CIRSE 1985 to 2005: 20 Years of Growing Success

To commemorate the history of CIRSE, we need to take ashort look at the developments in European interventionalradiology before CIRSE was created in the spring of 1985.Until then, two ‘‘interventional societies’’ existed in Europe:the European College of Angiography (ECA) and theEuropean Society of Cardiovascular and InterventionalRadiology (ESCVIR), which were both founded in 1976.The idea of gathering European cardiovascular and inter-ventionalradiologistsintoascientificsocietywasconceivedin the early 1970s. By 1975 numerous prominent Europeancardiovascular and interventional radiologists had startedseriousdiscussions, whichresultedinthecreation ofthetwoEuropean bodies.Whereas the ECA was more academically oriented, witha limited membership of 75 and defined credentials in car-diovascular radiology to be eligible for membership, theESCVIR was founded as an open society for all doctorsinterested in cardiovascular and interventional radiology. Inthe years between 1982 and 1984 the ESCVIR and ECAcombined their annual meetings, and the American sistersociety SCVIR was invited for joint meetings. Since mostleading European angiographers and interventionists weremembers of both societies, the idea of a unified, singleEuropean society was aired as early as 1981 by severalleading figures such as FranAois Pinet, Ivo Obrez, RobertoPassariello, Plinio Rossi, Eberhard Zeitler, Gian-CarloFeltrin, Ulf Tylen, Rolf Gnther, and Friedrich Olbert.In a water-taxi from the airport in Venice to the HotelExcelsior on the Lido of Venice, FranAois Pinet askedFriedrich Olbert whether he would be willing to carrythrough the merging of the two societies at the forthcomingjoint meeting in Vienna in 1985. Friedrich Olbert happilyagreed to do so, and certainly Vienna as an internationalmelting-pot was the ideal place for such an undertaking.Moreover, Friedrich Olbert as a renowned leader in inter-ventional radiology and a person of great diplomatic skillspromised to be the right choice for such a delicate task.However, it was first necessary for leading figures such asFranAois Pinet, Ulf Tylen, Eberhard Zeitler and others, whofortunately were members of both societies, to do somelobbying for a single European society. Under their influ-ence, working groups started to draw up regulations andarticles to be ready for presenting to the two societies attheir joint meeting in Vienna in 1985.At 1p.m. on April 24th, during the joint general assem-bly, the Cardiovascular and Interventional RadiologicalSociety of Europe (CIRSE) came into existence. The newarticles drawn up by Ulf Tylen were accepted and FriedrichOlbert—president of the joint meeting of the ECA and theESCVIR—was immediately appointed as the new presidentof CIRSE. FranAois Pinet and Christoph Zollikofer werevoted in as secretary-general and treasurer of the newsociety. Members of the ECA automatically became fellowsof CIRSE. The new society now had a combined member-ship of about 300 which triggered the beginning of a veryfruitful era. A total of 556 scientists from all over Europehad been present at the Vienna meeting and the congressmade a substantial profit, which served as the basis forfinancing future congresses.The first CIRSE congress and joint meeting with theAmericanSCVIRwasheldinMay1986inJerusalem,underthepresidencyofAlexRosenberger.Furtheryearlymeetingsfollowed in Porto Cervo, Berlin, Paris, Brussels, and Oslounder the presidencies of Plinio Rossi, Reingard Sorensen,Jean-Michel Bigot, Julien Struyven, and Ivar Enge in theyears 1987 to 1991, with growing attendances of up to 800.With an expanding membership, and with the increasingimportance of interventional radiology in radiology andmedicine as a whole, it was felt that the existing structure ofthe society—with a distinct lack of continuity in the exec-utive body due to the yearly changing presidency, and nopermanentsecretarialoffice—wasnolongergoodenoughtocope with its future tasks. The need for training, education,and research on the one hand, and on the other the deter-mination to become a recognized and powerful subspecialty