Dear colleagues and friends!

Persevering still in the challenging situation of severe restrictions imposed on our daily lives and activities by the COVID-19 disease we are confident to revert to some normality in late autumn.
The postponed 12^th FOCUS Valve course will take place from December 5-8, 2021.
In contrast to the virtual meetings we have become accustomed to, at Focus Valve we will resume physical presence with all the personal encounters missed so dreadfully for a long time. Focus Valve remains a surgical course based on live surgeries and live discussions between participants and experienced operators and a 3D experience which enhances understanding of the pathology and techniques. We strongly believe that surgical experience, tips and tricks can be transferred to the attending surgeons but not to the web.

Compelling proof of the outstanding results of surgical valve repair and replacement is extremely important in the era of rapidly developing interventional techniques. Minimally invasive valve surgery must become the standard of care for the majority of patients and surgeons in a heart valve center must be ready to perfectly perform less traumatic procedures. Excellence in valve surgery includes the routine use of minimally invasive operations. Only these procedures must be compared to interventional techniques.
Therefore, it is more important than ever to train surgeons in minimally invasive surgery as well as interventional techniques.
FOCUS Valve 2021 will address these issues providing a proven 4 days training course including live surgeries transmitted in 3D from our OR, lectures, how-to-do-it presentations, workshops, MICS wetlabs and valve interventions in a beating heart model. This makes the course the ideal teaching platform for teams dedicated to minimally invasive valve surgery. Special attention will be given to minimally invasive mitral valve repair, aortic valve replacement and ablation of atrial fibrillation. Live surgeries performed by internationallyrenowned surgeons as well as surgeons in training will give testimony for the appropriability of including MICS into cardiac surgical training.

FOCUS Valve is an educational program in minimally invasive valve surgery offered by the Department of Cardiac Surgery of Medical University Innsbruck including presentations and live surgeries (Module I), wetlab training (Module II), observership in our OR (Module III) and local proctoring on request (Modul IV).
Modules II and III are comprised also in the MICS Training Days to be held in February 2022

We are looking forward to welcome you again personally in Innsbruck!

Ludwig Müller, Michael Grimm, Nikos Bonaros
Course Directors

Ottavio Alfieri, Öztekin Oto, Patrick Perier, Jose Luis Pomar
Co-Directors