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The President's Welcome

Dear Colleague,

A warm welcome …..

The 16th European Congress of Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine, organised by the European Society of Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine (ESPRM), in Bruges from 3 -6 June 2008, is now rapidly approaching. Herewith I present you with an update on the Congress planning.

THE SCIENTIFIC PROGRAMME
In the meantime the scientific programme is ready and available in the programme section and in the download area of the website. We received approximately 950 abstracts coming from more than 50 countries. Each abstract having been reviewed by 3 colleagues, we scheduled a programme with 300 lectures divided over 6 parallel sessions during three days.  Each day we will have a poster session with 200 posters per day according to the programme topics.

We had to change the initial programme at the glance because we received a lot of abstracts on neurological rehabilitation, clinical assessment and locomotor disorders and less abstracts on urological rehabilitation and respiratory rehabilitation. We tried to make a programme according to each abstract topic. We also had to organise sessions on miscellaneous topics as well.

I would like to thank all the participating Societies for the organisation of their sessions as well. All these very interesting sessions are of course also included in the official scientific programme.


THE PRE-CONGRESS SYMPOSIUM ON VOCATIONAL REHABILITATION
On 3 June 2008 the pre-congress symposium on vocational rehabilitation will be organised jointly with the Federation of European Ergonomics Societies (FEES), the topic of which will be: ‘Where rehabilitation medicine meets ergonomics’. Besides the morning sessions, three workshops devoted to discussions and guidelines for future European projects will be held in the afternoon.
This pre-congress symposium on Vocational Rehabilitation is also available on the website in the pre-congress courses section and in download area. I would like to thank the FEES for their active participation in the organisation together with the European Academy of Rehabilitation Medicine.


REGISTRATIONS –WORKSHOPS
We are pleased to inform you that we – at this point – have no less than 700 congress registrations and there also is much interest for the various workshops. As you will know 11 workshops will be organised for small and larger groups. The focus will be on hands-on workshops allowing the participant to practise the techniques. The contents of each workshop can also be found on the website. Prior to the congress, a two-day beginners’ course on ultrasonography of muscles, tendons, joints and nerves will be held on 2 and 3 June.         Ultrasonographically guided aspiration and injection techniques will also be covered. This course is limited to 50 participants, because each participant will be given the opportunity to perform the examination him/herself under supervision. We received a lot of response on this topic.


TRANS –EUROPEAN SCIENTIFIC CONTEST
The TESC competition will be organised on Friday 6 June in the afternoon. Belgium, France, Austria, Greece, Italy, Slovenia, The Netherlands, Turkey and the UK will compete for this important award.


ABSTRACTS
As you will know, the abstracts will be published in a supplement of the Journal of Rehabilitation Medicine. All congress participants will receive a copy of this Journal together with the Final Programme.


PROCEEDINGS OF THE CONGRESS
The Proceedings (with full papers) will be published as a book and as a CD by Edizioni Minerva Medica. The publication will be sent to ISI - Philadelphia - to be indexed by Current Contents. All abstract submitters have been invited by me and Edizioni Minerva Medica to publish a full text in this book.


THANK YOU MEDICONGRESS!
I wish, on behalf of the European Society of Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine, to express our gratitude for the magnificent work delivered by Medicongress. They help us in every way in each topic of the Congress as you have noticed. I would thank the Medicongress staff for their quick replies on every request and their fast follow-up of every problem.

CONCLUSION
As you can see we are on schedule for the Congress: I sincerely hope that the programme, the workshops, the sessions organised by the participating societies have convinced you that you can’t miss this Congress and I hope to meet you personally in Bruges to wish you a warm welcome!



Guy Vanderstraeten

Congress President