenge for EACTAIC that has the promise of creating highly useful educational tools for all members.

The EACTAIC education programmes include:

1. Formal Training:
   • EACTAIC Fellowship Programme in cardiac, thoracic and vascular anaesthesia and critical care.
   • EACTAIC Fellowship Programme in paediatric cardiac anaesthesia.
     EACTAIC-ESAIC Consensus Statement on Adult and Paediatric Fellowship Training in Cardiothoracic and Vascular Anaesthesia and Intensive Care
   • EACTAIC Exchange Training Programmes in:
     • Thoracic Anaesthesia
     • Critical Care Medicine
     • Vascular Anaesthesia
   • EACTAIC-ESAIC Limited Grants for the Specialist Exchange Programme in the field of Thoracic, Vascular Anaesthesia and Critical Care
2. Continuous Medical Education (CME)
   • eLearning
     • Webinars: click here for all the information and for upcoming and previous eventsWebinars
     • Fellowship Seminars Series: click here for all information for upcoming and previous eventsFellowship Seminar Series
     • Webcasts: click here to check the e-Academy and the updated content, including webcasts on COVID-19 Management, recordings from webinars, fellowship seminars, annual congresses and echo courses. Other educational material include:Webcasts & e-Academy
     • EACTAIC Annual Congress, Berlin, 2017, PowerPoint Presentation, Thoracic Panel
     • EACTAIC Annual Congress, Basel, 2016, PowerPoint Presentation, Cardiopulmonary Bypass Panel
   • EACTAIC YouTube Channel: Currently, EACTAIC offers free parts and full length of recording educational activities on the EACTAIC YouTube Channel
   • Pediatric Cardiac Learning Center:(funded by Cincinnati Children’s, 3333 Burnet Ave, MLC 2003, Cincinnati, OH 45229, The United States). EACTAIC is included as an exclusive partner with the Pediatric Cardiac Learning Centre (PCLC) for providing materials on paediatric cardiac anaesthesia.
   • EACTAIC aims to increase its visibility and develop its educational leadership in paediatric cardiac anaesthesia through a partnership with the PCLC since September 2017.
     • Masterclasses
       • Thoracic Masterclass (2019), Charleroi, Belgium (November 21-22, 2019)
       • ECMO and VAD Masterclass, Athens, Greece (November 25-26, 2022) [TBF].
       • Thoracic II Masterclass, Brussels, Belgium (March, 2024) [TBF].
     • Train-the-Trainer Courses:
     • EACTAIC offers the Train-the-Trainer Courses starting from the Annual Congress in Manchester 2018.
     • TEE Exam with the European Association of Cardiovascular Imaging (EACVI)
     • Refreshing Courses [coming soon]

RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE EDUCATION COMMITTEE

The Education Committee has the following responsibilities [read more in the EACTAIC Bylaws here]:

• Addressing training, accreditation and certification requirements
• Evaluating and endorsing the applications for accreditation and re-accreditation of the fellowship and exchange programmes.
• Developing continuing education opportunities, masterclasses, and refreshing courses in cardiac, thoracic and vascular anaesthesia and critical care, echocardiography, cardiopulmonary bypass, haemostasis and transfusion, transplantation, and mechanical assist devices.
• Conducting surveys of hosting centres and trainees for quality assurance.
• Developing the curricula for cardiac, thoracic and vascular anaesthesia and critical care
• Surveying educational sponsorship offerings in the subspecialties of CTVA, intensive care, perfusion, transplant and assist devices.
• Identifying financial resources for clinical fellowship grants.
• To chair the Educational Committee and coordinate the educational activities developed or designed by the Subspecialty Committees including but not limited to eLearning, educational webinars, seminars, masterclasses, and platforms.
• To assign educational tasks to the Subspecialty Committees.
• To delegate educational tasks to the task forces from the members of the Education Committee.
• To propose to the Board of Directors a short-term (2 years) and long-term (4-years) strategy for all educational activities.
• To maintain a comprehensive e-learning programme including devising new forms of e-learning for the EACTAIC e-Academy within the pre-defined budgetary limitations (e.g., educational webcasts, quizzes, interactive discussions, problem-based learning, videos, animations, presentations).
• To evaluate clinical fellowship and exchange training grant applications and solicit potential sponsors for the educational grants.
• To develop a programme for the Trainee and Train-the-Trainer Courses.
• To continually screen the opportunity to develop new fellowships and exchange training programmes.
• To monitor the quality of fellowship and exchange training programmes.
• To chair the Scientific and Local Organizing Committees of the EACTAIC masterclasses, webinars, and seminars, ensuring the inputs from the Subspecialty and Local Organizing Committees and being responsible for the timely composition of the program and assigning the lecturers and chairs on behalf of the Board of Directors.
• In cooperation with the EACTAIC Executive Office:
• To ensure that the EACTAIC masterclasses, webinars and seminars get EACCME accredited within the pre-defined budgetary limitations.
• To ensure that the board of directors’ transparency/conflict of interest policy by the Board of Directors is complied with for masterclasses, webinars, and seminars.
• To evaluate the quality of chairs and speakers of the EACTAIC masterclasses, webinars and seminars.
• To cooperate closely with the Subspecialty Subspeciality Committee Chair of the respective masterclasses, webinars, and seminars.
• To report its activities to the Representative Council.

EDUCATIONAL PLANS

• Plans 2018-2022
• Plans 2022-2025

PARTNERSHIP WITH INDUSTRY

“The Educational Committee has planned EACTAIC’s educational activities including e-learning modules, webinars, and masterclasses, for the upcoming years. We would like to share them with those parts of the industry that are interested in our medical subspecialties in the spirit of an “Alliance for Science”. The EACTAIC Board of Directors’ opinion is that such scientific educational activities will realise its vision of EACTAIC becoming the leading association in Europe for professionals working in cardiac, thoracic and vascular anaesthesia, critical care and perioperative medicine. In addition, these educational plans will support EACTAIC’s mission to ensure excellence in health care by providing high-quality education, promoting research and encouraging teamwork. As I said to you, one of our strategic thrusts comprise investment in learning and development: it is our opinion that this represents a great opportunity for a shared strategy between EACTAIC and you, where shared projects on new educational initiatives can bring us towards a strong mutually beneficial relationship with EACTAIC providing scientific competence and endorsement, and the industry supporting proposals/ideas related to your specific interest and field.

Look forward to your feedback on which of these proposals trigger your interest, and also to receiving proposals from your side.

We hope you will be willing to be our partner!!”