Every part of our lives has been influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic and also one of the greatest annual events in the anesthesia field- the congress of the European Society of Anesthesia and Intensive Care- ESAIC- had to be a virtual event this year. I was, nevertheless a truly educative and well-organized 3 days of many engaging presentations which would be available on-demand for the participants by the end of December.
In the beginning, ESAICpresident Prof Dr. Kai Zacharowski warmly welcomes all delegates to the online version of Euroanaesthesia 2020, being held much later this year after COVID-19 caused the postponement of the original meeting in Barcelona, he encouraged all the colleagues in these demanding times and spoke about Prof. Dr. Andreas Hoeft who has passed away after a short illness, aged 66 years-a very important contributor to ESAIC during many years and will be very dearly missed in anesthesia community.
The Sir Robert Macintosh Lecture was the firstmost lecture of the congress- traditionally. This year the topic was Safety and diversity - celebrate our strengths! The presentation was delivered by our former President Daniela Filipescu, Professor of Anaesthesia and Intensive Care Medicine, University of Medicine ‘Carol Davila’, and Emergency Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases “Prof. Dr. C.C. Iliescu”, Bucharest, Romania.
“The year 2020 marks several important milestones: the 10th Anniversary of the Helsinki Declaration (HD) on Patient Safety in Anaesthesiology, the name change from European Society of Anaesthesiology (ESA) to European Society of Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care (ESAIC), and, 15 years after the formation of the ESA, the launch of a new ESAIC Committee on Gender Equity,” says Prof Filipescu.
After this well-presented lecture, the participants could choose from 10 different channels, streaming lectures covering: General Anaesthesiology, Ambulatory Anaesthesia, Regional Anaesthesia, Obstetric Anaesthesiology, Paediatric Anaesthesiology, Neuroanaesthesiology, Cardiac, Thoracic and Vascular Anaesthesiology, Acute and Chronic Pain Management and Palliative Medicine, Intensive Care Medicine, Critical Emergency Medicine - Trauma and Resuscitation, Respiration and Airway Management, Transfusion, Haemostasis and Thrombosis, Perioperative Medicine, Patient Safety, Geriatric Anaesthesiology, Education and COVID19. Everyone could choose the favorite topic and go back to the presentation. if there were more than one preferential lectures in parallel.
The speakers presented their topic and were available for a panel discussion at the end of each session. Apart from the scientific programme, there was also a poster section available, including the AKUTNE.CZ virtual patients poster presentation.
We can only congratulate for an amazing educative event and wish just the best to the ESAIC and its Euroanesthesia, which will be held in Munich, Germany 17-19 December 2021.
