Österreichische Kardiologische Gesellschaft 

Name, position, and area of responsibility

The work group should be seen as a branch association of the “Austrian Society of Cardiology”, which does not have its own association character. The work group’s offices (contact address) are at the professional location of the respective chair person.

Purpose

The work group’s activity is designed on a non-profit level. Its aim is a close collaboration between those members of the Austrian Society of Cardiology who have a special interest in the test methods of echocardiography. The goal is to promote the insights yielded by this test method and an assurance of the training quality. Various campaigns (such as the organisation of congresses, advanced training seminars and joint research projects) are intended to achieve this goal, along with regular mailings and information provided to the members.

Members

Each regular member of the Austrian Society of Cardiology may also become a member in the work group, which entitles him or her to vote in the work group’s general assembly.

Supporting members are those individual persons or companies who want to sponsor the work group’s activities by making a financial contribution to the work group’s sub-account (under the terms of the Austrian Society of Cardiology). They are not entitled to vote in the general assembly.

Statutes

Start of the membership

This is granted after a request to the chair persons. A membership in the Austrian Society of Cardiology is a prerequisite.

Organs of the work group

The organs of the work group include:

a) the chair persons
b) the nucleus
c) the general assembly

about a)
The chair persons are the managing organs of the work group and leading nucleus members. They report to the management board of the “Austrian Society of Cardiology” and authorised to sign in all matters in the name of the work group.

The chair person and deputy are determined by the general assembly (simple majority). The nucleus is responsible for the nomination for the vote (2/3 majority). If the nomination is not accepted by the general assembly, the nucleus has to propose a replacement.

The chair person’s period in office is two years. The deputy (who is also determined by the general assembly) automatically advances to the chair person’s position after a two-year period in office.

The chair person can be re-elected to this function no sooner than two years after leaving the position.

about b)
The nucleus determines the work group’s activities. It is comprised by cardiologists who have earned a particularly high reputation with their works in the field of echocardiography. The members have to work in a department that focuses on cardiology, although an Austrian-wide representation is certainly taken into consideration.

The nucleas has to be limited to a max. of 20 members, where each centre may only be represented by one person. The application for membership in the nucleus has to be made in writing; the acceptance is granted upon a 2/3 majority vote by the nucleus. The same majority ratio also applies to any recall of a nucleus member, which can be proposed for discussion if one of the member is physically absent for more than two successive nucleus sessions.

There should be at least three nucleus sessions per year, where one should be held in connection with the Austrian Cardiology Meeting or the spring conference of the Austrian Society of Cardiology, one session in the scope of the Annual Meeting of the Austrian Society of Internal Medicine, and one session (in the middle of the year) independently of any other event. The two chair persons have the right to call for an extraordinary session if needed. The guidelines to summon the nucleus correspond to those to summon the general assembly.

Each nucleus member is entitled to nominate a deputy for the nucleus sessions. The nucleus makes resolutions based on a simple majority (exceptions are staff-related decisions, such as voting for the chair person, functional positions within the nucleus, and the decision to accept or exclude members - those will be determined by a 2/3 majority vote).

The responsibilities of the nucleus are as follows:

• Exchange and communication of information among the work group members
  Communication with other domestic and international work groups.
• Quality assurance
• Creation of training guidelines
• Organisation of advanced training courses
• Participation in the programme development of events by the Austrian Society of Cardiology (annual meeting) and other medical societies
• Organisation and support of scientific research projects in the field of echocardiography, consulting function for professional policy decision-making committees (Chamber of Physicians, social insurance carriers)

The following sections of echocardiography should be worked on in the form of subgroups, where the identification of these would occur in parallel to the "European working group on the echocardiography”. Each subgroup has a director and a deputy. Their task is to develop and organise activities in the respective section.

• Stress echocardiography/Ischemia
• Transesophageal echocardiography
• Intravascular imaging
• Standardisation and training
• Contrast echocardiography
• Ventricle function
• Tissue characterisation
• Heart valve diseases
• Perioperative echocardiography