About Us

Head: Frans De Jongh
Secretary: Michele Agnew 

It is increasingly recognised that allied healthcare professionals play an important role in the diagnosis, treatment and care of patients with pulmonary diseases. High-quality measurement of pulmonary function plays an essential role in the diagnosis and follow-up of patients, and nurses and physiotherapists are in an ideal position to educate patients to take more responsibility and control of their own condition and to use nonpharmacological interventions like exercise training. This Assembly offers an opportunity to learn from each other's disciplines and to achieve an outcome that is in the patients best interest.

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Group 09.01 Respiratory Function Technologists/Scientists

Chair: Irene Steenbruggen
Secretary: Brendan G. Cooper

This Group exists to represent all clinical scientific activities in the ERS. Respiratory function diagnostics and therapeutic monitoring are now key areas in healthcare delivery across Europe and our Group is interested in the scientific, technical and quality issues of these services. We would like to open up our Group to all members who practice respiratory physiology, whether that be in primary care, secondary care or in a research environment. Education, training and quality are the key issues in protecting patients from misdiagnosis and poor measurement. We intend to lead in training and quality in spirometry and blood gas assessment throughout Europe and in collaboration with the ERS School, but we are supportive of all lung function technology and services requiring physiological measurement.

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Group 09.02 Physiotherapists

Chair: Thierry Troosters
Secretary: Johanna Williams

This Group was set up to provide a scientific basis for respiratory physiotherapists within the ERS. Physiotherapists specialised in the care of patients with respiratory disorders are scattered throughout Europe in many national organisations. Pressing issues like standardisation of therapeutic techniques, homogenised training standards, quality assurance and physiotherapy-related clinical research argue towards joining forces across national borders. Furthermore, there is the need to interact more intensively with medical doctors and other healthcare professionals concerned with respiratory care. Our Group provides the platform for such endeavours and thus has the potential to foster the distribution of specialised respiratory physiotherapy throughout Europe.

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Group 09.03 Nurses

Chair: Elise Austegard
Secretary: Stella Hrafnkelsdottir

The respiratory nurse has an important role in our society, especially with education and management. This very enthusiastic Group is interested in: improving the knowledge and the skills of the specialised nurses and to be acquainted with methods to present nursing practice and research; promoting the implementation of innovative nursing care for patients based on integrative patient-centered care and their caregivers, working with different methods of education and management in different settings (hospitalisation, primary care, emergency room, etc.); making recommendations on curricula requirements for the specialised respiratory nurses devoted to new scenarios in different countries and different settings (paediatric nursing care, convalescence centres and the tertiary hospital, palliative care, home care, etc.) for adequate standardisation of procedures and fluent communication (new information technologies) with respiratory nurses and others professionals; improving the multidisciplinary team with other professionals, especially within our Assembly, and with physicians, nurses and/or community health/social workers, working with the new role "nurse case management"; and improving the relationships and working together with other national and international respiratory societies.