2010 will celebrate the 10^th anniversary of the first transcatheter heart valve implantation in man. This was placed by Philipp Bonhoeffer in the pulmonary position. Over the past four years there has been an explosion of interest in transcatheter treatments of both the aortic and mitral valves. Many of these treatments are now reaching a level of maturity which is leading to their introduction in routine clinical practice.

The first edition of PCR London Valves will take place at the Park Plaza, Westminster Bridge in London on October 11^th and 12^th 2010.

The meeting is being hosted by Kings Health Partner’s, from Guys and St Thomas’ Hospital and King’s College Hospital under the umbrella of the PCR family.

This 2-day course will combine live case demonstrations, panel discussions, tips and tricks and didactic lectures. The format will be interactive with the aim of sharing experience so as to shorten the learning curve of centres embarking on a programme in this exciting field. Live cases of pulmonary, mitral and aortic interventions will be transmitted with multiple vascular access sites. These live cases will be performed at St Thomas’ hospital by expert guest operators from around the world.

This course is designed as a truly multidisciplinary meeting for the whole Heart Team who will deliver the transcatheter valve technologies. We expect delegates to be from the whole Heart team, including interventional cardiologists, cardiothoracic surgeons, imaging specialists, anaesthetists, technicians and nurses.  Individual aspects of the programme are specifically designed to appeal to all of these individual groups.

We aim to ensure the programme is truly educational and hence we wish to encourage you to submit questions prior to or during the meeting regarding all aspects of the technique and patient care along with skills required to build a heart valve team. We will collect these questions and ensure they are covered either during the lectures or during extended panel discussions.

We hope that by the end of this 2-day meeting teams will return to their centres with a consensus view on the optimal way to introduce these new and exciting technologies safely into clinical practice to the benefit of our patients.

The venue for the meeting is truly spectacular, deep in the heart of London (opposite the Houses of Parliament on the river Thames) and we look forward to welcoming you to London in October for this new PCR venture.

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Dr. Martyn Thomas Chairman of PCR London Valves	Pr. Jean Marco Chairman of PCR