The participants with Dr. Taweesak Chotivatanapong (4th from left)
With the intention to share expertise and have an exchange of ideas in the field of cardiovascular and thoracic surgery , Dr. Taweesak Chotivatanapong came up with the idea to hold a small group conference for young surgeons of the Southeast Asian region. And so came into realization, the very first intensive course in cardiovascular and thoracic surgery.
The Chest Disease Institute (CDI) in Nonthaburi, Thailand hosted a five-day course from June 15-19, 2009. Seven participants from neighboring Asian countries attended the said conference, represented by Drs. Ahmadi Bin Salleh (Malaysia), Tran Tu Nam (Vietnam), Nguyen Hoang Ha (Vietnam), Dennis M. de Asis (Philippines), Tofilus Melianus Tiluata (Indonesia), Royman Christian Pahala Sinanjuntak (Indonesia), and Rama Nusjirwan (Indonesia). Resource speakers were Dr. Taweesak Chotivatanapong, CDI’s department head of cardiothoracic surgery and the program course director, who discussed on rheumatic heart disease and infective endocarditis; Dr. Choosak Kasemsarn, one of CDI’s noted cardiovascular and thoracic surgeons, tackled on surgical management of atrial fibrillation and VATS; and Dr. T. Agasthian from National Cancer Center in Singapore, shared Singapore’s experience in VATS. The five-day program consisted mostly of live demonstration in the operating room theatre which included rheumatic heart disease with severe mitral stenosis, aortic regurgitation, ischemic mitral regurgitation, infective endocarditis, atrial fibrillation, spontaneous pneumothorax, and lung cancer. The last day ended with summarizing the cases presented by Dr. Taweesak himself, and left a message to the participants to never stop outdoing oneself for better, if not best; that surgeons of Southeast Asia should work together and constantly communicate so that we may rightfully claim to be the authorities in rheumatic heart disease, specifically mitral valve repairs.
The program was made possible with the efforts of Covidien, and a plan of holding similar courses in the future is at hand.