Presidential Address 2003 by Jan Lerut

Dear Members,
First of all, I would like to express my gratitude for having elected me as President of the European Society for Organ Transplantation for the period 2003–2005.

During the last years our Society has grown considerably demonstrated by a progressive increase of the membership and also by an attendance of more than 2600 participants at our biennial congresses.

The Venice Congress was a beautiful meeting with a high clinical and considerable scientific impact. It was organized in an exemplary way by the team of Hermano Ancona, Patrizia Burra, Paolo Rigotti and Ugo Livi in close collaboration with Annalisa Ponchia and Arianna Caldon from KEYCONGRESS. They should all be complimented for their commitment and professionalism making the meeting a memorable one.

As the new President of our Society, I would like to build at the expansion and prestige of our Society by focusing on five major points during the next two years.

In the last four years I have been active as Chairman of the Educational Committee of ESOT. During this period this committee succeeded, with the full support of the Council, to structure and standardize different high level educational activities. The European College of Transplantation Course (also known as Hesperis Course), created in 1987 by H. Kreis and J.-M. Dubernard, is now running smoothly and has become part of the educational program responsibility of ESOT. Quality has been maintained by introducing the concept of an ECOT core-lecturer pool (rated by the participating students), by selecting 66 participants on the basis of their CV, their future career planning in transplantation and finally by the realisation of a scientific course framework.

Further efforts have been initiated to obtain long-term funding from the European Commission.
The European Transplant Fellow Workshop (ETFW), originally initiated by R. Porte and B. Buiten, has already become a tradition and allows starters in the field of transplantation to express themselves and have interactive discussions with their peers.

The Post-Graduate ECOT-ESOT Course has now been standardized as a satellite symposium of our biennial meeting.
Efforts are also in progress to integrate practical organ procurement courses into the package of educational activities sponsored by ESOT.

The second aim of my Presidency is to elaborate on the ESOT website to make it really a central and valuable contact point for all transplant physicians and scientists involved in transplantation in Europe. Indeed, the extension of the actual European Union will foster the development of transplant activities in the eastern and south-eastern countries. Improved contacts between experienced centers and starting or developing centers will be of utmost importance in order to further develop the concept of globalisation of transplantation.

The third aim deals with the integration of our thoracic transplant community within ESOT. Indeed, transplant science is evolving in such a way that common approaches to the patients develop. Crossfertilization between abdominal and thoracic transplanters will be of benefit for the patients and for the medical transplant community. Recently, as the European Liver and Intestinal Transplant Association (ELITA) did before, the European Society of Heart and Lung Transplantation (ESHLT) agreed to join ESOT. As a result, both organizations have now permanent representation in the Council of ESOT.

The fourth aim relates to the training of transplant surgeons and physicians throughout Europe. The position of the transplant surgeons and physicians is not always clear neither attractive. Some institutions even lack this "species". More efforts should be made to standardize the training of the real transplanter. Ideally the transplant surgeon and physician should be both involved in the treatment of the different diseases treated with the different organ transplants and his training should be completed by the development of a satisfactory medical and/or surgical background. Interaction between the different fields of organ transplantation and between the medical, surgical and immunological parts of transplantation, will be the best guarantee to further improve our care to the transplant recipients. An active link with the "Union Européenne de Medecins Spécialistes" (UEMS) will be of interest in view of the creation of a special competence in transplantion.

Finally, it is the aim of the Council to further strengthen the position of ESOT on the world transplant map. Many achievements in the field of transplantation originated in Europe or from Europeans working abroad. It is time for ESOT to come out of the shadow of other international transplant organizations. The Society should spread out her wings towards the west as well as to the east. At this very moment negociations have been started with the American Society of Transplantation in order to promote mutual activities at our congresses and to promote exchange of young transplant researchers by creating ESOT-AST grants. Similar talks have been undertaken with our Asiatic and Latin-American colleagues.

The recent creation of an ESOT Basic Science Committee, consisting of reknowned and enthousiastic researchers, will be a guarantee for further improvement of the scientific content of our Society.

The communication between these different transplant communities will also profit from an improved way of publishing results in our journal, Transplant International. I am confident that our Editor-in-Chief, Ferdinand Mühlbacher, will succeed within the following months to expand the readership of Transplant International and promote the journal as an interesting and worthwhile alternative to other prominent transplant journals.

To realize all these aims, collaboration between transplant professionals in Europe is necessary. I am confident that the Council and Committees of ESOT, a liaison board of previous Councillors and the active membership, will be able to reach these goals.

I would like to encourage you to keep an open direct line of communication with our Secretary, Rutger J. Ploeg, as regards to membership issues, future developments and ideas or activities concerning our Society.

I remind you to stimulate your young collaborators to become part of our prestigious Society. It should be remembered in this context that ESOT can provide in close collaboration with pharmaceutical companies major study and research grants. ESOT grants and awards have been the base of career development of many leading persons in the European field of transplantation.

I take the opportunity to wish you all the best for 2004.

With my best regards,

Prof. Jan Lerut
October 2003