The World Congress of Cardiology Scientific Sessions 2012 (WCC), the official congress of the World Heart Federation and the international stage for leading developments in science and public outreach in the field of cardiovascular health, will take place on  April 18-21, 2012 at the Dubai International Convention and Exhibition Centre, Dubai.

The Congress is organised by the World Heart Federation and co-hosted by the Emirates Cardiac Society with the support of the Government of Dubai, the Dubai Health Authority and the Emirates Medical Association. This is the first time that the WCC to take place in the Gulf region. This presents a significant step forward towards leading the fight against heart disease and stroke, with many low- and middle-income countries within easy reach of the region – including Africa, the Middle East, South-East Asia and India.

The WCC has an outstanding line-up of 600 world leading expert speakers and will feature more than 1,000 new scientific abstracts for oral and poster presentation highlighting the very latest scientific developments from the cardiology field. The Congress will bring together 10,000–12,000 delegates from across 100 countries to discuss how to tackle cardiovascular disease (CVD), the world’s number one killer. Attendees will include representatives from the cardiology and healthcare professions, as well as, medical societies and heart foundations, commercial and non-government entities.

Through its extensive programme of workshops, clinical seminars, plenary sessions, how to sessions, meet-the-expert sessions and stimulating debates, the congress plays a vital role in helping to educate delegates on how to address the challenges associated with CVD. It also has a specific emphasis on low- and middle-income countries and focuses on how scientific findings from the developed world can be adapted to make them relevant to the developing world, as well as, sharing knowledge on techniques that work in low-resource settings.

The CVD causes 17.3 million deaths annually, more than 80 per cent of which occur in low- and middle-income countries, and is projected to claim over 23.6 million lives by 2030. Within the UAE national data indicates that CVD continues to be the leading cause of death at 29 per cent.