Live Expert Panel to Discuss COVID-19’s Effect on Respiratory Diseases

Experts will discuss how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected people living with pulmonary hypertension and other rare respiratory diseases during a live panel discussion this week.

The event, taking place on Tuesday, March 23, at 7 p.m. CET (2 p.m. EST), is being put on by the European Respiratory Society (ERS) as part of its “ERS Vision Live” series, which aims to provide education about the latest advances in respiratory medicine and support health professionals working to improve their practice.

Registration for the event, which is called “Living with rare respiratory diseases through the COVID-19 pandemic,” is available here. The event is free to attend, but registration is required.

Areas of discussion will include patient perspectives on how the pandemic has affected follow-up and highly specialized care, as well as the impact of COVID-19 on people with rare forms of pulmonary hypertension. Other topics will include new data on cystic fibrosis, non-cystic fibrosis bronchiectasis, and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.

The discussion will be chaired by Marc Humbert, MD, PhD, a professor of respiratory medicine at Paris-Saclay University in France and president-elect of the ERS, and by James Chalmers, the chair of respiratory research at the University of Dundee in Scotland and deputy chief editor of the European Respiratory Journal. 

One of the speakers at the panel discussion will be Gergely Meszaros, advocacy manager at the European Pulmonary Hypertension Association (PHA Europe).

“The COVID-19 has changed everyone’s life and surveys with the involvement of PHA Europe aimed to map how the pandemic has affected a vulnerable group of patients, those who are living with pulmonary hypertension,” Meszaros said in a press release. “It is a privilege to represent the patients’ voice in this interesting talk and to give insight how the healthcare systems coped with and patients handled these unprecedented times.”

Other speakers will include:

• Pisana Ferrari, a pulmonary hypertension patient advocate
• Isabelle Fajac, MD, PhD, president of the European Cystic Fibrosis Society
• Clémence Martin, MD, PhD, who specializes in lung health at Cochin Hospital in Paris
• Pippa Powell, PhD, director of the European Lung Foundation
• Vincent Cottin, MD, PhD, professor of respiratory medicine at the Claude Bernard University Lyon 1 in France
• Katerina Antoniou, MD, PhD, associate professor of respiratory medicine at the University of Crete in Greece
• Marion Delcroix, MD, PhD, head of the pulmonary hypertension program at the University Hospitals of Leuven in Belgium.

Additional information about the event is available at the registration link.