key: cord-1051868-7vgdxdds authors: Lee, Wen-Jeng; Chen, Shyh-Jye; Wan, Yung-Liang title: History of the Asian Society of Cardiovascular Imaging date: 2021-02-24 journal: Korean J Radiol DOI: 10.3348/kjr.2020.1460 sha: b8c726e034f149fc02d3af7f8fef845297c13079 doc_id: 1051868 cord_uid: 7vgdxdds The Asian Society of Cardiovascular Imaging (ASCI) was established in 2006 to improve the healthcare, education, training, quality control, and research in cardiovascular imaging in Asia. The ASCI is presently active, with more than 1400 members from 53 countries. Herein, the evolution and current development of the ASCI are described, including the early history, organization, annual congresses, collaboration with international sister societies, official journal, and the ASCI School. The ASCI has successfully led the development of cardiovascular imaging in Asia and will continue to grow. Coronary artery disease is one of the leading causes of death in both developing and developed countries [1, 2] , and is a major socioeconomic issue due to the high treatment costs [3] . There are at least 49 countries or regions in Asia, which is the largest of the Earth's continents, containing more than 60% of the global population. With the developments in imaging technology in the early 21st century, there was an increased interest in cardiovascular imaging among Asian radiologists. Physicians in Asia had to travel a long way to attend international meetings in the USA and Europe in order to learn about new developments in cardiovascular imaging. As a result, a growing consensus among Asian imaging physicians led to the creation of a new society in Asia to represent and encourage cardiovascular imaging studies in this continent. The hardware and software of various cardiac imaging modalities, such as multidetector computed tomography History of the Asian Society of Cardiovascular Imaging Wen-Jeng Lee 1, 2 , Shyh-Jye Chen 1, 2 , Yung-Liang Wan 3 1 Department of Medical Imaging, National Taiwan University Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan; 2 Department of Radiology, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan; 3 Department of Medical Imaging and Intervention, Linkou Chang Gung Memorial, College of Medicine, Chang Gung University, Taoyuan, Taiwan The Asian Society of Cardiovascular Imaging (ASCI) was established in 2006 to improve the healthcare, education, training, quality control, and research in cardiovascular imaging in Asia. The ASCI is presently active, with more than 1400 members from 53 countries. Herein, the evolution and current development of the ASCI are described, including the early history, organization, annual congresses, collaboration with international sister societies, official journal, and the ASCI School. The ASCI has successfully led the development of cardiovascular imaging in Asia and will continue to grow. (CT), magnetic resonance (MR) imaging, echocardiography, CT-positron emission tomography (CT-PET), and MR-PET, have been greatly improved in recent decades. The Asian Society of Cardiovascular Imaging (ASCI) was established in 2006 with a commitment to continuous improvement of healthcare, education, training, quality control, and research in cardiovascular imaging in the largest continent [4, 5] . https://doi.org/10.3348/kjr.2020.1460 kjronline.org meeting. Professor Jae Hyung Park of Korea presided over the congress, and Prof. Tae-Hwan Lim was elected as the first President of the ASCI. At the first General Assembly held during the congress, the by-laws were declared, and the ASCI officers and EC members were officially announced. The objectives of the ASCI were as follows: 1) To advance the science and art of cardiovascular imaging through an educational non-profit organization in Asia. 2) To bring together radiologists, cardiologists, and individuals in related fields to improve the level of clinical practice, research, and education related to cardiovascular imaging in Asia. 3) To organize scientific meetings for the sharing of research results, preliminary works, ideas, and knowledge through invited lectures and paper presentations. 4) To provide continuing education through refresher courses, and to disseminate knowledge through the publications of the Society. In the inaugural meeting, it was agreed that the Society office would be based in Seoul, Korea. Since the foundation, the Administrative Office located in Seoul takes care of the (Japan), and Carmen Chan (Hong Kong) . In addition to attendees from Korea, the 6th Annual meeting of KOSCI in 2006 was attended by 36 people from Taiwan, 32 from China, 14 from the Philippines, 12 from Singapore, 6 from Vietnam, 5 from Malaysia, 4 from Japan, 4 from Indonesia, 3 from Germany (speakers), and 1 from Hong Kong. The inaugural meeting of ASCI was successfully held at the Asan Medical Center on April 27-28, 2007 (Fig. 2) [5] . A total of 545 doctors from 26 countries attended this kjronline.org general society affairs, and the Presidential Office, which rotates according to the term of the President, and the local organizing committee of the ASCI Annual Congress take care of the tasks related to the organization and conduct of the annual congresses, respectively. This allocation of responsibilities helps to maximize efficiency and balance the Society's