Dear Colleague:

I’m honored to invite you to attend ISHLT2019, our 39th Annual Meeting and Scientific Sessions and the premier gathering of medical professionals dedicated to the treatment of advanced heart and lung disease. This event, the world’s largest such gathering, is scheduled for April 3-6, 2019, at the Loews Meeting Complex in Orlando, Florida, USA. ISHLT President Jeffrey Teuteberg, MD, the ISHLT Board of Directors, and the 2019 Scientific Program Committee extend their heartfelt invitation to you to join us for this distinguished event.

ISHLT’s annual meetings offer the most comprehensive review of research, including late-breaking advances, dedicated to advanced heart and lung disease, transplantation, mechanical support and related innovative therapies. From the Opening Plenary through the Symposia and Oral Abstract Sessions to the Presidential Address, ISHLT2019 offers considerable opportunity to focus on content in your specialty area. We've taken special care to cluster content by specialty in order to make the best use of your time as a participant and ensure you return home equipped with increased knowledge.

You’ll also find that ISHLT2019 offers a unique opportunity to network with a wide range of medical professionals from across the globe. Attendees regularly cite the opportunity to meet peers from other institutions, specialties and countries as one of the meeting’s highlights.

The plenary sessions will feature traditional content such as registry reports, the Presidential Address, and the Lifetime Achievement Award Address. In addition, research from the highest scoring abstracts will be selected for featured presentation to ensure the largest audience for our Annual Meeting’s best scientific content. For our Friday plenary session, our highlighted speakers will motivate us to apply novel concepts to improve clinical care and research efforts. The final plenary session again promises to entertain and inform with the President's Debate.

We are excited to highlight several joint symposia planned for ISHLT2019: Novel and sophisticated imaging techniques will be explored in a joint symposium between the ISHLT and the Society of Cardiac MRI (SCMR): Cardiac MRI and the World of Heart Failure: When Two Disciplines Harmonize. A joint session with the Associação Brasileira de Transplante de Órgãos (ABTO) will provide an exclusive exchange of experiences between heart and lung transplant centers in Brazil and other centers around the world in Combining Experiences to Enhance Thoracic Organ Transplantation Worldwide. In the joint symposium with the International Consortium of Circulatory Assist Clinicians (ICCAC) entitled Faster, Higher, Stronger: Monitoring Exercise in Cyberspace, you will explore how your LVAD patients can get the most out of their heart assist device. And finally, a joint symposium with the International Pediatric Transplant Association (IPTA) will focus on EBV and CMV in pediatric thoracic transplantation in EBV and CMV are Not as Easy as 1-2-3 When Caring for Pediatric Thoracic Transplant Recipients.

In addition to the above, ISHLT has collaborated with the Pulmonary Vascular Research Institute (PVRI) to bring speakers that will offer world-class expertise on the topic of changes in the world of pulmonary hypertension.

We look forward to welcoming you to Orlando, Florida, USA for ISHLT2019!

See you in Orlando!

Lara Danziger-Isakov, MD, MPH
ISHLT 39th Annual Meeting Scientific Program Chair