A short history of the European Association of Preventive Cardiology (EAPC)

Abstract

The history of the EAPC is closely related to the history of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC). The ESC decided at the turn of the century to overcome the splitting into 27 topic related Working Groups with great differences in size and activities and to create a new organizational concept based on Associations, each having an official ESC scientific journal and an annual ESC connected congress. The European Association for Cardiovascular Prevention and Rehabilitation was built on the fundaments of epidemiology and prevention, exercise physiology, cardiac rehabilitation and sports cardiology. The official journal of the Association was launched in 2003 and the first EuroPRevent Congress was held in Athens in 2006. During the following years, the different interests of the founding working groups came closer together, which resulted in a name change of the Association into "European Association of Preventive Cardiology" and of the journal into "European Journal of Preventive Cardiology". The name change marked the migration of Preventive Cardiology to centre stage in the ESC. This document summarizes how and from where the EAPC started and where it stands now.