The Heart and Vascular Center of the Semmelweis University in Budapest developed one of the most active heart transplant program in Europe with its approximately 50 annual heart implantations.  In a close symbiotic connection with our transplant program a pronounced mechanical circulatory support (MCS) program was also improved during the last decade. Nowadays the different MCS systems are in use with a wide scale of indications for mechanical circulatory support in acute and chronic heart failure on a regular base. Today the ECMO belongs to the essential minimum conditions -not only of the heart surgery theaters - but in the cath-labs and even more frequently in the ICU-s. In the last two years even a mobile ECMO team was also organized for picking up acute heart failure patients from other hospitals and transporting them on MCS support to our Institution.

The first Semmelweis ECMO Course was organized by the Semmelweis University last year to share our experiences with those colleagues from Middle and Eastern Europe who were interested in MCS therapy. The success of the last year Course encouraged us to organize the 2nd Semmelweis ECMO Course on the 5-6th of October 2018.

Dear Colleagues and Friends, it is my privilege to invite You to participate at this 2nd Semmelweis ECMO Course in Budapest, which is the beautiful Capital of Hungary on the 5-6th of October this year. In addition to the Hungarian speakers, you can enjoy the lectures of some five-stars, very well-known speakers as Steven Tsui from Cambridge, Bojan Biocina from Zagreb, Jens Gerbade from Leipzig and Jan Belohlavek from Prague. I do hope that we might welcome You personally among the participants of the Course!

See You soon in Budapest!
Best friendly regards

Prof.  Zoltan Szabolcs MD Ph.D
Head of the Heart Transplant Program at the Semmelweis University
Head of the Organizing Committee