- Florence Meeting
As the UK representative on the full board of the European Union of Geriatric Medicine Specialists (EUGMS), I was privileged to attend the second congress. It was held in August, in the beautiful surroundings of the Palazzo dei Congressi in Firenze. The congress kicked off in the impressive, but very warm, medieval surroundings of the Palazzo Vecchio, with contributions from many luminaries including Romano Prodi, the President of the European Commission. Indeed, the recent excessive number of deaths among older people in France, during the exceptionally warm weather, only served to highlight the need for the clinical specialty of geriatric medicine in Europe. |
Palazzo dei Congressi in Firenze |
The congress had a truly international flavour, with contributions from presenters travelling from three continents - a total of 582 attendees from 32 countries.
There was a very wide variety of free communications and posters, with an opportunity to hear about the practice of clinical geriatric medicine in Europe. One of the most memorable was a contribution from a Greek geriatrician (trained in France and speaking in English!) detailing a major survey of a rural population of older people. What was even more remarkable was the fact that the presenter was in a single-handed practice. The diversity of speciality practice is foreign, in more ways than one, to those of us working in the British Isles. However, it was nice to see that British contributions came second only to those of our hosts in the number of posters and oral presentations.
| The congress was structured around a number of core curriculum topics, a process ably chaired by Prof Alan Sinclair from Warwick who is the current Academic Director of the Society. These topics included the Principles of Diabetes care, Physical activity in the elderly, and Urinary Incontinence. In addition there was the launch of the first special interest group, in diabetes, and a number of excellent invited talks ranging from Sexuality and Ageing given by Jerry Johnson from Philadelphia (a former president of the American Geriatrics Society) to Health Promotion Strategies by Gary Andrews from Adelaide. Many other “well kent” faces from the UK and Ireland took part in various symposia, including our own President Elect, Jerry Playfer. |
There
was an Englishman, and Irishman, a Scotsman and another Irishman... |
At the business end, the full Board meeting saw the election of yours truly to the executive board, with Gulio Masotti becoming President and Brian Williams demitting, having steered the society through its first four years. Brian will continue on the executive board as past president. Thus there will continue to be a strong UK presence in the engine room of this important fledgling society.
If all this has whetted your appetite, then come and join us at the next congress. It will take place in Vienna from 15-18 September 2004. For more details visit the website www.eugms.org.
Paul Knight