Digital learning and the future cardiologist

Report from the ESC Education Conference 2018 ... The European Society of Cardiology (ESC) is a leader in the field of cardiology education and has recently laid down its vision for how to improve education for trainees as well as certified cardiologists.1,2 Although the ESC has an action plan for how to integrate electronic health services into patient care,3 the rapidly evolving field of digital education has received less attention but has considerable impact on clinical practice. All cardiologists, and those in training, routinely use digital sources of learning and yet we lack an understanding of the challenges and limitations for integration of new technologies. There are also important opportunities to advance and stimulate a transformation in educational practice across the ESC. These topics were addressed at the 5th ESC Education Conference, held at the European Heart House in Sophia Antipolis (France) in January 2018. In this Cardiopulse article, we report a summary of the main conclusions of this meeting of National Directors of Training (representing 45 ESC countries), Young Cardiologists and patient representatives. The conference included workshops and plenaries on several key themes relating to digital learning and how we train the cardiologist of the future (Figure 1).