The 2018 Journal Citation Report has been released and we're pleased to let you know that Respirology's 2018 Impact Factor has increased to 4.756 (from 4.407 last year).

The journal continues to be placed in the top 20% of Respiratory System journals, with a ranking of 11th out of 63 journals.

We'd like to take this opportunity to thank you for your ongoing support.

Philip Bardin and Paul Reynolds
Editors in Chief, Respirology

Now you can read full version of Respirology articles by either logging in using your APSR members-only user-id or your Respirology user-id.

We all have trouble remembering so many different user-ids and passwords. From now, if you forget one, you can use the other.

How it works

Try it now!

If you have any questions about this procedure, please contact the APSR Secretariat.

Several detailed changes have been made to enhance the workshops and main scientific programme in Hanoi.

All indications are that this will be an outstanding congress!

Submit your abstract(s) online now: www.gakkai-web.net/p/apsr/ab/new2.php for a chance to qualify for a travel award

Abstract submission deadline 15 July 2019.

Volunteer to live-tweet and upload to the APSR's social networking site (SNS) accounts during the ERS Congress 2019 in Madrid.

The APSR uses Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, and we are looking for a volunteer (only one!) to kindly contribute to these SNS accounts; in particular, APSR-related activities at the ERS Congress 2019 in Madrid. This is an open invitation for any young APSR member to attending the ERS Congress to apply for this volunteer position.

The volunteer will be offered complimentary registration for the APSR Congress in Hanoi, 2019.

Basic qualifications:

• Must be APSR member
• Aged 25-30
• Excellent SNS skills for Twitter, Facebook and Instagram
• Good English skills
• Planning to attend all (or most) of the ERS Congress from 28 September to 2 October

Roles and responsibilities:

• 20 live-tweets and uploads each day to the APSR's SNS accounts at Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. For example:
  • opening ceremony
  • major sessions
  • APSR young investigator sessions
  • APSR session at the World Village
  • notices from the APSR booth
  • notices from the venue
  • etc.
• contact the APSR Secretariat staff each day to agree the next day's schedule and receive any special instructions, either at the APSR booth or if that is not possible, by email to Ms Rina Kishigami at the APSR Secretariat rina.kishigami@theapsr.org

To apply for this opportunity please send to Ms Rina Kishigami at the APSR Secretariat rina.kishigami@theapsr.org:

• a brief (one page) curriculum vitae
• the dates you plan to attend the congress
• your Twitter, Facebook and Instagram accounts for the APSR Secretariat to see your past tweets and uploads

Application deadline: 20 August 2019

Feel free to contact the Secretariat APSR@theapsr.org if you have any queries.

We are looking forward to working with you!

The APSR Assemblies are offering a chance for you to save 50% of your Hanoi Congress registration fee.

You must be an existing member of an Assembly, or join one before the Hanoi Congress, and submit one or more of your simple respiratory cases to the APSR Teaching Library. There is no limit to the number of different cases you can submit.

Each case will be peer reviewed and if approved to be a suitable teaching vignette for the education of young doctors, it will be added to the APSR Teaching Library.

The cases should be simple and must not have already been published anywhere. (If you have more complicated original clinical cases, you are encouraged to submit them to Respirology Case Reports.)

You can submit your case for consideration to be included in the Teaching Library via: apsresp.org/education/teaching-library/index.php

Hurry. Only ten of these 50% discount awards are available. The closing date is 15 September 2019 and the APSR Secretariat will contact successful submitters.

Continuing this series we are delighted to share a tribute to Prof. Norbert Berend, prepared by Prof. Christine Jenkins.

This series complements our APSR Members' Honour Roll, on which as a member, you are welcome to add your appreciation of your mentor(s) at any time.

Tribute to Professor Norbert Berend

Dr Berend

My first acquaintance with Norbert Berend was by his reputation, as an advanced trainee and research fellow in thoracic medicine at Concord Hospital, Sydney. Having completed his physician training and PhD at Concord, he had just departed for Winnipeg, to work with Professor Thurlbeck in the year immediately prior to my commencing as a trainee at Concord, and his reputation was already substantial. He was an industrious, clever and clear-headed registrar, unquestionably headed for greater things, which indeed turned out to the case. Following his two years in Canada he moved to the National Jewish Hospital and Research Centre, Denver, Colorado as Assistant Professor of Medicine, and met many collaborators in his work in the pathophysiology of COPD. Pulmonary physiology has been his great love, and a constant through his research career. He has published over 160 papers on diverse physiologic topics, particularly lung mechanics, neutrophilic airway inflammation, interstitial lung disease, small airways disease, forced oscillometry, ventilation heterogeneity and lung function and obesity.

Norbert has never baulked at challenges in his working life. When he returned to Australia, he was made Senior Lecturer in Medicine at the University of Sydney and Concord Hospital, but he soon moved to Royal North Shore Hospital as Head of the Department of Thoracic Medicine, where he also progressed his research activities as well as training many respiratory and sleep physicians. Ultimately he swapped his clinical role for a major health administration role as Executive Director of the Hospital. Following this, in another crucial career move he took on the role that Ann Woolcock had occupied so remarkably, and became Director of the Institute of Respiratory Medicine, which was subsequently renamed to honour her, as the Woolcock Institute of Medical Research. At the Woolcock, Norbert supported a growing respiratory and sleep facility, many research activities and many people's careers, supervising many PhD students, and strongly supporting early- and mid-career researchers in pulmonary physiology.

Norbert has received many awards and honours that recognise his leadership and research productivity. He has been the recipient of the ERS Award of Merit and Lifetime Honorary Membership, the TSANZ Research and President's Medals, and the APSR President's Medal. He was awarded an Order of Australia in 2003 for his contribution to respiratory science and education.

