Dear Colleagues and Friends,

On behalf of the Local Organizing Committee, it is my great pleasure to invite you to Geneva for the 24th World Congress of Cardiothoracic Surgeons which will take place from September 6th to September 10th, 2014 at the CICR Conference Center located in Geneva, Switzerland.

During the past years, the World Society of Cardiothoracic Surgeons annual meetings have confirmed their utmost importance devoted to the techniques, applications as well  as to the latest research of cardiothoracic surgery and related disciplines.

The WSCTS 2014 meeting will build on the success of previous meetings and will bring together renowned experts from around the world to discuss  the progress made in cardiothoracic clinical care and research. The 24th WSCTS meeting will be a wonderful opportunity for cardiothoracic surgeons from all over the world,  to exchange ideas and give access to the latest scientific and clinical resources and information to our young colleagues.

Geneva, at the heart of Europe has  an ideal location for our WSCTS 2014 meeting thanks to the perfect international environment.  Its own efficient airport makes Geneva easily accessible from all around the world.

I hope you will mark your calendars to join us in Geneva for this meeting. I look forward to your partnership, support of one of the most important scientific events in cardiothoracic surgery.

Sincerely

Professor Afksendiyos Kalangos

President of the Organizing Committee

The WSCTS 2014 Congress will take place at the International Conference Centre Geneva (CICG) located near the United Nations and the airport, and only 10 minutes from the city centre on a convenient bus route.

International Conference Centre Geneva

17, rue de Varembé

CH-1202 Geneva, Switzerland

How to get there:

From the main railway station “Gare Cornavin”:

Bus n°5: stop “Vermont”

Bus n°8: stop “UIT”

Tramway n°13 and n°15 : Stop “Nations”

From the international airport “Genève Cointrin”:

Bus n°5: stop “Vermont”

Bus n°28: stop “Nations ”

Submission Info

WSCTS objectives are to encourage research and to provide a wide forum for discussion. The online submission system will guide you through the submission of your abstract.

Abstracts must describe original, previously unpublished work.

Scheduling of abstract presentations and short oral presentations is at the discretion of the Scientific Committee. Abstracts will be organized into sessions using the topics chosen by the submitter in the online system.

You are disconnected after 30 minutes of inactivity. Please be aware that the system is only active when pressing on “next” or “save”. Typing is NOT considered as being active.

Delegates who would like to present their work at the meeting, are invited to submit an abstract for consideration by the Scientific Committee.

These will be peer-reviewed and those selected will be presented either as orals or in a dedicated area of the poster session.

For standardization, the acceptable length of the abstract is of maximum 2’000 characters. This includes the titles and non-visible characters, such as spaces and line breaks.

1. IMPORTANT DATES

Submissions accepted from: 17 January 2014

Submission deadline: 30 April 2014, midnight, CET

Notifications to submitters: end-May 2014

Abstracts received after the deadline will not be accepted!

2. TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS

The internet abstract submission system works best with Internet Explorer 7.0 or higher and Mozilla Firefox 3.0 or higher.

Cookies and JavaScript need to be enabled

3. GENERAL

Abstracts can only be submitted online via the abstract submission form.

Abstracts sent by post or email will not be accepted. No exceptions will be made.

• Abstracts can be saved in “Draft” status to be re-edited and modified until the submission deadline (30 April 2014, midnight, CET). Therefore, the submitter will be required to create a user account.
• Abstracts fulfilling all criteria can be saved in “Final submission” status. Only abstracts in “Final submission” status will be regarded as successfully submitted and considered for the conference. The submitted / draft abstracts cannot be edited after the submission deadline (30 April 2014, midnight, CET)
• The abstract should be structured into the following sections:
  • A title which clearly indicates the nature of the investigation.
  • Introduction should contain 1-2 sentences that clearly indicate the scientific question of the study and its clinical (or other) importance.
  • Methods should contain sufficient information to be able to understand the experimental design, the analytical techniques and the statistics used in the study.
  • Results should contain objective data to answer the scientific question(s).
  • Discussions / Conclusions should provide only conclusions of the study directly supported by the results, along with implications for clinical practice, avoiding speculation and overgeneralization.
  • No tables or figures are allowed in the abstract.
• Conflict of interest: It is the intent of WSCTS 2014 to provide high-quality sessions focused on educational content that is free from commercial influence or bias. Thus the submitting author of an abstract is requested to declare any potential conflicts of interest for all authors during abstract submission.
• Abbreviations should be indicated in parentheses following their first mention in the text. Trade names cannot be mentioned in the title. However, trade names in brackets will be accepted in the body of the text.
• The submission of an abstract constitutes a formal commitment by the submitting (presenting) author to present the abstract (if accepted) in the session and the time assigned by the Programme Committee. Registration fees will not be waived.
• The presenting author of the abstract must be registered at the conference within 14 days of confirmation of abstract acceptance (the author will benefit from early bird registration fee).
• Please ensure your abstract does not contain spelling, grammar, or scientific mistakes, as it will be reproduced exactly as submitted. Linguistic accuracy is your responsibility. No proof reading will be done. No changes can be made to the abstract after the submission deadline.
• Only original abstracts will be accepted and considered for the review.

After the Submission

• The reviewers will judge the abstracts according to scientific or clinical value, relevance to WSCTS 2014, conclusions confirmed by objective results, objectivity of statements, originality of work and overall impression.
• The submitting authors will be notified by end-May 2014 at the email address provided during submission whether their abstract has been accepted.
• If you need to withdraw your abstract a written statement, reflecting the reasons of this decision must be sent to wscts2014abs@mci-group.com. This e-mail address is being protected from spambots.

Presentation of Abstracts

• Abstracts can be accepted either as oral communication or short orals.
• Details on presentation format and full presentation guidelines will be included in the notification letter and posted on the conference website.

Publication

• Accepted abstracts will be available online.

Contacts

For any further enquiries, please contact the WSCTS 2014 Abstract Handling Team atwscts2014abs@mci-group.com. This e-mail address is being protected from spambots.

MCI Suisse SA

Phone: +41 22 33 99 588

Fax: +41 22 33 99 601

Email: wscts2014@mci-group.com