The Society
More than 35,000 clinicians, scientists and allied health professionals from over 160 countries are part of the ERS community
Become an ERS member
Q: As Head of Assembly 5, what are you most looking forward to about this year’s ERS Congress?
In airway diseases, we have entered and are moving forward into the era of biologic treatments. This immense step is combined with the era of personalised medicine and the omics area in which medicine, especially respiratory medicine, is moving forward. All of the above, with the last step of AI involvement, makes the future of airway disease quite brilliant and exciting, however we need the right tools to be able to handle it in the best way for the benefit of our patients.
This year’s ERS theme, “Humans and Machines: getting the balance right” addresses all of the above. Thus, I look forward to an exciting congress with many stimulating assembly five sessions, which will combine clinical knowledge and science to address all the above aspects. Of course, I am looking forward to meeting colleagues and friends.
Q: What in your opinion will be the hot topics for airway diseases, asthma, COPD and chronic cough?
Every year it is a challenge to be able to attend all the hot-topic sessions. The ones that I plan and try to attent are:
The State of the art session on airway diseases, particularly the presentation on ‘Recognising treatable traits and including them in the model of care for a personalised approach to airway diseases: novel insights with a focus on personalised medicine’ (Tuesday, 10 September, 13:45–15:15). This session will provide an update on the evolving concept of treatable traits, helping fellow clinicans to provide a better care to their patients.
The symposium: Lung function abnormalities, chronic obstructive lung disease and multimorbidity (Sunday, 9 September, 10:15–11:45). This session will address an expert overview of the current state of knowledge concerning patterns of lung function and cardiovascular and other comorbidities. Notably it will also address how how artificial intelligence techniques have contributed to lung function trajectory modelling.
A favorite hot topic for me every year are the poster sessions. There I have the opportunity to see the latest results in clinical studies and to be updated in the latest scientific findings.
Q: Tell us your top three picks from the Congress programme?
It is difficult to choose in such a well-planned and exciting congress and among all the activities within airway diseases. However, if I need to do it, I would select and strongly suggest the following:
1. The assembly five postgraduate courses on asthma and COPD. There is an increased amount of novel knowledge in asthma and COPD, both within the underlying pathophysiology and the accompanying treatments. We need to understand the variety and complexity of those common diseases to offer traditional and novel treatments, i.e., biologics, effectively. These two highly interactive PG courses are designed to address the above goals:
2. Clinical trial session – ALERT 2: Fighting the burden of asthma and respiratory symptoms
Monday, 9 September, 15:30–17:00 CEST
In this oral presentation abstract session, we will learn about late clinical studies and RCTs evaluating existing therapies for airway diseases and quite novel therapies.
3. Symposium – Remission and response in asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
Monday, 9 September, 10:15–11:45 CEST
This generation of pulmonologists has novel biological treatments, and we are happy to start considering remission in airway diseases. This symposium will address all the current and novel aspects of this concept.