Second, the Grand Prix Formula 1 auto race is being held that same weekend, with festivities from Friday, June 10 through Sunday, June 12, something we were not aware of when we booked the convention center several years ago. Hotel rooms and restaurants will be in huge demand; it is therefore crucial that you get your hotel reservations and downtown restaurant reservations at the earliest. ASE has a block of hotel rooms close to the convention center, but we expect to sell out early; please don’t procrastinate. The upside of the Grand Prix celebrations is that there will be lots of street festivals, parades, and fireworks, and our attendees will have a front-row seat for all the fun!
The convention center is at the edge of Old Montreal, a picturesque, quaint, and very European-looking part of town. The convention center is modern, compact, easy to negotiate, and a ten minute or less walk from all ASE hotels. There is a lot to do in Montreal, from fine arts to fine dining. Highlights are available at www.ASEScientificSessions.org , and more detailed information is at www.tourisme-montreal.org . An official tourist guide can be downloaded at http://octgm.com/guide/ . You won’t want to miss the continental flavor, history, museums, parks, shopping, and fine dining available in this perfect family destination. There’s even an underground city, the world’s largest underground collection of shopping, dining, and entertainment venues, (complete with a hockey arena that isn’t functional anymore). But you won’t want to stay underground; the weather in June is expected to be glorious. Montreal is a great place to plan an extended stay!
This year’s program chair is Susan E. Wiegers, MD, FASE, Associate Professor of Medicine and Director of Clinical Echocardiography at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Wiegers, the 2007 recipient of the ASE Richard Popp Excellence in Teaching Award, and her team have designed a program that will allow attendees to get a broad overview or delve deeply into one or two topics.
In addition to general interest symposia, there will be tracks on interventional echocardiography, extreme echo (for advanced users), fundamental aspects of imaging, pediatric and congenital topics, case-based learning and topics of particular interest to sonographers.
Particular care has been taken to incorporate ASE guidelines into talks and to demonstrate how and why they should be applied in your daily practice. There are elements you won’t want to miss at ASE 2011, as you won’t find them anywhere else:
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Contrast echocardiography: learn the use of contrast, from basic techniques to advanced applications. Improve evaluation of the difficult patient and the technically limited study.
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Apply ASE guidelines to your practice: review the new guidelines for the echocardiographic assessment of the right heart in adults, evaluation of prosthetic valves, valvular regurgitation and more.
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Stress testing: it’s not just about wall motion anymore! Learn to assess pulmonary hypertension, aortic stenosis, valvular regurgitation and systolic dysfunction.
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Learn the newest techniques: strain rate imaging, multimodality assessment of the difficult patient, left ventricular assistive devices and cardiac resynchronization therapy.
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Diastole from every direction: multiple sessions will help you pin down the assessment of the most important part of the cardiac cycle.
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TEE for sonographers: learn basic TEE views, techniques, 3D assessment of the mitral valve and more.
On Saturday, there will be a track in which the lectures will be in French. We hope this will enhance the program for our colleagues from Quebec Province and Europe. There is a full day of programming planned for Tuesday, June 14. Attendees from the east coast of the U.S. should schedule their return flights after 6 p.m. on Tuesday; those from the west coast will want to enjoy a leisurely evening in Montreal before returning home the following day. See you in Montreal!
