The World Pulmonary Hypertension Symposia (WSPH) series, started in Geneva in 1973, have been held every 5 years since the Evian edition in 1998: Venice 2003, Dana Point 2008, Nice 2013, Nice 2018.
The WSPH have become a traditional appointment among the most authoritative pulmonary hypertension scholars worldwide. They have marked the progresses in pulmonary hypertension science and anticipated future developments. The published supplement of the symposia proceedings constitutes a collection of articles among the most cited in this scientific area. The last edition of the WSPH in 2018 presented the work of 124 experts divided in 13 task forces and was attended by 1300+ members of the pulmonary hypertension scientific community.
The “Proceedings of the 6th World Symposium on Pulmonary Hypertension” were published in the European Respiratory Journal and can which can be downloaded at this link
Learn more about the World Symposium on Pulmonary Hypertension on the website of the World Symposium on Pulmonary Hypertension Association (WSPHA) at this link
Relevance of the WSPH for patients
It is important to note that for the first time ever the 6th edition of the WSPH included a Task Force on Patient perspectives, with a patient/patient advocate as one of the authors. The work of this Task Force was presented as part of the “Proceedings of the 6th World Symposium on Pulmonary Hypertension” (see above, pages 162-176) and also as a stand alone article in the European Respiratory Journal: “The importance of patient perspectives in pulmonary hypertension”, Michael D. McGoon, Pisana Ferrari, Iain Armstrong, Migdalia Denis, LukeS. Howard, Gabi Lowe, Sanjay Mehta, Noriko Murakami, Brad AWong, European Respiratory Journal 2019 53: 1801919; DOI: 10.1183/13993003.01919-2018
This article can be viewed or downloaded at this link
Quoting from the Proceedings of the 6th WPSH, section on, “An overview of the 6th World Symposium on Pulmonary Hypertension”, Nazzareno Galiè, Vallerie V. McLaughlin, Lewis J. Rubin and Gerald Simonneau, page 3:
“The importance of the patients’ perspective has been outlined by a newly created task force. Despite recent progress in patients’ involvement in the pulmonary hypertension field, patient surveys indicate that more can be done to improve this aspect. The relevance of health-related quality of life has been outlined, and specific questionnaire use may improve direct clinical care. Patients should be provided with access to accredited specialist centres that provide a multidisciplinary approach including narrative medicine, shared decision making, palliative care and participation in education. The role of patients’ associations in supporting patients and carers, lobbying for access to best care and treatments, providing input in to the development of clinical trials and registries, and focusing on the patient perspective have also been highlighted.”