Presidential Address 2005 by Bernard Charpentier

Dear Members, Ladies and Gentlemen,

I'm particularly proud and honoured for having been elected as President of European Society for Organ Transplantation for the period 2005-2007 and I would like to express my gratitude to all members for this priviledge. I wish to thank our Past-President, Jan Lerut, for all what he has done with energy and optimism during his presidential term. I also wish to thank Rutger Ploeg, Secretary-General, and Ferdinand Mühlbacher, Treasurer, who are doing a great job for ESOT. I'm very glad to work with them and with our new Council. Each biannual Congress has demonstrated the growth of our Society in relation to membership and attendance (3200 participants in Geneva!) as well as in relation to quality and scientific level. The Geneva Congress in 2005, a beautiful meeting in every aspect, has brought together Europeans, Americans, Latin-Americans and also Middle-and Far-East transplanters. The meeting was organized in an exemplary way by the team of Philippe Morel and Leo Bühler, in close collaboration with Annalisa Ponchia from Keycongress and of course the PCO M.C.I. All should be complimented for this success translating the vitality of our Society. Also, I wish to stress how special the honorary membership ceremony has been where the transplant pioneers René Küss, Tom Starzl and Roy Calne were honoured as ESOT honorary members. As the new President of our Society, I would like to focus during the next two years on seven points aiming to enhance the quality and activity of our Society.

"Science"
The rationale for a respected Society is to perform " Science " in all aspects of this word. Everyone will agree that in the era of current competition, congress attendees, and journal readers will go to the best " science " produced by a Society. Thus, our two vehicles: our biannual congress and our journal Transplant International should be further improved. The Geneva Congress was a success in terms of attendance but also in terms of scientific value of the program. This level can be raised by strengthening the relation between the LOC and the ESOT Council and by elaborating the programme with the help of the ESOT Ambassadors Committee, the Basic Science Committee, ELITA and ESHLT and of course the newly formed EPITA (Pancreatic and Islet association). The best abstract awards and special oral session will be a strong factor of progress along with research grants. We need to evaluate every congress to improve the quality of the following one. Regarding Transplant International, members should send their best papers to our journal in order to increase the impact factor. In the future Transplant International should be able to compete with Transplantation and The American Journal of Transplantation.

"Education"
A main task of ESOT is to ensure the transplant generation renewal. To substantially increase the number and the quality of the upcoming generation, ESOT has launched since several years an educational package comprising already 8 different high level courses summarized in the so-called 'Pyramide'. From basic (Hesperis Course) to highly specialized (TOP, EDSM and Split-liver courses), ESOT tries to offer as much as possible to complete transplant education. Through our courses, grants and awards, the circulation of 'students' will help ESOT to participate in the construction of a Europe of " knowledge ".This is for instance exemplified by mixing 66 students, 2 times for 5 days during a same academic year with their teachers during the Hesperis Course. During the past two years, I have had the privilege to chair the ESOT Educational Committee together with André Baranski, Patrizia Burra, Max Dubernard, Henri Kreis and Robert Porte. We have tried with the help of Pharmaceutical Industry to strengthen all educational activities developed during the previous years.

"ESOT Membership"
A Society is as strong as its membership. Strength means quality and quantity of members. A main goal is to increase the membership by one third. It should be a priority task for each member to recruit every year one to two new, preferentially young, members. The ESOT-membership now offers lots of advantages such as eligibility for grants and awards application; of note is the introduction of a low fee trainee membership for juniors less than 35 years of age. An important initiative was taken by our previous president, Jan Lerut, bringing together during the Geneva meeting within the context of ESOT, all Presidents of National European Transplant Societies. This meeting resulted in a very fruitful discussion and the general feeling was that ESOT is to be seen as the best meeting place of all National Societies.

"Broadening the Field of Transplant Research"
Transplantation is one of the best examples where basic and clinical investigation are developed at the same time. Since the pioneering days of the early fifty's Transplantation now touches on many different fields of research. It seems, however, that it has been going round in circles for some time. The recent introduction of new areas of research in transplantation like emerging technologies, stem cells, in vitro embryogenesis, interface between physics and biology will bring more areas of interest to our Society.

"Contact with nearby Transplant Regions"
The success of ESOT meeting is in part related to the participation of many attendees from outside Europe as well as the publication of many extra-European papers in Transplant International. Both illustrate that ESOT may serve as an efficient link between transplant regions of the world. This is particularly true for the 'neighbouring' Maghrebian countries, where organ transplantation is standing up slowly but surely with the help of many excellent centres in Europe. The fact that transplanters of the Maghrebian countries have already strong connections with the Francophone Society of Transplantation should be an excellent means to strengthen the relationship with ESOT. Why not consider in a near future to integrate these countries within ESOT? This could be a unique opportunity to further profiling - and strengthening - ESOT on the global transplant scene, if desired so. Josep Grinyo has elaborated within the ESOT International Liaison Task Force a structured collaboration with the South-American and Caribbean Transplant Society. This has lead to grants for bilateral exchange of fellows. Indeed, ESOT is on the way to become a major player on the international transplant scene.

"Collaboration with the American Society of Transplantation and the (International) Transplantation Society"
AST and ESOT have funded a joint research grant in 2006, which will be awarded to a scientifically highly ranked young scientist submitting a transplantation research grant proposal in either basic or clinical science to a joint review committee. The joint venture with AST has also resulted in participation of ESOT at the AST Winter Meeting and in the creation of a ESOT-AST plenary session at the biannual ESOT congress. Under the guidance of Jan Lerut and Rutger Ploeg, ESOT has also participated actively in the " Global Alliance for Transplantation " (GAT) project launched three years ago by TTS. The mission of GAT is " ... To advance the safe, effective and ethical practice of transplantation for all patients in need... ". Further meetings are scheduled to deal with the adoption of a strategic framework for the operational activities of GAT, of a governance model, of a funding strategy to underpin GAT's organisational requirements and finally to reinforce all educational activities. A further example of an international action will be the development of the donation day launched with the help of W.H.O, at the occasion of the Geneva ESOT meeting.

"Partnership with Phamaceutical Industries"
The time of divergence between Academic and Industrial Research has gone. Pharmaceutical Industries and Academic Institutions both now have developed an impressive 'panopea-armementarium' of new drugs, instruments, and devices, since the end of the seventies and beginning of the eigthties. It should be remembered that at that time progress in transplantation was almost exclusively measured by patient and graft survival rates; Now progress and interests are clearly more focused on subtile parameters such as graft function and quality of life of the recipient. Moreover, financial constraints will become major hurdles for the academic researchers in order to realize their plans and ideas. Therefore, partnerships between Academic Institutions and Pharmaceutical Industries further remain absolutely mandatory for the future progress of transplantation. This collaboration should be carried out in mutual respect and range from basic science via grants and awards sponsored by the industry to ethical matters related to clinical investigation, authorship and disclosure of interests.

Dear members and fellow transplanters, I do hope I will be able to concretize these aims not only with the help of the Council of ESOT but also with your active participation.

Prof. B. Charpentier
October 2005