Abbott has announced the launch of the Crossroads Institute for cardiac and vascular medical education at the EuroPCR 2007 meeting in Barcelona. Headquartered in Brussels, Belgium and with established facilities in Tokyo, Japan and Johannesburg, South Africa, the Crossroads Institute features a teaching faculty of more than 100 worldwide experts focused on providing the latest in medical education to advance the treatment of patients with cardiac and vascular disease.

Formerly the Guidant Institute for Therapy Advancement, the newly named crossroads institute, a medical education initiative from Abbott Vascular, offers more than 70 courses on cardiac and vascular treatment developed and led by participating faculty members, with 50 of the courses CME-accredited. Featuring discussion forums with physician experts, the Crossroads Institute offers high-touch teaching methodologies with virtual simulators and a virtual in-house catheterisation lab to help physicians learn the latest in cardiac and vascular treatment methodologies. In addition, the Crossroads Institute offers live case broadcasts from neighbouring hospitals, to bring real-time catheterisation lab events into forums for discussion, which are moderated by world-renowned cardiac and vascular disease treatment experts.

"The Crossroads Institute represents a best in class medical education facility, from which healthcare professionals at all levels across Europe can benefit," said Professor Jean Marco, M.D., course director for the Crossroads Institute. "To date, more than 12,000 physicians have participated in educational programs at the Crossroads Institute. A key element to the programs is providing physicians with treatment strategies that will ultimately improve patient care."

The medical education program at the Crossroads Institute is led by Professor Jean Marco of the Centre Cardio-thoracique in Monaco and Dr Luc Stockx of the Ziekenhuis Oost-Limburg in Belgium, who developed an educational programme to offer healthcare professionals patient-focused training on the latest subjects and techniques in cardiac and vascular care.

"With peer-to-peer interaction and hands-on experience with state of the art technology, the mission of the Crossroads Institute is to provide healthcare professionals with unbiased training that makes patient care a first priority," said Dr Stockx, course director for the Crossroads Institute.