The European Society of Cardiology Congress in London had several sessions on exercise training and cardiac rehabilitation in various groups of patients with cardiovascular conditions. Three that I co-chaired were especially memorable to me. The first was a mobile app interactive session titled: ‘How to Exercise Patients with Cardiovascular Disease’, which featured complex case studies presented by Kathryn Carver (lead nurse for cardiac rehabilitation at Addenbrookes), Professor Patrick Doherty (UK), and Professor Josef Niebauer (AT).   These complicated cases represented the types of challenges faced by clinicians who are trying to implement exercise training (given the evidence of its benefits) in a heterogeneous group of patients. Each case included questions for the audience who could then vote on the answers using the mobile app. The cases and questions were then discussed by the audience, chairs and a panel of experts: Ana Abreu (PT), Bernard Rauch (DE), and E Garcia Porrero (ES). My co-chair, Professor Miguel Mendes (PT) summarised the main points. If interested you can access the presentations and the session report that I wrote: http://congress365.escardio.org/Search-Results?Years=C365YEAR2015&Medias=C365MEDIATYPEHASREPORT&MainTopics=C365GENERICMAINTOPIC487&Topics=C365GENERICTOPIC166&vgnextkeyword=#.Vegh9bFwa70

A second session was held early (0730 Science at Breakfast) and focused on exercise in heart failure patients. The two speakers, Professors Massimo Piepoli (IT) and Martin Halle (DE) moved easily between the scientific evidence and how to apply this to patients. Despite the early hour, there was a sizeable crowd. Following this session, I co-chaired a rapid fire abstract session on cardiac rehabilitation with Professor Josef Niebauer. The presenters have the challenge of presenting their studies in 6 minutes with 5 slides followed by 3 minutes of questions. The patient groups involved in these studies included patients with restrictive cardiomyopathy, post TAVI and surgical aortic valve repair, native and immigrant patients with CAD in Sweden, responders and non-responders to CRT, patients after AF ablation, patients with diabetes post PCI. The session offered insight into the benefits and limitations of cardiac rehabilitation, its methods of delivery, and the need to tailor programmes for maximum patient benefit.

All ESC sessions are available at Congress 365: http://congress365.escardio.org/