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Arzu Yorgancioğlu is Chair of the ERS Advocacy Council.
She is Professor at the Department of Pulmonology, Celal Bayar University Manisa, Turkey. Arzu has been a member of the Turkish Thoracic Society Executive Committee for 12 years and served as President (2014-2016). Arzu is a member of the GINA Board and the Chair of GINA Dissemination and Implementation committee. She has been the Global Alliance against Respiratory Diseases Turkey coordinator, and the coordinator of the reference site of European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Aging. Arzu is the chair of the WHO GARD Executive Committee. She was elected a fellow of ERS and ATS in 2019.
Her research and scientific interests focus on the diagnosis and treatment of asthma and COPD.
Our Planetary Health is becoming more and more important every day ,so it is so necessary and urgent to discuss the enviromental effects on respiratory diseases such as pollution and climate change ,occupation and more . The prevention is possible and it is one of the priorities of Advocacy team .We build coalitions focused on prevention, research, environment, tobacco control, public health, patients and respiratory disease areas.
We aim to protect and improve lung health for everyone.
We need to discuss the prevention of these diseases which seems to be possible .
To deal with it there is a very good session in our congress “Towards elimination of COPD Innovative views from the Lancet Commission on COPD “
I believe we need to have a holistic approach rather than a biomedical one. So another session could be this pro/con session “Is pharmacological or non-pharmacological management the priority for the patient who wants to be ” less breathless and do more”
Some questions and challenges about asthma will be interesting in the session below; Symposium: Asthma: confusion in diagnosis, recognising comorbidities and understanding pathophysiological connections
In parallel with the factors I have mentioned above, my top picks are:
1. Symposium: Dangers in the air we breathe – 5 Sept/9:30-11:00
In this symposium recent scientific highlights about the effects of airborne pollution factors, especially allergens, diesel exhaust particles, microplastics and microtextiles, on the lungs will be presented and their effects in children and adults will be compared ; to discuss the biology of allergen-induced lung disease will be discussed ,biological sex differences in response to exposure to these factors will be described
The dangers of airborne environmental factors to the human lung are of great and diverse interest due to the current strong international focus on climate change and air pollution.
2. Hot topics: Launch of “Lung facts” – 4 Sept 2022/11:15-12:45
Using data to create a transformation in respiratory healthcare
Lung Facts will act a key advocacy tool in the context of the International Respiratory Coalition (IRC) to raise the profile of lung health following on from the devastating impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on respiratory health across the globe
3. Primary care session: Forgotten issues in COPD: a primary care perspective – 6 Sept/11.15-12.45
I very much value primary care in the management of chronic respiratory diseases, so this session will remind us some important but neglected issues