Celebrating a journey of 75 years: highlights from the Cardiological Society of India’s Annual Conference of 2023

The 2023 Annual Conference of Cardiological Society of India (CSI) was held in Kolkata, West Bengal, on 7–10 December 2023. Marking the Society’s Platinum Jubilee, the Conference unfolded with grandeur under the able stewardship of Dr P.C. Rath, Scientific Chairman, and Dr D.P. Sinha, Organizing Secretary, at a prestigious venue—ITC Royal Bengal, Kolkata. The CSI had its beginnings in Kolkata. Dr Bidhan Chandra Roy, the visionary Indian physician and Bharat Ratna awardee who also served as the Chief Minister of West Bengal, recognized the need to address cardiovascular disease morbidity and mortality in India. He aspired ‘…to make the people of India healthy and strong in mind and body as well as to seek freedom from ignorance about medical advancements…’1,2 In 1946, this aspiration drove Dr B.C. Roy to propose the establishment of the CSI to a group of his eminent colleagues during a train journey. On 4 April 1948, shortly after India gained its independence, the CSI was established at Kolkata, with Dr B.C. Roy serving as its founder President. Remarkably, this occurred a year before the inception of the American College of Cardiology (ACC). The Society’s official journal, Indian Heart Journal (IHJ), was introduced in 1949, and its first conference was held in Kolkata in 1950.1 At present, the Society boasts of 5374 members and 32 branches and has partnered with several international societies, including the World Heart Federation (WHF), European Society of Cardiology (ESC), ACC, Asian Pacific Society of Cardiology (APSC), Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions (SCAI), British Cardiovascular Society (BCS), Gulf Intervention Society (GIS), Japanese Cardiac Society, Russian Society of Cardiology (RSC), and Cardiac Society of Nepal (CSN). Its rich history and global partnerships reflect CSI’s commitment to advancing cardiology and promoting cardiovascular health in India and worldwide. Embracing Dr B.C. Roy’s belief in fostering connections beyond one’s own community,2 the CSI organized a Global Summit on 6 December in its Platinum Jubilee year (2023). This summit brought together eminent experts from eight international cardiac societies, namely, ESC, ACC, SCAI, BCS, Pan-African Society of Cardiology, Argentine Society of Cardiology, RSC, and CSN. The panel discussed two important contemporary topics: ‘Artificial Intelligence (AI) in cardiometabolic disease prevention’ and ‘Air pollution mitigation through increasing public awareness’. Senior representatives from the global IT companies Accenture and TCS and experts from academia and the government also participated in these discussions (Figure 1). The panel discussion was moderated by Dr M.K. Das, Past President of CSI. The discussion on AI centred around challenges related to data inequality, data acquisition, and patient and doctor acceptance of AI solutions. Meanwhile, the discussion on air pollution was focused on developing meaningful communication strategies that integrate real-time air quality indicators with disease risk to mitigate disease development and expand the definition of the vulnerable population. A consensus document based on this discussion is in its final stages of preparation and will be published shortly. Release of HF consensus document at the President’s conclave A President’s conclave highlighting global perspectives surrounding the emerging epidemic of heart failure (HF) was held as part of the main conference. Dr P.C. Rath, President-elect, started the session with his talk on heart failure, an emerging epidemic (Figure 2). There was participation of the Presidents and key representatives of nine international cardiac societies and was also joined by Dr Theresa McDough, a world-renowned expert on HF. The session culminated with the release of a consensus document emphasizing the significance of HF as a growing pandemic (Figure 3). Prof. Filippo Crea, Editor-in-Chief of the European Heart Journal (EHJ), delivered a keynote address on microvascular angina. He also discussed the molecular mechanisms of acute coronary syndrome in the CSI-ESC joint session and the best papers published in the EHJ during the EHJ-CSI joint session. World-renowned experts—Prof. Giuseppa Mancia (Italy), Dr Felix Mahfoud (Germany), and Dr C. Venkata Ram (India)—shared insights on different aspects of hypertension. Prof. Alain Cribier (France); Dr Saibal Kar (USA), Dr Raj Makkar (USA), Dr Vijay Iyer (USA), Dr Rajeev Johar (USA), Dr Chowdary Hassan (USA), Dr Ramesh Daggubati (USA); and Dr Sudhir Rathore (UK) covered different aspects of cardiac interventions and moderated 16 live cases of coronary and structural intervention. Dr P.C. Rath, President-elect, delivering his lecture in the President’s conclave Dr Filippo Crea, Editor, EHJ, delivering his lecture at the conference The session on hyperlipidaemia was conducted by Dr Boerge Nordestgaard (Denmark), Dr Devaki Nair (UK), and Dr Frederick Raal (South Africa). Meanwhile, Dr Navin Nanda (USA), Dr S.K. Parashar (India), Dr Y. Chandrashekar (Editor, JACC imaging), and Dr Mona Bhatia (India) delivered erudite presentations on imaging and advanced echo. There were also several joint sessions, viz., EHJ-CSI, ESC-CSI, ACC-CSI, SCAI-CSI, and BCS-CSI. This year, the contribution and importance of women cardiologists and women’s cardiac health were appropriately acknowledged. Two exclusive sessions on heart disease in women were incorporated into the programme. In the dedicated session on women and cardiovascular health, the preventive and diagnostic aspects of coronary artery disease and HF in women, hypertension in pregnancy, and peripartum cardiomyopathy were discussed by a group of female experts in cardiology with emphasis on unique health challenges faced by women, such as inadequate access to healthcare and under-representation in clinical trials. The session on cardio-obstetrics illustrated the adverse outcomes observed in pregnant women with heart disease in South India, as revealed by the M-PAC Registry, underscoring the gross lack of awareness and significant burden of rheumatic heart disease among Indian women.3 Mitral stenosis, HF, and the presence of prosthetic valves were identified as the major predictors of mortality, and emphasis was put on the early diagnosis and management of this condition. Importantly, the 2023 Annual Conference included a focus session on AI and digital cardiology. Prof. Thomas Lüscher, President-elect of the ESC, delivered an introductory lecture emphasizing the vast potential of AI in the future management of heart disease. Dr Sanjay Paul, Managing Director and Global Lead-Systems and Platforms at Accenture, and Dr Damini Dey, Director of the Quantitative Image Analysis Program in the Biomedical Imaging Research Institute at Cedars-Sinai, delved into the application of AI in various cardiac and coronary imaging modalities for better diagnosis and prediction. In the concluding lecture, Dr Mintu Turakhia, Director of the Stanford Center for Digital Health, discussed the utility of AI for the improved prediction of sudden cardiac death. Additionally, Dr V.H. Bang, in his presidential lecture, explored the future role of quantum AI. This conference bore the unique distinction of presenting three India-centric position statements of the Society, focused on dyslipidaemia management, pregnancy and cardiovascular ailments, and genetic testing of cardiomyopathies. A joint position statement on cardiac evaluation in patients awaiting kidney transplants was also delivered in collaboration with the Indian Society of Nephrology. The position statement on dyslipidaemia has been published in IHJ,4 and the other three will also be published shortly. All authors declare no disclosure of interest for this contribution.