The British Cardiovascular Society (BCS) is a United Kingdom-wide health organisation based in London. It aims to represent all healthcare professionals working in the field of cardiology, set standards for prevention, diagnosis, and clinical care, and communicate those standards to the community and the patients through training, education and public outreach.
The first idea for the BCS came in 1910 by the Scottish cardiologist Sir James Mackenzie. At an Association of Physicians meeting in Oxford on 22 April 1922, the Cardiac Club was formed by 5 cardiologists: Carey F. Coombs, T. F. Cotton, John Cowan, A. G. Gibson (as chair), and W. E. Hume. It was founded in 1922 at the Club's first active meeting by 15 founder members — the original five plus ten others, including Thomas J. Horder and Thomas Lewis — and with one honorary member, namely Mackenzie. [1] In April 1937 it became the Cardiac Society of Great Britain and Ireland. In 1946 it became the British Cardiac Society.
It was incorporated (03005604) on 1 January 1995 as the British Cardiac Society. [2] It became the British Cardiovascular Society on 8 May 2006. [3]
It produces the Heart journal; this was established in 1939 as the British Heart Journal. The Editor is Catherine Otto. Another journal it produces is called Open Heart.
It is situated in Fitzrovia in the London Borough of Camden. It became a UK Registered Charity in 2002. Its membership (2,500) included doctors and nurses. It is an affiliate of the European Society of Cardiology. [4] The current President of the Society for the 2018–2021 term is Simon Ray, Honorary Professor of Cardiology of Manchester University. [5]
Cardiology is the study of the heart. Cardiology is a branch of medicine that deals with disorders of the heart and the cardiovascular system. The field includes medical diagnosis and treatment of congenital heart defects, coronary artery disease, heart failure, valvular heart disease, and electrophysiology. Physicians who specialize in this field of medicine are called cardiologists, a sub-specialty of internal medicine. Pediatric cardiologists are pediatricians who specialize in cardiology. Physicians who specialize in cardiac surgery are called cardiothoracic surgeons or cardiac surgeons, a specialty of general surgery.
Sir Magdi Habib Yacoub is an Egyptian-British retired professor of cardiothoracic surgery at Imperial College London, best known for his early work in repairing heart valves with surgeon Donald Ross, adapting the Ross procedure, where the diseased aortic valve is replaced with the person's own pulmonary valve, devising the arterial switch operation (ASO) in transposition of the great arteries, and establishing the heart transplantation centre at Harefield Hospital in 1980 with a heart transplant for Derrick Morris, who at the time of his death was Europe's longest-surviving heart transplant recipient. Yacoub subsequently performed the UK's first combined heart and lung transplant in 1983.
Avijit Lahiri is a researcher in cardiology in the UK.
Carey Franklin Coombs was a British cardiologist known for his work involving rheumatic heart disease and the eponymous Carey Coombs murmur.
Cardiac rehabilitation (CR) is defined by the World Health Organization (WHO) as "the sum of activity and interventions required to ensure the best possible physical, mental, and social conditions so that patients with chronic or post-acute cardiovascular disease may, by their own efforts, preserve or resume their proper place in society and lead an active life". CR is a comprehensive model of care delivering established core components, including structured exercise, patient education, psychosocial counselling, risk factor reduction and behaviour modification, with a goal of optimizing patient's quality of life and reducing the risk of future heart problems.
Sir James Mackenzie was a Scottish cardiologist who was a pioneer in the study of cardiac arrhythmias. Due to his work in the cardiac field he is known as a research giant in primary care, and was knighted by King George V in 1915.
John Eric Deanfield is a British professor of cardiology and past Olympic fencer.
Philip Alexander Poole-Wilson FRCP, FESC, FACC, FMedSci was a British academic cardiologist of international reputation who had particular interest in the management of heart failure. His research helped to identify the cellular mechanisms behind heart failure and was also important in improving treatment for patients. He was instrumental in raising the profile of heart failure as a major public health problem.
Professor Peter Sleight M.D.(Cantab.), D.M. (Oxon.) FRCP FACC was a distinguished and internationally renowned research cardiologist and an Honorary Consultant Physician at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford and the Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. Sleight was Emeritus Field Marshal Alexander Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine at the University of Oxford and an Emeritus Fellow of Exeter College, Oxford.
Walter Somerville CBE (1913–2005) was an Irish cardiologist who played a leading role in heart surgery at London's Middlesex and Harefield hospitals.
Ashok Seth is an Indian interventional cardiologist, credited with the performance of over 50,000 angiograms and 20,000 angioplasties, which has been included in the Limca Book of Records, a book for achievements and records from an Indian perspective. He is a Fellow of the Royal Colleges of Physicians of London, Edinburgh and Ireland and serves as the chief cardiologist, holding the chairs of the department of cardiovascular sciences and cardiology council at the Fortis Healthcare. Seth, a recipient of the Order of Isabella the Catholic, was honored by the Government of India with the fourth highest Indian civilian award of Padma Shri, in 2003, followed by Padma Bhushan, the third highest Indian civilian award, in 2015.
Arthur Jay Moss was an American cardiologist.
Sir William Errington Hume was a British physician and cardiologist.
Alexander George Gibson was a British physician, pathologist, and cardiologist.
John Crighton Bramwell (1889–1976) was a British cardiologist, professor of medicine, and one of the founders of cardiology as a specialist subject in the UK.
Brigadier Davis Evan Bedford (1898–1978) was a British physician and cardiologist.
Mark Edwin Silverman MD MACP FACC, was an American cardiologist, medical historian, medical educator and author of more than 200 medical articles and a number of books, who founded the cardiology program at Piedmont Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia.
Riaz Haider is an American physician, cardiologist, author, and medical educator. He is best known for his work and research in the diagnostic cardiac ultrasound, heart pacemakers, exercise stress testing, and heart catheterization. He is the former President of the American Heart Association Nation's Capital Affiliate, and served as a Clinical Professor of Medicine at the George Washington University School of Medicine & Health Sciences from 1984 - 2011. He is an elected Fellow of the American College of Physicians, the American College of Cardiology, and the Royal College of Physicians. He retired in 2011 and currently resides in Potomac, Maryland.
Harvey Feigenbaum is an American cardiologist known for his life-long work in the field of echocardiography. He wrote the first textbook on the subject in 1972, which is currently in its 8th edition, and has published over 300 articles. He has trained generations of cardiologists including many of the world's pioneers in the field through his numerous visitors, frequent workshops, annual courses in Indianapolis, Indiana beginning in 1968, the year when he started formal fellowship training He founded the field of cardiac sonography in 1965 and the American Society of Echocardiography in 1975. His seminal article on the diagnosis of pericardial effusions published in 1965 with his technique "brought echocardiography to the attention of thousands of practitioners".
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