Man and Machine: ERS2024 & GAAPP
September has been a busy month for the Lovexair team and the network of international collaborators we have been able to meet at the ERS2024 World Congress, held from 7 to 11 September in Vienna, Austria.
This is our summary of what we have experienced regarding respiratory health.
WHO & Breathe, Mom
The ERS was the perfect time to reconnect with the Dr. Maria Neira, Director of Environment, Climate Change and Health of the World Health Organization (WHO), and share with her the progress of the documentary Breathe, Mom, which we participated in and through which we are raising global awareness about the impact of poor air quality on our respiratory health. It was also the perfect moment to specify how to unite our voices to strengthen this fight for future generations.
The documentary continues unstoppable in its international premiere and is already planning its next stop at the DocTalks Festival, at the Goethe Institute in Mexico City, from October 16 to 18. There we will have the opportunity, after the screening, to participate as a panelist alongside a group of experts from the medical sector, patients, and activist mothers represented by Liz Hurtado, Latin American leader of Moms for Clean Air USA.
Take note of the date because we will broadcast the event
en Our youtube channel Do not miss it!
GAAPP Summit
The Global Allergy & Airways Patient Platform (GAAPP) held a summit during the Respiratory Congress, with participation of patient leaders from different countries, presenting inspiring initiatives from Asia, Africa, Latin America and Eastern Europe and discussing the challenges we face in respiratory health and equitable access to care.
Our thanks in advance to @Tonya Winders already Migdalia Denis for their institutional leadership, as well as the GAAPP team and board for joining forces with us to work towards respiratory care and treatment.
The meeting highlighted the potential of gathering data and scientific evidence that would enable transformative measures to be adopted when it comes to protecting our health, while always respecting the balance between man and machine, between human empathy and our use of technology.
This tandem, man-machine, was precisely what marked the main speech of the summit. In this regard, we thank Dr. Bertalan Mesko for his excellent presentation on AI in Medicine: The Medical Futurist.
Community and COPD Index
How to overcome obstacles to achieve equitable access to care for the COPD community, especially from rural or marginalized communities, was the focus of our meeting with Ruth Tal Singer, GAAPP Research Director, and Jean Wright, CEO of the COPD Foundation. Guiding and educating these communities, supporting lifestyle changes and preventing their health from deteriorating, is key at this time.
Now that we live in the era of virtual care, we must promote programs in which these communities can be supported in a simple and agile way and offer them continuous monitoring so that they can self-manage their pathology and recognize their risk factors. That is precisely the focus of our Happyair ecosystem that we have been developing from the Lovexair Foundation.
The ERS also hosted the presentation of the COPD Index, a unique data tool developed by the Copenhagen Institute for Health Futures Studies, which enables countries to identify best practices and areas for improvement, with the aim of driving policy action to address the unmet needs of people with COPD.
The index also assesses the existence of national plans to serve this community, a parameter that is undoubtedly necessary but not sufficient as it does not necessarily lead to better health results for all populations. Therefore, it would be necessary to evaluate the approach of each country to know what its priorities are, what can be improved and what can be made profitable.
It is also important to highlight the fact that awareness levels about COPD among policy makers and the general public are still very low, even though it is the third leading cause of death and is still increasing. This is precisely where we are working intensively at the Foundation to contribute to raising awareness.
Alpha-1 Community
Our colleagues at the Alpha-1 Foundation and the Alpha-1 European Alliance in the USA and Europe, together with Lovexair, are finalising preparations for the next Alpha-1 Global Scientific and Patient Congress, to be held in Lisbon on 4-5 April 2025.
Our goal now is to grow our community of patients, caregivers and healthcare professionals to facilitate early diagnosis and care and to participate in trials for new treatments in development.
We also continue to support research in this community. One of these promising studies is the one developed by Dr. Francisco Dasí, a member of our advisory board, who has expressed his conclusions on an already approved treatment to increase AAT levels in our system in his research “N-acetylcysteine increases the expression and secretion of A1AT in the Z-AATD model”, which would be especially important for people affected by liver diseases.
ELF Networking Day and progress of the International Respiratory Coalition
Brilliant content on key climate policy and digital health topics was at the centre of the European Lung Foundation's Networking Day, thanks to Pippa Powell and the ELF team. One of the interventions was that of Nicole Hass, from APEPOC, who presented a paper on the impact of public health policies on the COPD community.
Amy Auer is competently coordinating the International Respiratory Coalition in 27 EU member countries and organizing workshops and communications so that national working groups or committees can learn from best practices and innovations.
Tobacco and vapes
The ERS congress was also the ideal setting to learn about the latest - and increasingly numerous - scientific publications on the impact of tobacco and vaping-related substances on our health. At Lovexair we want to continue working together with CNPT, Nofumadores.org and similar organisations to raise awareness about the real risks of these habits and change the perception that exists about these devices.
Thanks
Our most special thanks to Andrea gonzales for her leadership as Director for Latin America and Global, and to our core team for allowing us to have social, educational, clinical and digital resources ready to meet the needs of patients and health professionals. Thanks to the team, we are gaining access to vulnerable communities in Latin America, with cystic fibrosis, asthma, COPD, or bronchiectasis.
Within the research team with which we work closely, we would especially like to thank @Marc Miravitlles for always being available to help and guide us. We wish him all the best as ERS President in 2025.
Our thanks also to GSK and our fellow patient leaders for the opportunity to jointly publish the e-poster: “Towards stability in COPD management: patient perspectives”, which helped strengthen our voice as stakeholders in the care we need.
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