Presidential Blog
16
Jun.
2011
Jan Lötvall's diary during the EAACI Congress 2011 in Istanbul
Sunday, 12 June 2011
I had the pleasure to start the day by chairing the Opening Plenary Session about the history of allergy over the centuries. Cezmi Akdis, Stephen Durham and Jeffrey Drazen gave really good presentations.
The first day of the 30th EAACI Congress has really established the success of the meeting (and the organisation). The day continued with a mixture of meeting (well, that is the role of Presidents I presume), and ended with a nice dinner together with several Board-of-Officers members and the new EAACI Executive Director, Michael Walker, who will start working for us on September 1st. I am sure Michael is a very good recruitment.
Monday, 13 June 2011
The General Assembly today was my last official meeting as the President of EAACI. The meeting was designed to present to the membership what the EAACI ExCom and Board-of-Officers have done over the last two years, built from the Presidential Programme presented in 2009 when I took office. I am very proud to say that we have delivered on many if not most accounts. But it would not have happened without the huge support of the team, including the Secretary General, Nikos Papdopoulos, the Treasurer, Antonella Muraro, the Vice-President for Congresses, Cezmi Akdis, the Vice-President for Communication and Membership, Vicky Cardona, the Vice-President for Education and Specialty, Luis Delgado, and the Past President, Roy Gerth van Wijk. Handing over the Presidency to Cezmi Akdis was of course also a great honour, and the meeting ended with a presentation of his Presidential Programme.
The rest of the day commenced with many small meetings and interactions, most importantly meetings with our American colleagues in AAAAI and ACAAI, discussing the possibility of establishing extended collaborations.
Monday evening, the Presidential Dinner contained excellent food, nice interactions, and from my perspective the most important tasks, to thank two friends who have allocated huge amount of time to the Academy, and served as President and Vice-President of the Academy, Roy and Luis. Thank you both for being such nice persons, close friends and hard working EAACI officers.
Tuesday, 14 June 2011
7:30 am meeting with one of the current Founder Sponsors of EAACI, strategic discussion. Beginning to get tired... EAACI congresses are intense...
Later in the morning I had the pleasure to chair a session about urticarial, and the huge improvements that have occurred over the last years. The topics and presenters were “Phenotypes” by Malcolm Greaves, United Kingdom, “New and diverse approaches to the treatment of atopic urticarial”, Marcus Maurer, Germany, and “Systemic manifestations of atopic urticarial” Allen Kaplan, United States. All talks were excellent, and the discussion was really interesting.
The afternoon was taken up by planning of the 2013 EAACI Congress in Milan, which we will do together with the World Allergy Organisation.
What is the most inspirational thing about EAACI? Well, of course its juniors. The junior’s social event was fantastic, with nice interactions, good food and lots of dancing. My legs were sore afterwards...
Wednesday, 15 June 2011
Luckily, I could sleep in a little bit on the last day of the EAACI Congress in Istanbul. And I could attend at least half a scientific oral abstract session, and I am looking forward to do more of that in future congresses. Afternoon, again filled with planning of the 2013 EAACI/WAO joint Congress in Milan. Tomorrow I can go home. Looking forward to it, although it is somehow sad to separate from the “EAACI family”, but also nice to get home to ones own.
11
Jun.
2011
Welcome to Istanbul, and 100 years of immunotherapy
It is with huge pleasure that I can welcome all readers to the 30th EAACI congress in Istanbul, and the opening ceremony today on the 11th June 2011. Today it is 100 years + one day since Leonard Noon published his historic paper on Immunotherapy “PROPHYLACTIC INOCULATION AGAINST HAY FEVER” in the Lancet. EAACI is celebrating this in many ways, one being the handing over of the “once only” Leonard Noon award, to the investigator that first published a controlled trial in immunotherapy, William Frankland. Bill was also a Secretary General and a President of EAACI, around 50 years ago, and still energetic and ambitious on his 99th year.
The 2011 EAACI congress promises to be a fantastic event, with the best scientific programme possible, in the exciting surrounding of Istanbul. Thank you to Ömer Kalayci, the Congress President, as well as Lars Paulsen and Christian Virchow, who have coordinated the Scientific programme committee to produce this excellent programme. And also huge thanks to Cezmi Akdis, the current vice President of Congresses, Susanne Rothschild, the congress manager of EAACI, as well as the Congrex team, that have all contributed to create this exceptional event.
I look forward to seeing you in Istanbul in the next few days.
Jan Lötvall
EAACI President for another two days
20
Apr.
2011
Easter Greetings from EAACI
Dear friends,
It is with great pleasure that I welcome you to the EAACI Congress 2011 in Istanbul. I am proud to announce that we have received more than 240 late breaking abstracts and have a total close to 2’000 accepted abstracts. These will be presented in over 130 oral and poster abstract sessions!
The exciting scientific programme with the theme “Bridging Science and Culture” is being finalised. At present, there are more than 80 symposia including workshops in the programme, complemented with postgraduate courses, meet the expert morning sessions as well as our company sponsored symposia and sister society symposia.
Make sure you attend the Opening Ceremony and Welcome Party on Saturday, 11 June 2011, starting at 19:00. The theme of the evening will be a celebration of Turkish music and culture. I am confident that it will be very enjoyable for all generations, from the youngest of our juniors to the more senior members of our community. Also, take the opportunity to visit the JMA Poster Session that takes place in parallel with the Welcome Party, from 20:00 to 22:00, in the registration area at level B1 in the ICC.
Visit www.eaaci2011.com for more information and updates. Note that the deadline for the middle registration fee is 10 May 2011.
With my very best wishes for a pleasant Easter,
Jan Lötvall
EAACI President
Jan Lötvall is also blogging at janlotvall.wordpress.com
21
Mar.
2011
In Sympathy for Japan
The recent events in Japan are shocking, sad and exceedingly worrying. Many have died, many are missing, and both, the economic and emotional strains on everyone in Japan are huge. As an individual and as the EAACI President I wish to send out my deepest sympathy to all Japanese, and to our members and colleagues in the country. EAACI is considering how to support the Japanese allergy community and our colleagues, and are certainly open to ideas from anyone on this aspect. We know that any contribution at all will be small in the overall scope of events, but hopefully it can be of some help.
With hopes of a very rapid recovery in Japan,
Jan Lötvall
EAACI President
07
Feb.
2011
Asthma is a Syndrome Encompassing Several Distinct Diseases – Asthma Endotypes
Dear friends,
In a recent publication in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, EAACI together with AAAAI published a PRACTALL paper discussing the issue of understanding the subgroups of asthma. The terminology “asthma phenotype” has received extensive attention over the last years, but the term “phenotype” relates only to “observable characteristics”, and does not take into account which core molecular mechanism is causing the disease in each individual. This publication attempts to encompass those thoughts into a series of examples, and is arguing that a fundamentally different approach to studying clinical mechanisms of asthma.
Please read it and comment, the debate is crucial to move forward.
Best regards,
Jan Lötvall
EAACI President
Jan Lötvall is also blogging at janlotvall.wordpress.com