operations. The officers of the ASCI are follows: President, Immediate Past President, President-Elect, three Vice-Presidents, Secretary-General of the Presidential Office, Secretary-General of the Administrative Office, Treasurer, Officer for Scientific Affairs, International Liaison Officer, Administrative Officer, Editor of the ASCI Journal, Congress President, Information Officer, Officer for Quality Assurance, Ordinary Committee Members (no more than two members per participating country), Officer of Clinical Research, Chair of the ASCI School, and Membership Officer. Tables 1 and 2 show the current officers and the EC members of the Society, respectively. The President is elected at the EC Meeting. The term is two years. The Congress President is elected every two years at the annual committee meeting. The term of the Editor of the ASCI Journal and Chair of the ASCI School is four years. The President has the right to nominate other officers of the committee. Table 3 shows a list of the Presidents of the ASCI from 2007 to 2021. Professor Bin Lu from China is the incoming President of the ASCI for the period 2021-2023. All members of the committee may be re-elected to the same or related post for a consecutive term of office. Table 5 shows a list of the recipients of the Outstanding Award. The ASCI Gold Medal is awarded to an individual to recognize his or her outstanding academic achievements in the ASCI. The nomination committee considers the list of publications of each nominee and their participation in ASCI activities in the selection of the Gold Medalist. Table 6 shows a list of the recipients of the Gold Medal. In order to encourage and foster young physicians and scientists, the BYPA was instituted in 2010 to recognize young doctors for their research work and presentation skills. Table 7 shows a list of the winners of the ASCI BYPA over the past ten years. Committee members can serve for a maximum of two successive terms in the same post but may be re-elected to the same position after at least one term out of that post. The committee member may continue to serve in the committee in another post during that period. The candidates must be officially recommended by their respective national societies of cardiovascular imaging. The term for ordinary committee members is three years, and they may be renominated for one more term. EC members can recommend candidates as ordinary committee members. The ASCI was established in 2006 and is now 13 years old [4, 5] . There are 32 ASCI officers and 20 EC members. They are from 13 countries or affiliated societies, namely, Australia, China, India, Indonesia, Iran, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam. The affiliated societies are principal independent organizations committed to further developing cardiovascular imaging through education, quality control, research, and training. The ASCI Annual Congress has been held twice in China It is ASCI's privilege to have a collaboration and exchange programs with sister societies, including the European Association of Cardiovascular Imaging (EACVI), the European Society of Cardiovascular Radiology (ESCR), the North American Society for Cardiovascular Imaging (NASCI), the Society of Cardiovascular Computed Tomography (SCCT), and the Society for Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance (SCMR) [6] . Outstanding speakers from these sister societies are invited to the annual congress of the ASCI to strengthen the ASCI's annual scientific meeting program. To promote and continue effective working relationships between the ASCI and its sister societies, there are memoranda of understanding among the societies. These agreements are not binding and are not intended to create any legally enforceable rights, obligations, or restrictions. Instead, the aims of the memoranda are to at least clearly set out the level of collaboration between the ASCI and its sister societies regarding invitations as speakers at the annual scientific meetings of the societies. Basically, each Society's leadership will recommend two speakers for the annual scientific meeting of the sister society. The Society will provide free registration to the meeting and up to a few nights of accommodation at a preselected hotel to the selected speakers. The fees for attending social functions that are part of the meeting will also be provided. The content of the speakers' lectures will be decided through communication between the offices of the two societies, the program committees, and the speakers themselves. In addition to the annual scientific meeting, the ASCI has played an essential role in cardiovascular imaging education in Asia via events such as the publication of an official journal, Cardiovascular Imaging Asia (CVIA), published since 2017, and the establishment of the ASCI School in 2018. kjronline.org was pursued by Professor Choe and ASCI officers, and finally CVIA was successfully launched by Professor Tae-Hoon Kim, its first Editor-in-Chief, in 2017 [7] . CVIA is the official journal of the ASCI and plays a crucial role in the diagnosis, optimal management, and improvement of outcomes for patients with cardiovascular disease in Asia. The journal has been one of the most important accomplishments and a substantial milestone of the ASCI. It continues to be