News Digest from the Assemblies
The “Digest” provides a summary of Assembly highlights regarding congresses,
elections, educational programmes, Task Forces, etc.
Assembly 1 – Clinical
The members of the Clinical Assembly are bound to have a very interesting and
fruitful Congress in Berlin. Our Assembly, through the dedicated work of many
members and of all its Officers, has organised or co-organised many events,
including Postgraduate Courses (on topics such as ILDs, COPD, imaging and
bronchoscopy), the Clinical Year in Review, Clinical, Radiological and Interventional
Grand Round interactive sessions and Symposia (e.g. on rehabilitation, primary care,
etc.). All of these are aimed at providing additional, useful information to clinicians.
As the vast majority of ERS Congress delegates are clinicians, we as want to pursue
the task of designing and supporting events that may have a relevant take-home
message for those who are facing challenging clinical problems in their daily practice.
Bruno Balbi, Assembly Head
bbalbi@fsm.it
Group 1.1 – Clinical Problems
We would like invite you to attend the informal Business Meeting of Group 1.1 in Berlin.
The meeting is a unique opportunity for Group members to meet. Topics for future
symposia will be discussed, and may cover all aspects of respiratory medicine, including
lung manifestations of systemic diseases, interstitial lung disease, lung problems
induced by drugs, disorders of the pleura, COPD, orphan lung disorders, emerging lung
diseases, etc. The Group meeting will also give some feedback information about the
numerous sessions organised by our Group. Please join us and suggest clinical
questions that will help respiratory physicians make better decisions in their everyday
clinical practice. Your presence will help keep our Group active and lively.
Vincent Cottin, Group Chair
vincent.cottin@chu-lyon.fr
Assembly 6 – Occupation and Epidemiology
As it is every year, our Assembly is at the forefront of the interesting activities taking
place during the ERS Congress in Berlin, including several Symposia, a Hot Topic on
“Climate changes and respiratory health”, the traditional Occupational Grand Round
and, for the first time, the Air Pollution Year in Review. In addition, this year the
highlights will include the Sadoul Lecture given by P. Burney on “Just correlations?
Unravelling the origins of the asthma epidemic”, which will take place on Sunday,
October 5, 2008. On Tuesday, October 7, there will be a lunchtime session entitled
“Meet the Occupation and Epidemiology Assembly awardees” in which the authors of
the Occupation and Epidemiology best paper and best presentation (oral or poster)
among young investigators will be awarded. May I remind you the Business Meetings
of the Working Groups and the Assembly are scheduled to take place at lunchtime
on October 5 and 6, 2008, respectively. See you in Berlin!
Isabella Annesi-Maesano, Assembly Head
annesi@u707.jussieu.fr
Assembly 7 – Paediatrics
We are looking forward to seeing you all at the Berlin Congress, which has an
exciting paediatric programme! Our educational opportunities include three
Postgraduate courses on October 4, 2008, covering the topics: “Wheezing disorders
in childhood: asthma and beyond”, “Paediatric respiratory infections in immunological
disorders” and “Getting it right first time: planning, realising, analysing and publishing
research projects on asthma”. In addition, there will be two Meet the Professor
Seminars on “Specific immunotherapy” and “MRI of the lungs”.
Our Scientific Group and Assembly Business Meetings are scheduled for October 5
and 6, 2008, respectively. Once again there will be a Paediatric Assembly dinner,
which will take place on Monday, October 6, 2008. Full details of the meal will be
sent to members via email by A. Bush.
The Paediatric HERMES Task Force has just completed the second round of the
Delphi process and we expect to have an updated Syllabus for Training in Paediaitric
Respiratory Medicine by the end of this year.
We would like to thank all Assembly members and the ERS office for their support
and wish our new Assembly Chair, Gunilla Hedlin, and Assembly Secretary, Ernst
Eber, a successful mandate!
Good progress is being made with the Medicines for Children EU initiative. The list of
centres interested in being approached for trials is now available
(http://dev.ersnet.org/204-business-et-activities.htm#par3498). Thanks to all who
contributed data. Hopefully, this list will be used by everyone interested in clinical
trials. Finally, the first of our linked Task Forces, Preschool wheeze, has been
accepted for publication in the ERJ, and the other two will be submitted shortly. Let
us take advantage of this once in a life time opportunity to improve the care of
children with respiratory disease.
Andy Bush, Assembly Head
a.bush@rbh.nthames.nhs.uk
Monika Gappa, Assembly Secretary
Gappa.Monika@mh-hannover.de
Group 7.1– Paediatric Respiratory Physiology
The strength of our Group is that many of our members are actively involved in
workshops within and outside the ERS, and contribute to Task Forces and ERS
guidelines. At the recent ATS meeting, a successful workshop on the role of CT
scanning of the chest in paediatric research and patient care was held, and the
members involved started work on a recommendation paper. The working group on
lung function in infants and preschool children meets twice a year and is considering
submitting proposals for ATS workshops and ERS Symposia. Many members were
asked to contribute to a European Respiratory Monograph, and new Task Forces are
planned for recommendations on end-points in respiratory research for future use by
EMEA. The number of submitted abstracts for the ERS Congress has increased
again, and we are glad to contribute to respiratory medicine in Europe in so many
ways.
Paul Aurora, Group Secretary
p.aurora@ich.ucl.ac.uk
Peter Merkus, Group Chair
p.merkus@cukz.umcn.nl
Group 8.2 – Transplantation
The ERS Congress in Berlin promises to be a very interesting Congress regarding
new aspects of lung transplantation. We have received a record number of abstracts,
which will be presented as oral sessions, a thematic poster session and a poster
discussion session. Furthermore, during the Business Meeting of our Group, which
all members are invited to, the top three ranked abstracts will be awarded a prize. On
October 6, 2008, at 10:45, there will be very interesting symposium providing an
update on lung transplantation. We hope to attract a lot of interested colleagues to all
the different lung transplantation sessions.
Geert M. Verleden, Group Chair
geert.verleden@uz.kuleuven.ac.be
Andy Fisher, Group Secretary group
A.J.Fisher@ncl.ac.uk