Welcome to The Society for Heart Valve Disease website. 2011 has been busy for The Society for Heart Valve Disease. Our grandest activity of the year was the 6th Biennial Meeting of the SHVD, held in Barcelona this past June - I am proud to report it was a great success with global participation and an incredibly talented roster of speakers. The upcoming HVSA/SHVD Valves in the Heart of the Big Apple VI meeting, taking place in New York City in April 2012, is the fourth joint session the HVSA has had with us and is also expected to be an excellent program – I hope you will plan to attend. And looking ahead, plans for the SHVD/HVSA 7th Biennial Meeting, to be held in Venice, Italy in June 2013, are well underway. Details will be posted to the Biennial Meeting webpage, as they become available.

Aside from our educational meetings, the Society has spent the last year reinvigorating its Working Groups. If Society members are interested in becoming involved with the Working Groups, please send an email to our administrative office (secretariat@shvd.org). It is important that our membership have the opportunity to pursue projects that interest them – with the backing of the Society, the Working Groups provide such an opportunity. If there are projects of interest outside of the established Working Groups, please let me know. Council would be happy to review a proposal from anyone in our membership.

As the Society continues to foster the mission of the SHVD - to advance the practice, science, and art of treating heart valve disease through a multi-disciplinary approach with the ultimate aim of reducing the global burden of the disease – I hope to have the opportunity to work with you.

Jose Pomar, MD, Ph.D
President