There are currently 1965 members of CSANZ of which 702 (36%) are affiliate or non-cardiologist members. Surprisingly, only 8 (1% of affiliate members) of these identify themselves

as physiotherapists. In contrast, 384 (55% of affiliate members) identify as registered nurses. There are currently 460 members of ACRA, with only 43 (9%) identifying themselves as physiotherapists. These data are somewhat disturbing given that most hospitals employ physiotherapists to work on cardiology wards, most cardiac rehabilitation programs include a physiotherapist as an integral member of the multidisciplinary team, and many physiotherapists working Imatinib in vitro in the community would manage patients on a daily basis with, or at risk of, cardiac disease. Conference participation: The respective national annual scientific meetings of CSANZ and ACRA provide for participation and presentation by a variety of health professionals, including physiotherapists. At the CSANZ conferences in 2009 and 2010 there were a total of 2310 and 2062 registrants respectively and a total of 700 and 655 abstracts

presented respectively. A review of the registrant database indicates that less than five physiotherapists were identified as registering for each of the annual conferences. A review of the ACRA Proceedings for 2003–2007 found a total of 279 abstracts were presented over the five-year period ( Fernandez et al 2011). Detailed analysis of author profession, independent of order listed, click here found that only 13 (5%) were presented by physiotherapists over the five-year period examined. Of those presented by a physiotherapist, only one was subsequently published in a peer-reviewed journal. In comparison, 107 (38%) abstracts were authored and presented (six subsequent peer-reviewed

full manuscripts) first by registered nurses. The biennial Cardiorespiratory Physiotherapy Australia meeting is part of APA Conference and is the major meeting that specifically targets Australian physiotherapists. Therefore, the conference proceedings for the Cardiorespiratory Stream at the conferences in 2007, 2009, and 2011 were reviewed. Of the abstracts presented at the three conferences, only 8% (SD 4%) were related to cardiac conditions. In comparison, 60% (SD 13%) were related to respiratory disease. The difference between cardiac and respiratory abstracts was much less extreme at the recent World Physical Therapy meeting. In this forum, 31 abstracts related specifically to cardiac disease (among a much larger cohort of abstracts on lifestyle disease prevention generally), compared to 42 abstracts related specifically to respiratory disease.