The 11th WASOG and 13th BAL meeting Kusadasi Turkey (3rd combined WASOG BAL meeting) meeting was very successful. We thank the organizers for hosting this excellent congress. We had a lovely openings ceremony in Ephesus.
Traditional Derwisj danser
The program was excellent, there were interesting and challenging discussions. It started with a patient meeting which had a good attendance.
Thereafter, BAL course in which the possibilities BAL cellular analysis can offer the clinician in clinical practice struggling with getting the right diagnosis. It appears that BAL is not only useful in providing the diagnosis in certain cases but also might be useful in ruling out some possible causes of ild of infections. During the scientific program there were some highlights: the importance of the right diagnosis, this should be achieved working with multidisciplinary teams, a central role for the patient, personalized medicine and tailor-made medicine. There were lots of interesting scientific discussions also informal.
We should better search for causes as ‘idiopathic’ does not really exist if you search extensively. The information provided by the patient about any exposure is crucial. This is also something to consider with regard to the new drugs: ‘should pirfenidone only be used in IPF? Another challenge is can we identify responders and non-responders for instance to biologicals and how long should we treat a responder ? These are very relevant questions for the clinicians and also regarding the cost of the new drugs. These questions hopefully will challenge young researcher to develop new studies. With concern to WASOG there were several changes in the committees and Marjolein Drent became president. More information of the congress will be published soon.
Organizing and scientific committee of the congress