A REPORT ON ICF 2011, 8th-9th October 2011, Pullman Hotel, Kuching.

This meeting was successfully carried out from 8th-9th Oct 2011. at Kuching's new Pullman Hotel. The event went well. we saw 49 Malaysian and 15 Thai interventionist in the room on Saturday morning and about 40 Malaysian and 10 Thais in the room on Sunday morning. Some of the Thais had to leave early to catch the Kl and then the Bangkok connecting flights to return home to the Thai province. There was a healthy mixture of senior and young interventionist, and they were able to interact and fellowship.
We saw about 16 cases presented by the Thais and about 20 cases presented by the Malaysians. Some cases were indeed very interesting, and we learned much from the cases. There were two lectures ( Prof Koh TH of Singapore on " Optimising DES results" and Dr Elvin Kedhi of the Netherlands on " Preventing Stent Thrombosis" ), which were also expertly presented and very informative.
The faculty ( Prof Ge JunBo - Shanghai, Prof TH Koh - Singapore, Dr Elvin Kedhi - Netherlands, Dr Kirti - Mumbai and Dr Wasan - Thailand ) was wonderful. They were very interactive and forthcoming with their very excellent suggestions and advice on the many clinical problems presented. They were very approachable and friendly, mixing freely with the delegates, both formally and informally. They were just great, these 5 experts.
The gala dinner on Saturday night saw a full attendance and everyone had a gala time. We ran out of wine, as usual. We also almost ran out of food, due to the many who came.
Pullman Hotel welcomed us well, and the service was good. They were very accommodative whenever we had something to discuss with them, like when the screens were too small, they quickly went out to find bigger screens.
The support from the Sarawak Heart Center, headed by Dr TK Ong, was very good. Dr Sim Kui Hian too was present on both days, mixing with one and all. Dr Ong's team also showed us some very interesting cases.
The sponsors also showed up in good number. I have never had to place up 14 exhibit tables, as I had to this time. Yes, some companies did not show up, but a record number of 10 showed up. It was good to know that JnJ Cordis ( having stopped their sales of the Cypher stent ), is still with us at ICF 2011, and still in the marketplace.
Of course Apxara travels and the secretariat Boston made my work so much easier, when they did all the food work, and I only had to provide some directions and leadership.
All in all, it made for a wonderful weekend to be amongst friends and colleagues, sharing our work together.
I must say that as with last year, the Thais are still ahead of us, in terms of standard of practice and we still have someway to go, to keep up with them. Our presentation skills also have to improve. There is room for improvement, although we have improved.
It was a wonderful weekend of cardiac intervention and interaction. I only hope that all returned home safely to their families and their work.
Hope to see all at ICF 2012, and let's see how to improve to make ICF 2012 even better. ( I have yet to see the feedback forms.