Everything you need to know about this year’s theme – why it’s important and what to expect from the congress programme on the topic of ‘Humans and machines: getting the balance right’.
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Each year the European Respiratory Society (ERS) Congress has a theme because its an opportunity within the programme to spotlight a hot topic or priority area alongside the full spectrum of topics always on offer. This year the theme is focused on the rapidly developing area of artificial intelligence (AI) within respiratory medicine and science.
“We really felt that focusing in on developments in AI for our field was particularly timely. The rate of progress and development in this area is both exciting and daunting and this idea of finding ‘balance’ is something which is certainly a hot topic, not just in medicine, but across all sectors. This theme, in my opinion, is one of the most cross-cutting in recent years – it’s of interest to all disciplines and across specialist areas.”
Prof. Gabor Kovacs, ERS Congress Co-Chair
“It is extremely important that we view developments in technology, and specifically AI, with an open mind but also a critical eye. The research presented at this year’s event under the theme of ‘Humans and machines: getting the balance right’ is so pioneering and should guide our future developments. The questions that are important to me when I hear of AI technology are: how can this concept make us better, how can it improve the patient experience, and what, if anything, is the risk? Our vision is to advance personalised medicine through the responsible use of AI, continuously improving respiratory medicine.”
Prof. Judith Löffler-Ragg, ERS Congress Co-Chair
We are delighted to be welcoming Dr Bertalan Mesko, PhD, known as The Medical Futurist, as the keynote speaker at this year's congress opening session.
Director of The Medical Futurist Institute, he specialises in analysing the impact of science fiction technologies on global medicine and healthcare.
He is also an Amazon Top 100 author and serves as a Private Professor at Semmelweis Medical School in Budapest, Hungary.
Dr Mesko has delivered over 900 keynotes at prestigious institutions and been featured across major media outlets.
His research focuses on the role of artificial intelligence and digital health technologies in shaping the future of care.
Dedicated to pioneering medical futures studies as a scientific discipline, Dr Mesko aims to make futures methods widely accessible in healthcare.
In addition to Dr Mesko's presentation, the opening session will also include an address from Maria Neira, Director of Public Health, Environmental and Social Determinants of Health at the World Health Organization (WHO).
View this session in the programme
This year’s ERS Congress will feature a session exploring the impact of Generative AI (GenAI) on healthcare, in line with the congress theme Humans and machines: getting the balance right. In this session, one of the most advanced GenAI robots in the world, AMECA, will answer your questions on GenAI in healthcare. It will explore potential applications, possible risks and benefits and any other considerations of implementing this technology into clinical practice.
View this session in the programme
There are around 50 sessions at the ERS Congress 2024 which relate to the theme Man and machine: getting the balance right. View them all here.
View a European Lung Foundation factsheet which looks at how digital technology is changing healthcare and what this means for your patients.
This European Lung Foundation factsheet provides an overview of how data sharing works, which is useful to share with your patients. The factsheet is a general guide rather than providing information specific to different countries. It aims to answer key questions which patients might have about how their data is shared and managed.
Available to watch now.
We announced the congress theme with an ERS Vision Live panel discussion – this is available to watch in full, free of charge, on the ERS Respiratory Channel.
As part of our congress theme offerings, we developed a four-part webinar series on the topic of AI in respiratory medicine. Revisit this series here.
Part two of a four-part series of webinars focused on the ERS Congress 2024 theme. View the replay here or register for the next two parts of this series below.
Data science and artificial intelligence are experiencing huge developments, enabling great benefits and advances in many fields. It is important for our community of respiratory experts to take advantage of these recent developments, in the clinic, in research, and in medical practice.
In line with the ERS Congress 2024 theme of “Human and Machines: getting the balance right”, this webinar will consider the ‘digital respiratory patient’ by discussing the opportunities for ‘digitally mapping’ the full spectrum of respiratory disease from childhood to older age and how we might balance technology with ‘human’ care across the life span.
