the Pan-african Society of Cardiology (P aSCar) in 2013 and beyond

The biennial Congress of the Pan-African Society of Cardiology (PASCAR) was held in Dakar from 16 to 19 May 2013 under the patronage of his Excellency, Macky Sall, pres- ident of the Republic of Senegal. This meeting was remark- able in the diversity of its 700 participants from English-, French- and Portuguese-speaking Africa. Important aspects of cardiovascular disease in Africa were presented in 195 abstracts and numerous talks; the topics were hypertension, obesity, diabetes, heart failure, cardiomyopathies, coronary heart disease, stroke and rheumatic heart disease. The gener- al assembly meeting was marked by the review and adoption of a new constitution and elections of a new PASCAR govern- ing council that will be in office for the next four years. The new leadership of PASCAR has committed itself to strength- ening the administrative infrastructure of the organisation, developing programmes to address education and training needs of African cardiovascular practitioners, developing a pan-African multi-national research platform, and ensuring that ministries of health implement national programmes for the prevention and control of cardiovascular and other non- communicable diseases.