Sweden - Gothenburg, February 28, 2022. European Bifurcation Club (EBC), an esteemed medical organization specialized in the treatment of coronary bifurcation lesions, today announced their endorsement of advanced technical skills adoption and proficiency-based continuous learning. The endorsement is unique for Mentice patented VIST® G7+ Coronary Advanced training module that provides an approved patient-free learning environment for Interventional Cardiologists in the field of bifurcation stenting. 

Coronary Advanced is a coronary intervention training platform to support Interventional Cardiologists and their teams in preparation for the growing number of high-risk patients and challenging procedures. The training module enables interventional teams to master bifurcation stenting steps and choose the optimal bifurcation stenting technique for different anatomical situations. It also supports immersive complication management training, in a safe and patient-free learning environment. All virtual proctor-led steps in the Coronary Advanced bifurcation procedures are based on the EBC consensus and strictly follow their guidelines. 

The EBC’s technical standardization of bifurcation stenting is derived from the annual consensus among experts and KOLs within the field of Interventional Cardiology. The stenting techniques are refined, developed, and assessed at the EBC annual conference, with the ultimate goal of optimizing the outcome for all patients that undergo percutaneous coronary intervention.

“The EBC supports a continuous overview of the field of coronary artery bifurcation interventions and aims to facilitate a scientific discussion and an exchange of ideas on the management of bifurcation disease. The latest meetings and consensus documents have focused on the technical issues of bifurcation stenting, realizing that the final result of a bifurcation procedure and the long-term outcome for the patients are strongly influenced by factors such as pre-procedure strategy, stenting technique selection, the performance of optimal procedural steps, ability to identify and correct complications, and most importantly: the overall performance of the operator. Promotion of education and training, and continuous refinement of bifurcation stenting techniques represent a major clinical need. Accordingly, the consensus from the latest EBC meeting in Brussels in October 2021, was to promote education and training in bifurcation stenting, based on the EBC principle. Mentice patented VIST® G7+ Coronary Advanced training module provides an approved patient-free learning environment for Interventional Cardiologists in the field of bifurcation stenting and is based upon the EBC principles for bifurcation stenting. The training set up is very close to the reality in a cath lab, and the EBC are happy to endorse the system for training in complex PCI of bifurcation stenting,” says Prof. Jens Flensted Lassen, EBC Secretary. 

“We are excited that EBC, as a world-recognized society for Bifurcations, endorses the use of our solutions for the adoption and proficiency-based learning of advanced coronary interventions,” says Göran Malmberg, CEO and Group President of Mentice. “This is very much in line with our ambition to move further into the clinical practice and to provide valuable solutions for all levels of experience,” Malmberg continues.  

About European Bifurcation Club (EBC) 

A bifurcation lesion is a coronary (heart) artery narrowing occurring next to, and/or involving, the origin of a significant side branch that you do not want to lose when performing an advanced Coronary Intervention to restore optimal blood flow to the heart. Bifurcation stenting is a high-risk procedure, and the purpose of EBC is to educate and train physicians on the proper way of stenting within bifurcation. 

The EBC was initiated in 2004 to support a continuous overview of the field of coronary artery bifurcation interventions and aims to facilitate a scientific discussion and an exchange of ideas on the management of bifurcation disease. The EBC hosts an annual, two-day compact meeting, dedicated to bifurcations, which brings together physicians, pathologists, engineers, biologists, physicists, mathematicians, epidemiologists, and statisticians for detailed discussions. Every meeting is finalized with a consensus statement that reflects the unique opportunity of combining the opinion of interventional cardiologists with the opinion of a large variety of other scientists on bifurcation management.  


References:
Carreras, E.T. and Williams, D.O., 2018. Interventional cardiology: the in and the out. Circulation: Cardiovascular Interventions, 11(4), p.e006709.