DIRECTOR'S LETTER
PICS-AICS 2019
September 4-7, San Diego
CASES, CASES and MORE CASES!

D ear Colleagues,
Welcome to the 22nd Pediatric and Adult Interventional Cardiac Symposium – PICS-AICS 2019! The meeting is visiting San Diego for the first time and being held at the beautiful Marriott Marquis just by San Diego Marina. This year we have extended the number of Live Case sites to 12, the largest number we have ever hosted at PICS and reflects an effort to build on the huge strengths of the meeting to bring the most up to date cutting edge interventions to our delegates. This along with 14 taped cases evaluating interventions such as minimally invasive hybrid VSD closure, lymphatic interventions and PDA stenting will ensure that attendees can learn and interact as never before.

The meeting this year will commence on Wednesday 4th July with a special session focussed on Quality and Outcomes. As our interventions become more complex and expectations grow, it is essential that our environment and data collection evolve to protects ourselves and our patients. This session is followed by a Special Symposium on Ductal Interventions with the first of our live cases transmitted from Memphis. Following multiple lunchtime sessions on an array of topics, we will have a further Symposium on PFO Closure with two live case sites from Virginia and Colorado. The day will finish with our Oral Abstract Session, which is sure to be a fantastic reflection of the novel scientific work in our field with over 180 abstracts accepted for presentation at this years meeting.

Thursday 5th September will begin with live case transmissions from Doha, Cordoba and Jeddah. There will be taped cases through lunch from Michigan and Cairo and the afternoon sessions will include ongoing collaboration with 3DI3 at PICS with further taped cases evaluating the use of 3RDA to guide complex pulmonary artery interventions and transcatheter pulmonary valve replacement. Other sessions on Thursday afternoon will include interventions on both the Atrial and Ventricular Septum and also breakout sessions for our Nursing and Associated Professionals. Thursday evening will see the return of the Shark Tank, following on from last year's huge success and again kindly sponsored by PediaVascular with the winner receiving 25,000USD for his/her winning pitch.

Friday September 6th, begins with live cases from Columbia, Seattle and Cornell with taped cases from Israel and Istanbul. In the afternoon there will be session on Pulmonary Artery Interventions with Taped Cases and also Transcatheter Valve Replacement as well and Interventions in Heart Failure. There will also be breakout sessions for our younger interventionalist colleagues as well as an in-depth look at LAA Interventions including a taped case from Seattle. After the days toils, the PICS-AICS dinner event will take place at the Air and Space Museum and promises to be a blast!

Saturday September 7th's cases will be transmitted from Chile, Los Angeles and Chicago. Other popular sessions, including "My Nightmare Case in the Cath Lab" ensure opportunity for discussion and learning from each other's experiences. This year we have decided to conclude the meeting at lunchtime to provide our delegates with the opportunity to enjoy the Californian weather or catch earlier flights back eastwards.

Poster abstracts will be displayed throughout the meeting. We will continue to support younger interventionalists through the PICS Young Leadership Program, with the winner receiving faculty status and involvement in the meeting. We also wish to recognize those committed to research with The Charles S. Kleinman, MD Scientific Scholarship Award, The winner will receive a $5,000 grant towards his/her research endeavor. We also plan to continue The Terry King Traveling Fellowship Award to sponsor a colleague in a developing country to ensure the meeting continues its philosophy of developing congenital and structural catheterization throughout the world. We look forward to welcoming you to San Diego. Please don't forget to get in shape for the 5K Run on the Morning of Thursday 5th September. It supports a great cause: providing funds for equipment for mission trips to the developing world.

Your participation is what makes the meeting the success that it is, and we look forward to learning with you and from you.

Yours truly, Course Directors and Co-Directors