Head: Vincent Cottin
Secretary: Enrico Clini

This assembly is divided into six groups, which cover a wide spectrum of interests.

Head: Paolo Pelosi
Secretary: Paolo Navalesi

Respiratory failure is the principal reason for intensive care admission. Although the field involves many different specialties, there is a strong tradition of research and training among pneumologists.

There are presently two Groups in this Assembly.

Head: Thomas Geiser
Secretary: Bruno Crestani

This Assembly provides the necessary forum for interaction between basic scientists and practicing clinicians interested in the cellular and molecular mechanisms involved within the healthy and diseased lung. It is also responsible for tracking scientific developments that easily translate into better diagnostic technologies and/or enhanced patient care. This has allowed collaborative forums with the other clinical Assemblies of the ERS.

Head: Wilfried De Backer
Secretary: Maria R. Bonsignore


Clinical physiology is ideally positioned since the discipline is widely accepted as an important link between research and clinical medicine. This link is recognised by the additional title for the Assembly of Integrative Biology. The Gas Exchange and Exercise Group is particularly orientated towards the most integrative aspects of respiratory physiology, both in health and disease. In recent years, much attention has been paid to factors controlling oxygen transport, mechanisms of pulmonary hypertension and gas exchange in COPD. The Sleep and Control of Breathing Group has played a major role in the recognition of sleep apnoea syndrome as an important public health problem, particularly through a Task Force. The Respiratory Structure and Function group focuses on more basic physiology, from cellular and molecular to integrative physiology.

Head: Ildiko Horvath
Secretary: Ian M. Adcock

Although this Assembly focuses mostly on asthma and increasingly on COPD, members also have an interest in other diseases with an allergic and immunological component. A substantial number of pharmacologists and basic scientists have joined clinicians. As the treatment of asthma and COPD remains mainly a pharmacological approach, the Airway Pharmacology and Treatment Group is very active in this field. Many of the members are actively involved in trials of new medications or in the development of guidelines for the treatment of severe therapy-resistant asthma. The Airway Regulation, Provocation and Monitoring Group is into examining how inflammatory mechanisms in the airways lead to dysfunctional regulation and physiology using for instance noninvasive markers. The field of immunology is advancing rapidly, particularly in our understanding of cellular and molecular backgrounds of allergy, and activities within the Allergy and Immunology Group reflect this.

Head: Bo E.J. Lundback
Secretary: Carlos Jimenez Ruiz

This is an interdisciplinary Assembly, which gathers not only pneumologists, but also epidemiologists, clinicians, statisticians, occupational doctors, air pollution scientists and health educators. Smoking and the environment are very important issues for respiratory diseases and this Assembly is involved in many activities to promote public awareness and scientific reasearch in this field. The Epidemiology Group has mainly focused on elucidating the natural history of COPD through epidemiological studies in Europe. More recently, the use of biomarkers and genetic epidemiological techniques have been foreseen. The Occupational and Environmental Health Group is interested in following the evolution of occupational diseases (asthma, asbestos, agriculture, new risks) and integrating occupational and environmental diseases in clinical practice. The smoking control and health education group is pushing hard to disseminate the culture of smoking cessation throughout the pulmonary units of European hospitals. The prevention of smoking and protection of the environment through educational and research activities is one of the major goals of our Assembly, and will increase the scientific strength of the ERS and its EU public image. Members of our Assembly are willing to strengthen collaboration with other Assemblies to work on common programmes.

Head: Ernst Eber
Secretary: Fabio Midulla

The Paediatrics Assembly encompasses all the different fields of respiratory medicine that relate to infants and children. All of the different fields have growth and development as a common underpinning link. The seven Scientific Groups of the Assembly reflect their other adult counterparts in the ERS.

Head: Annette Boehler
Secretary: Dragan R. Subotic

This Assembly includes physicians of the highest quality with an extraordinary knowledge of the state-of-the art in this field. Within the ERS, they have extensive collaboration with most of the other Scientific Groups, and naturally with the Oncology Group. The Transplantation Group includes pulmonologists and respiratory specialists who have a particular interest in lung transplantation. One of the aims of the Assembly is to highlight problems related to the management of end-stage lung disease with a selection of patients for transplantation and the management of patients post-lung transplantation.

Head: Brendan Cooper
Secretary: Geraldine Burge

It is increasingly recognised that allied healthcare professionals play an important role in the diagnosis, treatment and care of patients with pulmonary diseases. High-quality measurement of pulmonary function plays an essential role in the diagnosis and follow-up of patients, and nurses and physiotherapists are in an ideal position to educate patients to take more responsibility and control of their own condition and to use nonpharmacological interventions like exercise training. This Assembly offers an opportunity to learn from each other's disciplines and to achieve an outcome that is in the patient's best interest.

Head: Christoph Lange
Secretary: Santiago Ewig

Issues such as the role of infections in the development of the immune response, viral infections and airway diseases, tuberculosis control, bacterial antibiotic resistance, infectious complications of immune suppression and many others have generated huge interest in infection. This is the youngest ERS Assembly, as in 1997 the group separated from the Clinical Assembly and became independent. Members of the Respiratory Infection Group collaborate successfully with many other Scientific Groups of the ERS as infection is represented in other Assemblies. The Tuberculosis Group is the historical core of lung medicine and attracts many scientists and clinicians from Eastern European countries. This new structure appears to be extremely successful and this new Assembly is already mature.

www.flucentre.org
The online influenza knowledge centre gives an extensive insight in the ins and outs of influenza.

Seasonal Influenza Spotlight

Head: Jean-Paul Sculier
Secretary: Johan Vansteenkiste

Respiratory tumours represent a major part of the daily practice of many respiratory physicians. Our Group focuses on all aspects of these tumours (lung cancer, mesothelioma, mediastinal tumours and lung metastases) including: epidemiology and prevention; biology and pathology; diagnosis and staging; the multidisciplinary approach of therapy; the systemic treatment with chemotherapy and targeted agents; and follow-up and supportive care. There is a close cooperation with Imaging, Interventional Respiratory Medicine, Radiotherapy, Biology and Thoracic Surgery Groups, now formalised into the Thoracic Oncology Network of the ERS.
This Group tries to reinforce the position of the respiratory physician in this important domain of practice in different countries by the organisation of Symposia on contemporary clinical questions, by the organisation of dedicated school courses, by establishing practice guidelines, and by cooperation with other societies.