fostered by the current Editor-in-Chief, Professor Sang-Il Choi [8] . CVIA is a professional, peer-reviewed journal The ASCI promotes publishing scientific papers to present and propagate the scientific activities of its members. www.e-cvia.org). Currently, the CVIA is under review for a possible inclusion in Emerging Sources Citation Index by Clarivate Analytics, and the result will be available next year. In addition to this database, the editorial office of CVIA is preparing to apply to other database systems, such as PubMed and Scopus. The journal targets physicians and other healthcare practitioners with an interest in cardiovascular diseases and imaging, such as general diagnostic cardiologists and radiologists, cardiovascular radiologists, imaging cardiologists, nuclear medicine physicians, pulmonologists, internists, cardiothoracic surgeons, pathologists, and physicians-in-training. It is also directed at medical physicists, scientists, engineers, and informatics specialists working on the development of imaging tools, contrast agents, or data processing for the study of cardiovascular diseases as well as representatives from the industries, organizations, and governments involved in providing products or policies for the diagnosis and treatment of cardiovascular diseases. To concentrate the ASCI's academic resources and for more kjronline.org societies, to ensure international lecture opportunities for ASCI speakers, and to promote the appropriate use of cardiac imaging in Asian countries. The ASCI Joint Symposium is organized as a half-or full-day symposium during local cardiac imaging events based on collaboration between speakers from the ASCI and the hosting society. Joint symposiums have been held in Indonesia, India, Korea, China, Singapore, Iran, Myanmar, and Taiwan. The mission of the ASCI Speaker Bureau is to train ASCI members to be distinguishing speakers at academic meetings. The target trainees are those who are starting their careers as international speakers. The mission of the ASCI practical tutorial is to train ASCI members in clinical practice for cardiovascular imaging, thereby supporting ASCI members to start or to improve their cardiovascular imaging activities [9] . The mission of ASCI LIVE is to share information with and to update the knowledge of academic leaders and ASCI members and to provide basic knowledge about cardiovascular imaging to ASCI members online. It is streamed to all ASCI members, and recorded videos are provided to ASCI members for a fee. The ASCI started various subcommittees and programs to expedite the development of cardiovascular imaging in Asia [10] . The first subcommittee of the ASCI, the Cardiac Computed Tomography and Cardiac Magnetic Resonance Imaging Guideline Working Group (Asian CCT & CMR Guideline Working Group) no longer operates since the publication of several articles in 2010 [11] [12] [13] [14] . Table 8 shows the current subcommittees and chairs. The Congenital Heart Disease Study Group meets regularly and publishes several papers [15] [16] [17] . The certificate program committee organizes the Certification Course in Proficiency in Cardiac CT. The first efficient conduction of the ASCI's educational activities, the School of ASCI (the ASCI School) was founded. The ASCI School is chaired by Professor Jongmin Lee. The school comprises: 1) The ASCI Cube program, Professor Hwan Seok Yong is the current director) to foster young and intelligent ASCI members; 2) the ASCI Joint Symposium (directed by Professor Kakuya Kitagawa) to support the academic activities of the Asian-Oceanian national societies; 3) the ASCI Speaker Bureau (Directed by Professor Whal Lee), instituted in 2018 to train ASCI members to become distinguished speakers for academic meetings; 4) practical tutorials (Professor Dong Hyun Yang is the current director) to train and improve clinical practice for cardiovascular imaging; and 5) ASCI LIVE (directed by Jongmin Lee) to provide information to and update the knowledge of ASCI members online. Table 8 shows the current directors of the ASCI School. The ASCI launched its [ASCI] 2 (Advanced School for Core Investigators from the ASCI) Program in 2010 under the direction of Professor Tae-Hwan Lim to recruit young ASCI members of high potential and train them to become representative scholars of Asia who will lecture at international meetings. In 2017, [ASCI] 2 was renamed ASCI Cube ([ASCI] 3 )-the Advanced School for Core Investigators in the ASCI School of Cardiovascular Imaging of the ASCI. There are special lectures in the program, and in each main session, trainees have a chance to present their papers, so that the tutors and co-tutors can provide insightful comments on how to improve these works. At the welcome and farewell dinners, participants are able to socialize with one another to get to know each other better. Professor Jongmin Lee was the Program Director from 2010 to 2013 and Professor Whal Lee from 2014 to 2017. Professor Hwan Seok Yong has been the current program director since 2018. 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Imaging Techniques Asian consortium on radiation dose of pediatric cardiac CT (ASCI-REDCARD) This article is being published jointly in the Cardiovascular Imaging Asia and Korean Journal of Radiology. Conceptualization