The 2021 European Respiratory Society Congress will be held virtually, and COVID-19 and its respiratory aftermath will be an important topic of conversation. But treatments for asthma, interstitial lung disease, infections, and COPD will also garner attention.
The congress typically attracts 20,000 to 25,000 attendees. In 2020, that number rose to about 35,000, though fewer attended the full congress, choosing instead to drop in and out of individual sessions. This year's conference will have more than 350 sessions with about 300 speakers, and approximately 3000 abstracts and case presentations.
Highlights include Grand Rounds sessions, which are interactive sessions that feature well-documented clinical cases of interest to respiratory health professionals. There will be hot topics sessions and pro–con debates. Topics will include the "environment, air pollution, health, and respiratory diseases," "post-COVID interstitial lung disease syndrome," and "FeNo for the diagnosis of asthma."
New This Year
Dr Miriam Barrecheguren
A new feature of this year's conference will be skills labs, which are more practice-oriented workshops. Eight pre-recorded skills labs will explore techniques like ultrasound, cardiopulmonary exercise testing, and mechanical ventilation.
"It's going to cover different skills and techniques that are generally used in clinical practice, but maybe are not accessible for everyone. They will cover different techniques from the beginning: the procedures, the devices, and sometimes, how to interpret the results," said Miriam Barrecheguren, MD, PhD, who is a pulmonologist at Vall d'Hebron Hospital in Barcelona, Spain.
