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Postgraduate courses consist of 19 half-day educational courses which target clinicians and feature a mix of lecture and case-based learning to ensure the active involvement of participants. Their informal and interactive format is designed to encourage discussion and exchange of information.

Morning Sessions

• Interventional Pulmonology
  Aims: The aim of the course is to define the role of the main diagnostic and therapeutical interventional procedures in the management of lung cancer and of other lung and pleural diseases. At the end of this course, participants will be able to know the technical aspects of the procedures and how to include them in the appropriate clinical setting.
• Noninvasive ventilation (NIV) for stable hypercapnic COPD recent advances and practical considerations
  Aims: To update on recent advances in the application of long-term noninvasive ventilation (NIV) in stable hypercapnic COPD patients and to provide practical considerations for daily clinical use.
• Functional lung imaging to describe regional lung function disturbances
  Aims: To overview the status of imaging methods that are suitable for measuring regional lung function.
• Asthma vs COPD: emerging similarities and differences
  Aims: To discuss the similiarities and differences between asthma and COPD
• Paediatric asthma: state of the art
  Aims: Asthma is the most prevalent chronic disorder in schoolchildren in the western world, causing considerable morbidity. This PG course aims to provide participants with state of the art knowledge of different topics in paediatric asthma
• An update on pleural problems
  Aims: The attendees will get an updated information on pleural problems, and will be able to orientate the diagnosis and treatment of pleural effusions (complicated or not), pneumothorax, empyema and special postoperative complications after surgical treatment.
• Assessing Respiratory Muscle Strength: an interactive course
  Aims: To outline the usefulness, availability and limitations of respiratory muscle assessment.
• Risk stratification and treatment of lower respiratory tract infections
• Aims: To present risk factors for clinical failure. Describe the clinical application of the new markers of poor outcome in different LRTIs, such as pneumonia, exacerbations of COPD and bronchiectasis
• Management of thoracic tumours in practice - a HERMES basic
  Aims: The course covers major parts of the HERMES core syllabus in Thoracic oncology (Module B.2 level 3 mandatory items, as well as E1.2 and E1.3 modules regarding treatment modalities). The course is intended to provide basic knowledge to medical practitioners involved in the management of lung cancer patients.

Afternoon Sessions

• Update of phenotypes of asthma and COPD
  Aims: Asthma and COPD are not single disease entities. Both asthma and COPD, particularly COPD, include different clinical phenotypes with different risk factor pattern, clinical presentation and have large variations in prognosis. New data are continuously presented in high ranked journals. There is also a new debate about revision of the taxonomy of obstructive airway diseases
• MDR-/XDR - TB: update on clinical management
  Aims: To train European physicians on MDR-/XDR-TB management using standardised materials developed as part of the TB-PANNET ToT exercise.
• ERS/ACCP jointly organised: Evidence-based approach to advanced respiratory care
  Aims: Understand the process by which evidence-based guidelines are developed and implemented into practice; gain practical knowledge for using an evidence-based approach in managing the Solitary Pulmonary Nodule; learn to apply clinical evidence derived by clinical trials and the experience of real life already present in literature in treating severe asthma and pulmonary hypertension.
• Improving skills in cardiopulmonary exercise testing
  Aims: At the end of the course the participants will know: The usefulness of exercise testing in clinical trials, Interpretation of clinical exercise testing, State of the art knowledge on the performance and usefulness of inspiratory capacity during exercise, Useful tips in how to measure daily living activity.
• Treatment of obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA)
  Aims: To overview all available treatment modalities for OSA and to discuss some of them in detail.
• Thoracic ultrasound for physicians
  Aims: Understand the basic physics behind ultrasound; understand how to operate an ultrasound machine and how to get the most from the equipment; understand the indications, limitations and common pitfalls of thoracic ultrasound, understand the benefits of day to day use on the respiratory ward and obtain the theoretical part of thoracic ultrasound training laid out in the HERMES
• Emerging infections: educational perspectives
  Aims: At the end of this PG course participants will have acquired knowledge on the role of respiratory viruses in the development of atopic disorders, namely allergic rhinitis and asthma, and will have learnt about signs, symptoms, diagnosis and treatment of RSV infections in children. Furthermore, they will know which emerging respiratory viruses play a major role, and they will have gathered an overview on the bacteriologic variety in chronic airway diseases.
• Early detection of COPD, benefits and problems
  Aims: Under-diagnosis of COPD is known problem as only one out of three-four with COPD have been diagnosed by the health care system in Europe. The course may contribute to detection of previously undiagnosed subjects with COPD. This is in many ways beneficial as it increases the possibility of early intervention in smokers with mild COPD. There are, however, also problems both for the individuals who have so far regarded themselves as healthy, but now are labelled as having a disease, and for the health care system which will have to handle a fairly large number of new patients after a screening event. The purpose of this postgraduate course is to discuss the benefits and problems with spirometric screening using experiences from both screening events and population studies.
• How to set up and deliver a smoking cessation service in a pulmonology department?
  Aims: To analyse the burden of smoking in COPD patients, to study the smoking characteristics of smokers with COPD, to show the psychological approach for smoking cessation in smokers with COPD, to show pharmacological treatments for smoking cessation in smokers with COPD, to face smoking cessation of COPD smokers in a clinical setting.
• Biomarkers in respiratory medicine
  Aims: To illustrate the progress in developing new biomarkers and how to use them in clinical practice