Fora

The project known as the EFORT Forum, which is an EFORT symposium at a national congress, was started in 2002 at the DGOOC congress in Berlin. The initial idea was to choose one topic for several events, e.g. thromboprophylaxis, and allow European experts to discuss it with speakers from various countries clarifying various European criteria and arriving at new standards. The idea was very well accepted, but the problem was finding European speakers ready to deal with the same topic in up to ten different events.

On the other hand, we realised that national expectations of such a symposium are quite different in different countries. Consequently, we changed our format and decided instead to organise up to ten European fora each year with four to six speakers. We plan to provide updates on a variety of hot topics in our speciality. National societies are free to choose a topic and propose a two- to four-hour session during the yearly congress, preferably on the official opening day of the congress or the day after.

EFORT Fora should not clash with the main sessions of the congress. At least half of the speakers should come from national societies and the other half from other European countries. For this reason, the forum language will be English. Whether or not simultaneous translation is needed must be decided by the congress organisers. In recent years, EFORT Fora have enjoyed a very high scientific level and provided excellent exchange between national societies and EFORT. The speakers involved in these fora were always hosted very graciously and treated as honoured guests at the congress. Accordingly, interest in such fora has grown markedly.

Upcoming events