Travel Bursary Report, Alyx Ennis, BCS 2012

The Conference

I was encouraged to attend this year’s annual BCS conference as a result of its focus on sports cardiology as a result on the impending Olympic Games, and my research interest into sudden cardiac death in elite athletes and the current guidelines for screening young athletes.

The conference provided a fantastic platform to explore this area of cardiology further, providing many informative lectures and discussion undertaken by specialists in this area.  The highlight of which were a set of lectures given by Professor Sanjay Sharma, Also a patron of the charity Cardiac Risk in the Young (C-R-Y) and Professor Greg Whyte, who both drew on their own personal experiences of treating and screening athletes and young people detailing case studies and diagnostic findings in order to highlight the real importance of screening athletes and young people in the future.

Following this inspiring talk I visited the exhibition stand of C-R-Y who provided excellent information in terms of their current screening programmes and information regarding their own annual conference in October, the focus of which is also sports cardiology, which I am already looking forward to attending!

Outside of the Conference

An unusually sunny Manchester provided the back drop for the conference, with our hotel overlooking the conference centre we were ideally placed for a fantastic three days of learning and exploring.

I would like to thank the BCS for enabling me to attend the conference by awarding me a travel bursary, which has enabled me to meet, listen to and learn from some wonderful speakers, whilst assisting in my own research projects.

Alyx Ennis

Trainee Cardiac Physiologists