Daily Wire: Andreas Grüntzig Ethica Award
Jean Marco receives the Andreas Grüntzig Ethica Award for educational contribution to interventional cardiology
Today @EuroPCR 2019, the interventional cardiology community pays tribute to Jean Marco as he receives the Andreas Grüntzig Ethica Award.
This is the highest honour of the European interventional cardiovascular community and each year, the award recognises those who have contributed in a substantial way in serving the needs of individual patients by helping the community to share knowledge, experience and practice.
Professor Marco performed his first angioplasty in September 1979, just two years a er the very first procedure of its kind. Together with Dr Jean Fajadet, Professor Marco founded the Interventional Cardiology Unit of the Clinique Pasteur, Toulouse, France in 1987.
There, they shared a vision for an annual interventional cardiology course with the first—‘Course on Complex Coronary Angioplasty and New Techniques in Interventional Cardiology’— taking place in Toulouse in April 1989, led by Professor Marco and Course Co-Directors, Jean Fajadet, Geoffrey Hartzler and Cass Pinkerton.
This course was the starting point for EuroPCR and the PCR Family, with Professor Marco seing the foundations of the PCR philosophy of excellence and innovation in education, always fully considering the interests of patients and puing learners at the centre of the educational process.
As described in the original EuroPCR vision, Professor Marco has indeed ‘worked for his successors’. Over the decades to follow, his relentless commitment to effective education brought him to study, adopt and teach evolving educational principles based on respectful peerto- peer interaction and non-judgemental sharing of experiences.
Critical thinking, case-based discussions, a strong individual and team work ethic, innovation, integrity and constant evaluation are among some of the key points that he identified as being important for EuroPCR to disseminate and for practitioners to implement in daily practice.
Professor Marco also challenged some assumptions on medical postgraduate learning and explored alternative options for new roles that create the desire for change.
William Wijns, PCR Chairman, says that it is fiing that on the 30th anniversary of EuroPCR, the contribution of Jean Marco is being recognised with the presentation of the Andreas Grüntzig Ethica Award. A er 30 years, Professor Marco continues to inspire generations of colleagues worldwide who have inherited his fundamental principles of sharing impactful, relevant, lifelong and self-directed learning.
His 360-degree vision demands constant curiosity, out-of-the-box thinking and open-minded adaptation to local needs and culture, providing a caring influence on the life of every individual patient and their family.
Professor Marco’s style of effective continuous medical education follows principles that eradicate borders, privileges, biases or prejudice. In so doing, the unselfish essence of the Hippocratic Oath is fulfilled: ‘I will respect the hard-won scientific gains of those physicians in whose steps I walk, and gladly share such knowledge as is mine with those who are to follow.’