ERS Congress 2024 Recap: Research Insights, Translational Science, and Personal Connections

At the 2024 meeting of ERS—The European Respiratory Society Congress, we spoke with global experts in the field of respiratory medicine about their key takeaways from the event:

• Toby Maher, MD, PhD, professor of clinical medicine, Keck Medicine of USC
• Io Hui, PhD, researcher, The University of Edinburgh
• Alexander Mathioudakis, MD, PhD, clinical lecturer in respiratory medicine, The University of Manchester
• Anna-Maria Hoffmann-Vold, MD, PhD, senior consultant and leader of the inflammatory and fibrotic research area, Oslo University Hospital
• Klaus Rabe, MD, PhD, chest physician and professor of medicine, University of Kiel

Transcript

What is your favorite part of attending the ERS Congress?

Maher: My favorite thing about coming to ERS is the chance to catch up with colleagues from around the world. A lot of time we spend talking to people on Zoom, and it's impossible to really talk with people on a personal level. I think at ERS, there's a huge networking opportunity for us to meet with people, catch up with friends who we haven't seen in a long time, and at the same time, get to enjoy all the science and education that goes with the conference.

Hui: My favorite thing [about] coming to the ERS Congress is we have an opportunity to network with different people with different opinions and different perspectives. We have clinicians here, we have GPs [general practitioners], we have patients, we have commercial parties, we also have engineers in this Congress to say our opinions [and] to express our views. So, this is the most important thing in digital health, from my point of view, and the most interesting thing in ERS as well.

Mathioudakis: This year, in the airway diseases, and especially in COPD [chronic obstructive pulmonary disease], we have a lot of novel data from new biologic treatments. That's a great advance. It's important. We hope it will improve the lives of our patients. I think this information and these data are very important, and I'm really glad to have the opportunity to attend relevant sessions in the ERS Congress. In parallel, ERS for me, is always a good opportunity to meet and discuss with collaborators, colleagues, and friends from all over the world; so, that's another highlight.

Hoffmann-Vold: So for me, ERS is a very important meeting to meet colleagues and friends to network, to build new collaborations, and projects. Of course, [it’s] also very exciting to go to abstract sessions to learn about other new research projects. Also, often new trials are presented. This time for ILD [interstitial lung disease], there is no new trial presented, but still, there will be many exciting abstracts, which state new research; and again, networking.

Rabe: I guess maybe one of them is because I've been doing this for the last 35 years. I'm a member of the Society and have been their president, and I am looking forward every year anew to a buzzing event where young people, new friends, [and] old friends will gather for exchange.

The ERS has the distinct advantage over other large congresses, we have very nice venues where we go, to be honest. Vienna is one of them.

Honestly and seriously, I like the translational science that is presented. So, there's so many individuals that look at clinical trials; there's basic science, but it's also primarily clinical translational science, [and] new drugs in the disease areas that I'm interested in. It’s a very well-organized Congress, with so much to learn and so much to see. It's always a mixture at the end of it [of] being exhausted, but also mentally being very refreshed. That's what I like about it.