ERS General Pneumology Assembly meeting

Dr Mok

Dr Thomas Mok, Head of the APSR Clinical Respiratory Medicine Assembly, joined the meeting of the ERS General Pneumology Assembly meeting on 30 September 2019.

Here is his report.

Agenda

1. Assembly award
2. Feedback from Executive and Committees
3. Assembly and group
4. Vienna Congress 2020: opportunities for proposals
5. Barcelona Congress 2022: opportunities for proposals
6. Scientific activities: ERS Grant
7. Educational events

1. ERS Best Abstract Grant in Pulmonary Rehabilitation and Chronic Care went to Jessica A Walsh from the UK for her abstract "Gait speed and mortality in COPD".
2. There were two feedback points from the Science Committee:
   • increasing interest in pragmatic trials and applied research/delivery of care
   • e-health/m-health should be the key focus of the ERS Congress in 2021 (Barcelona)
3. ERS membership (Total): 37,581

   Assembly 1	General Pneumology:	6,424
   Group 1.01	Clinical Problems	5,101
   Group 1.02	Rehabilitation	671
   Group 1.03	Primary Care	608
   Group 1.04	M-health/e Health (newly formed)	44

   There is a group leader for each group who are elected after a fixed terms of office. Each group is responsible for the proposal of education topics for the ERS annual congress and other educational events, and vetting of congress abstracts. The newly-formed group 1.04 is gaining in importance and its membership is expanding rapidly. It has proposed an ERS Research Seminar on "Digital Health Interventions in Respiratory Medicine" to be held at the end of 2020. Group 1.04 and 1.02 collaborated to perform monthly update on telemedicine and Rehabilitation and Chronic care.

4. Proposed topics for Vienna 2020 ERS Congress
   • Symposium, PG courses, meet the Experts, skill workshop – closed

   • Group 1.01	Grand round on multi-morbidities in respiratory diseases
     Group 1.02	Year in review on the diagnosis and treatment of ILD
     Group 1.04	Hot topic on medical device legislation

     Grand rounds
   • Year in review
   • State of the art
   • Hot topics
   • Abstracts and Cases
5. Proposed topics for Barcelona 2021 ERS Congress

   • Group 1.01	Adverse drug reactions
     Group 1.02	Clinical challenges in patients with overlapping lung diseases
     Group 1.03	WHO sustainable development goals
     Group 1.04	Artificial intelligence/e-Health

     Symposia
   • PG courses
   • Meet the expert
   • Skills workshops
   • Grant rounds
   • Year in review
   • State of the art
   • Hot topics
   • Abstracts and Cases
6. & 7. Funding programme for research and fellowship opportunities and a few educational courses presented.

My impression of the ERS General Pneumology Assembly is that it has a well developed infrastructures and is forward-looking. The Assembly has made significant contributions to the construction of the scientific programme of the ERS annual congress and other educational events. With the rising importance of M-health and e-health, we may follow ERS' footstep to include these topics in our proposal for the preparation of the APSR Clinical Respiratory Medicine Assembly symposia for the coming APSR Congress.