During 2009 and 2010, the presidency of Jay Cohn gave a new impetus to the ISCP with a newly designed website (www.iscpcardio.org), a successful meeting in Beijing—organized in collaboration with Hu Dayi, ISCP governor for China and President of the Chinese Society of Cardiology—and the creation of several educational committees involving governors from different countries around the world. Over 500 new website members were recruited during this period and the Society’s Newsletter was developed under the editorship of Lisa Demos and John McNeil, from Melbourne.

A new Executive Board/Board of Directors has now been appointed by the ISCP Nominating Committee and ratified by the General Assembly in Chicago, during the Scientific Sessions of the American Heart Association. I was given the mandate to guide the Society during the next 3 years. In my capacity as President I will endeavour to help the ISCP to fulfil its educational mission. In this task I will be assisted by Gheorghe Dan (Bucarest), the newly appointed Vice-President, and by John McNeil (Melbourne), who has been confirmed as Scientific Secretary. A long list of eminent colleagues, including J Cohn, our immediate past President and Bill Louis, immediate past Treasurer, will also contribute to the activities of the ISCP in different capacities. Marianne Burle de Figueiredo—our Executive Officer and one of the fundamental pillars of ISCP—has agreed to continue to help in a voluntary capacity.

We have an ambitious but feasible educational programme, that will be coordinated by Mak Khan (London) that includes—among others—the following activities and enterprises:

  1. 1.

    A series of monographic work addressing “hot” pharmacotherapy issues (ISCP Series on Practical Management of Cardiovascular Disease. This will be carried out in collaboration with Springer.

  2. 2.

    The ISCP Textbook of Cardiovascular Pharmacotherapy to provide practical, evidence based, state of the art information on drugs used in the cardiovascular field

  3. 3.

    Website based virtual symposia and expert opinion series

  4. 4.

    Educational programmes are planned in the following areas: pharmacology, pharmacogenetics, regulatory issues, drug trial design and pharmacotherapy in pregnancy

  5. 5.

    Our International Congress on CV Pharmacotherapy will be now held annually and will focus on new and/or controversial therapeutic issues.

  6. 6.

    The first edition of ‘ISCP Train the Trainers’ programme will be launched in China in 2011, in collaboration with Hu Dayi, ISCP Governor for China. Management of hypertension with combined therapy and rational use of drugs in the ACS are the main topics to be developed by the Expert ISCP panel visiting China next year.

Regarding our Journal, Cardiovascular Drugs and Therapy, we are extremely proud of the excellent work carried out by Willem Remme, Editor in Chief, which has resulted in a substantially improved impact factor in the past few years. Both J Cohn—immediate past President—and myself, will ensure that ISCP provides our Editor with the support and assistance necessary for him to achieve his goal of positioning the Journal among the very best in the field.

The ISCP will be delighted to see our members joining our educational programmes and I would like to extend my invitation to everyone interested in the pharmacological management of cardiovascular conditions to join the ISCP.

Regards,

JC Kaski, MD DSc FRCP FACC FESC

President ISCP