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STAFF 2015 symposium
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ScienceDirect Journal of Electrocardiology 49 (2016) 752 www.jecgonline.com
MALT/STAFF 2015 symposium This and the previous issue of the Journal include the STAFF-MALT 2015 Symposium, papers related to presentations at the annual STAFF and MALT meetings, in 2015 held in Vence, France, and in Lugano, Switzerland. STAFF meetings focus on ECG manifestations of ischemia, and MALT meetings focus on multimodality imaging, studies in which the ECG is combined with another form of cardiac imaging. International cooperation, co-mentoring and exchange of young investigators, and sharing of research-oriented databases are major driving forces of these meetings. A detailed description of the STAFF and MALT meetings has been published in the previous issue of this journal [1]. The STAFF and MALT meetings do not have proceedings, and the STAFF-MALT 2015 Symposium in the journal is not intended to replace such proceedings. Instead, the papers in this symposium are regular papers, submitted by authors who consider their work suited for this journal. The reason to put them together under the common denominator of the STAFF-MALT symposium reflects the intention of the journal to support these spontaneous, small scale, internationally oriented and young-investigator inclined meetings, as they help to keep electrocardiology “alive and kicking”. One contribution in this STAFF-MALT 2015 Symposium, by Badilini and Sassi [2], deserves special mentioning here. The authors present, in an Editorial, an idea that may dramatically contribute to the preservation of ECG recordings, and to interoperability in electrocardiography. The idea is simple and effective: no matter where and for what purpose you make an ECG, save it in the form of a PDF file that contains: 1. a graphical representation of the ECG of which the format is essentially free, hence, this graphical
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jelectrocard.2016.07.009 0022-0736/© 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
representation may be conform the local organizational standard 2. a digital representation of the original ECG data as recorded by the electrocardiograph Actually, the PDF-ECG file is to be considered as an envelope, with the graphical representation of the ECG on the cover, and the digital representation of the complete original ECG data as enclosure. In this way, it can be simply printed or viewed on a screen, as usually done in a routine clinical environment, but the enclosure can be used to get access to the originally recorded data, which is essential for interoperability, e.g., for re-analysis by other ECG processing software, import in other ECG databases, etc. The idea of the PDF-ECG essentially eliminates loss of ECG data due to imperfect or incomplete storage of the ECG, when graphically saving ECGs in low-resolution or in a sequenced format (e.g., the format that sequentially renders 2.5 s of each of the four lead groups I-II-III; aVR-aVL-aVF, V1-V2-V3, V4-V5-V6). The Journal of Electrocardiology endorses this initiative, and we expect more information about the PDF-ECG in future issues. Cees A. Swenne, PhD Galen S. Wagner, MD References [1] Pahlm O, Swenne CA, Ugander M, Warren SG, Wagner GS. Scientific STAFF and MALT meetings – past, present, and future. J Electrocardiol 2016;49:259–62. [2] Badilini F, Sassi R. Development of PDF-ECG: Further steps towards the long-term preservation of clinical electrocardiograms. J Electrocardiol 2016;49:753–4, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jelectrocard.2016.07.007.
ScienceDirect Journal of Electrocardiology 49 (2016) 752 www.jecgonline.com
MALT/STAFF 2015 symposium This and the previous issue of the Journal include the STAFF-MALT 2015 Symposium, papers related to presentations at the annual STAFF and MALT meetings, in 2015 held in Vence, France, and in Lugano, Switzerland. STAFF meetings focus on ECG manifestations of ischemia, and MALT meetings focus on multimodality imaging, studies in which the ECG is combined with another form of cardiac imaging. International cooperation, co-mentoring and exchange of young investigators, and sharing of research-oriented databases are major driving forces of these meetings. A detailed description of the STAFF and MALT meetings has been published in the previous issue of this journal [1]. The STAFF and MALT meetings do not have proceedings, and the STAFF-MALT 2015 Symposium in the journal is not intended to replace such proceedings. Instead, the papers in this symposium are regular papers, submitted by authors who consider their work suited for this journal. The reason to put them together under the common denominator of the STAFF-MALT symposium reflects the intention of the journal to support these spontaneous, small scale, internationally oriented and young-investigator inclined meetings, as they help to keep electrocardiology “alive and kicking”. One contribution in this STAFF-MALT 2015 Symposium, by Badilini and Sassi [2], deserves special mentioning here. The authors present, in an Editorial, an idea that may dramatically contribute to the preservation of ECG recordings, and to interoperability in electrocardiography. The idea is simple and effective: no matter where and for what purpose you make an ECG, save it in the form of a PDF file that contains: 1. a graphical representation of the ECG of which the format is essentially free, hence, this graphical
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jelectrocard.2016.07.009 0022-0736/© 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
representation may be conform the local organizational standard 2. a digital representation of the original ECG data as recorded by the electrocardiograph Actually, the PDF-ECG file is to be considered as an envelope, with the graphical representation of the ECG on the cover, and the digital representation of the complete original ECG data as enclosure. In this way, it can be simply printed or viewed on a screen, as usually done in a routine clinical environment, but the enclosure can be used to get access to the originally recorded data, which is essential for interoperability, e.g., for re-analysis by other ECG processing software, import in other ECG databases, etc. The idea of the PDF-ECG essentially eliminates loss of ECG data due to imperfect or incomplete storage of the ECG, when graphically saving ECGs in low-resolution or in a sequenced format (e.g., the format that sequentially renders 2.5 s of each of the four lead groups I-II-III; aVR-aVL-aVF, V1-V2-V3, V4-V5-V6). The Journal of Electrocardiology endorses this initiative, and we expect more information about the PDF-ECG in future issues. Cees A. Swenne, PhD Galen S. Wagner, MD References [1] Pahlm O, Swenne CA, Ugander M, Warren SG, Wagner GS. Scientific STAFF and MALT meetings – past, present, and future. J Electrocardiol 2016;49:259–62. [2] Badilini F, Sassi R. Development of PDF-ECG: Further steps towards the long-term preservation of clinical electrocardiograms. J Electrocardiol 2016;49:753–4, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jelectrocard.2016.07.007.