En Bloc Society - APSR Joint Symposium

It was a privilege and honour to represent the APSR at the outstanding PCCP 39th Annual Chest Convention: 3-6 March 2020 in Manila with a very interesting theme of "CLARITY: Concepts, Lessons, Advances and Realities in the year 2020".

The Local Organising Committee did a remarkable job and delivered a very high quality meeting full of scientific and educational content. Congratulations and thanks to them and the PCCP for strengthening the close relationship with the two Societies.

It was a 3-day programme with Plenaries, Meet the Masters, Exhibits, Oral and poster presentations, intertwined with official functions and social events. The PCCP is renowned for delivering quality research and education while extending collegiate and networking opportunities, and this was fully evident at "Clarity". The full majesty and formality of the Opening Ceremony with an Honour Lecture by Dr Jennifer Ann Mendoza-Wi set the scene for a wonderful Convention.

The Plenaries included topics on the Big 5 of lung disease; asthma, COPD, infection, lung cancer and TB, with excellent speakers from local, regional, national and international sources. Technological innovations were impressive with live streamed presentations including on the topic COVID-19 soon to be pandemic.

The interhospital debates were robust and served to showcase new talent which bodes well for respiratory medicine in the Philippines.

Well done PCCP members, keep up your remarkable work and help us all in the Asia-Pacific region reach out and help our communities achieve the good lung health that we all deserve. Salamat.

As launched in the APSR Hanoi last November 2019, the Philippine College of Chest Physicians (PCCP) immediately applied for the innovative project "Joint APSR - En bloc Society Symposium", as an added feature in our annual meeting scheduled on 3-6 March 2020 in Manila, Philippines. We were honoured to have Prof. Kwun M Fong, the immediate past president of the APSR, as the faculty who represented the Society in our meeting.

Prof. Fong's first symposium was the Presidents' Session where along with the two other panelists, Dr Malbar Ferrer, incumbent president of the PCCP and Dr Mark Elliott, immediate past president of the British Thoracic Society (BTS), discussed on how the different respiratory societies can collaborate and work together to address the biggest challenges facing the medical field right now. The session, facilitated by Dr Patrick Moral, a member of the APSR Education Committee, tackled climate change, COVID-19, the opportunities and dangers of social media in respiratory medicine, approach to diverse organizations in terms of culture and the societies impact in members' clinical practice. Prof. Fong shared a notable message for the societies to work things locally and achieve globally.

Another Joint APSR-PCCP Symposium conducted was the plenary session on "Advances in Lung Cancer Diagnosis and Treatment" where Prof. Fong presented the current approach to diagnosis and treatment options for lung cancer.

As an offshoot of the successful 2020 PCCP CLARITY Annual Chest Convention, another great initiative was launched by the APSR, the APSR-PCCP Travel Award in APSR Congress. Maiden conferment was originally planned for the 2020 Kyoto APSR Congress, derailed by the current pandemic.

The PCCP conveys its sincerest gratitude to the Executive Committee of the Asian Pacific Society of Respirology for giving us the opportunity to host these significant sessions. The convention was an unqualified success as measured by attendance and quality of the scientific programme.