ERS Assembly 1: Respiratory clinical care and physiology

Group 01.01
Chair: Shailesh Balasaheb Kolekar
Secretary: Georgios Kaltsakas

This Group gathers together all pulmonary physicians who have a broad interest in clinical respiratory medicine as a whole. Contrasting with specialised Groups that focus on a disease or technique, ours is dedicated to all aspects of respiratory medicine. This includes interstitial lung disease, lung manifestations of systemic diseases, lung problems induced by drugs, disorders of the pleura, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, orphan lung disorders, emerging lung diseases, etc.

We aim to focus on clinical questions that will help respiratory physicians take better decisions in their clinical everyday practice, based on the best available scientific evidence. Our Group plays an active role in the Society and organises many symposia, postgraduate courses and clinical grand rounds during the annual ERS Congress as well as contributing to the organisation of ERS school courses.

We intend to further develop the collaboration with other Assemblies and Groups, and to promote links between clinicians in respiratory medicine, physicians involved in clinical research, and scientists involved in lung biology. Our priority is to raise the most relevant questions for all pulmonary physicians.

Group 01.02
Chair: Rachael A. Evans
Secretary: William Man

Group 01.02 offers the unique opportunity to exchange information on the latest developments related to rehabilitation and chronic care in clients with chronic lung disease. In fact, Group 01.02 surpasses the individual medical specialities by offering an international platform for interdisciplinary discussions on rehabilitation and chronic care.

Group 01.02 contributes to the ERS Congress with a wide range of symposia, covering all aspects of rehabilitation in COPD and non-COPD (including exercise training, nutritional counselling, psychology, occupational therapy); physical inactivity; aftercare following rehabilitation; and the extra pulmonary physical and psychological features of chronic lung disease.

The chronic care aspect of the group covers areas including palliative care; advance life directives; end-of-life communication; home care; e-health; self-management; motivational interviewing techniques; integrated care; non-pharmacological care during and following ICU admission; and non-pharmacological care before and after major thoracic surgery.

We are a truly multi-disciplinary group and welcome everybody who is involved and/or interested in rehabilitation and chronic care of clients with chronic lung disease (e.g., respiratory physicians, geriatricians, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, psychologists, nurses, social workers, dieticians, respiratory function technologists, movement scientist, epidemiologists, enhanced art therapists and behavioural scientists).

Group 01.02 members receive a monthly literature update of clinically relevant English-language articles. Moreover, we encourage everybody (also non-members) to submit congress abstracts on the above mentioned topics to Group 01.02 to stimulate discussion between experts and novices within these fields of expertise.

Group 01.03
Chair: Miguel Román Rodriguez
Secretary: Cláudia Vicente

This Group is specifically aimed at general practitioners, nurses and other allied health professionals in primary care, chest physicians with an interest in what happens outside of the hospital, and primary care researchers. Our activities and influence within the ERS have grown considerably since we joined Assembly 1 in 2000.

In Florence (2000), we organised our first symposium on "Underdiagnosis and undertreatment of asthma and COPD in primary care". In Glasgow (2004), we organised, in co-ordination with our colleagues from Assembly 9, a stand-alone day programme for over 600 primary health professionals. In Stockholm (2007), both a multidisciplinary primary care day (together with Assembly 9) and a well-attended major symposium on consultations were organised.
As a relatively small but active Group we cooperate with national and international groups interested in respiratory disease research in primary care (such as the International Primary Care Respiratory Group (IPCRG), the World Organisation of Family Doctors (WONCA) and the European Lung Foundation (ELF)). We have open submission for abstracts for the annual congresses, and welcome new members to our Group.

Group 01.04
Chairs: Io Hui
Secretary: David Drummond

The ERS Group 01.04 was launched in 2019 to bring together healthcare professionals with an interest in implementing digital health technologies in respiratory medicine. Most of the members are clinicians but there is a growing interest among physiologists, physiotherapists, radiologists, nurses and lung function technologists.

The main areas of interest of the Group are artificial intelligence, machine learning, big data, deep learning, virtual, augmented and mixed realities, mobile health, open platforms, clinical information systems, telemonitoring, teleassistance, and telerehabilitation.

One of the main goals of the Group is to increase the number of specialists with an interest in e-health/m-health. To achieve this goal, the officers of the Group and Assembly 1 actively promote group activities at the annual ERS Congress (such as thematic poster, poster discussion and oral presentation sessions, symposia, and postgraduate courses), and propose ERS Research Seminars, Webinars, and Task Forces.

At the ERS Congress 2019 in Madrid, the Group organised two sessions that gave an opportunity to more than 30 participants to present their studies. Every two months, Group members receive a literature update on telemedicine of clinically relevant English-language articles.

We welcome everyone with an interest in digital health to join the Group.

Group 01.05
Chair: James H. Hull
Secretary: Afroditi Boutou

Group 01.05 was recently formed by the merging of two long-established ERS Groups, formerly Gas exchange and exercise and Respiratory structure and function.

The aims of the Group are to provide up-to-date perspectives and opportunities for research and education in both clinical and basic respiratory physiology and biology, through a strong integrative, multidisciplinary and multi-scale approach; and to facilitate the translation of respiratory and exercise physiology science into the clinical evaluation and treatment of cardio-respiratory diseases.

The main topics of the Group are the clinical, physiological and patho-physiological aspects of airway, lung and chest wall mechanics, gas exchange and transport mechanisms, respiratory and peripheral muscles action and metabolism, exercise physiology and pathophysiology, namely factors limiting exercise in health and disease, clinical manifestations of cardio-respiratory diseases during exercise and exercise-based rehabilitation strategies. Special attention is also given to new methods and technologies for the analysis and assessment of respiratory system structure and function. Through ERS resources, the Group promotes, facilitates and coordinates proposals for research and education projects, symposia for the annual ERS Congress, task forces, research seminars, awards in the field of clinical physiology and exercise.