Norbert has played a key role in the Asian Pacific Society of Respirology. He has had a long-standing commitment to developing respiratory science and expertise in the Asia-Pacific region. In the APSR he has occupied many roles in doing this, following in the steps again of Ann Woolcock, who had a vision of a strong regional advocacy and research body that could contribute to lung health and build scientific and clinical expertise in the region. Apart from being a member of many APSR congress planning committees, his APSR roles include Secretary General 2004–2006, APSR President from 2006–2009 and APSR delegate to the Forum of International Respiratory Societies (FIRS) 2008–2010. Following this he was Chairman of FIRS in 2011.

Norbert has remained a strong advocate for respiratory health in Asia. When he finished in his role as Director of the Woolcock, he moved to The George Institute for Global Health as Head, Respiratory Research. He has worked also as a member of the global leaders' team at GlaxoSmithKline and has relished visiting many of the places and people he has met in Asia over his working life.

Although I have worked with Norbert in most of the locations he has worked, the time at The George Institute has been a period of joint collaboration which has been particularly rewarding. We have worked together over several years on a large study in China and as he said in a recent email, reflecting on our journey through the years in many different roles, "At the end of the day we wound up at the George. What a journey! We have different talents which somehow complemented each other – in retrospect quite successfully and I look forward to future interactions". As do I.

Dr Jenkins

Prepared by Christine Jenkins
Head, Respiratory Group, Executive Director's Office
Professor of Respiratory Medicine, UNSW Sydney
Clinical Professor, Department of Thoracic Medicine, Concord Hospital
Head, Respiratory Discipline, University of Sydney

The George Institute for Global Health
Level 5, 1 King St, Newtown NSW 2042 Australia
Postal Address: PO Box M201, Missenden Rd, NSW 2050 Australia

26 June 2019

For assistance for Young Investigator to travel to the 2019 Congress in Hanoi, the following awards are available to APSR members who are presenting the best original paper at the Congress, in the following categories.

Each award is based on the quality of your abstract accepted for the Congress, and abstracts must be submitted before 15 July 2019.

New for 2019

APSR / KF-CB Lung Cancer Research Young Investigator Award

This Award is to recognise researchers in the area of lung cancer, one the big 5 lung diseases, and to encourage diversity in scientific excellence. Therefore women are particularly invited to compete for this award.

LMIC

The following awards will give preference to APSR Young Investigators from Asia-Pacific "lower-middle income countries" (LMICs), as listed by data.worldbank.org/income-level/low-and-middle-income.

APTA Young Investigator Award
APSR / KYF Geriatric Respirology Young Investigator Award
APSR / Malcolm Winterburn Lung Cancer Young Investigator Award
APSR / Norbert Berend COPD Young Investigator Award
APSR / Paul Zimmerman Physiology Young Investigator Award
APSR / Peter Sly Paediatric Young Investigator Award

Membership of another society

If you are a member of the APSR and another society, here are some more opportunities:

APSR-ATS Young Investigator Award
APSR-CHEST Young Investigator Award
APSR-ERS Young Investigator Award
APSR-JRS Young Investigator Award
APSR-TSANZ Young Investigator Award

Membership of an assembly

If your assembly has published a newsletter this year, it will be on your assembly webpage and may contain details of award opportunities. Otherwise, look out for an announcement emailed to you from you assembly leaders.

The June issue (Vol 11.6) features Updates on lung cancer screening and its management:

• Effects of volume CT lung cancer screening: mortality results of the NELSON randomized, controlled population-based screening trial.
• Best practices recommendations for diagnostic immunohistochemistry in lung cancer.
• Osimertinib in untreated EGFR-mutated advanced non-small-cell lung cancer.
• Overall survival with durvalumab after chemoradiotherapy in stage III NSCLC.
• Pembrolizumab plus chemotherapy in metastatic non-small-cell lung cancer.
• Atezolizumab for first-line treatment of metastatic nonsquamous NSCLC.
• IMpower130: efficacy and safety from a randomized phase 3 study of carboplatin and nab-paclitaxel with or without atezolizumab in 1L advanced non-squamous NSCLC.
• Phase 3 study of carboplatin-paclitaxel/nab-paclitaxel with or without pembrolizumab (pembro) for patients (pts) with metastatic squamous (sq) non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).
• Nivolumab plus ipilimumab in lung cancer with a high tumor mutational burden.
• Prophylactic cranial irradiation versus observation in patients with extensive-disease small-cell lung cancer: a multicentre, randomised, open-label, phase 3 trial.

The following cases have been selected for inclusion in the August 2019 Respirology Case Reports, Volume 07 Issue 6

Case Reports

Clinical Images

Out Instagram account has changed.

Please update your bookmarks to www.instagram.com/asianpacificsocietyofrespirol

Congratulations to Dr Malbar G Ferrer in his new role as President of the Philippine College of Chest Physicians (PCCP)

We are looking forward to even greater things from this dynamic Society!

See their latest activities at philchest.org

Plans will be underway by several societies for local events and activities on World Lung Day, 25 September 2019

Don't forget to send photos of your events and activities to the APSR Secretariat APSRinfo@theapsr.org for sharing here in the Bulletin.

Simplified Chinese

English

Japanese

Korean

Traditional Chinese

Vietnamese

The 12th Congress of the Asociación Latinoamericana del Tórax (ALAT) will take place at the ATLAPA Convention Center in Panama City 3–6 July 2019.

By the kind invitation of Congress Scientific Committee, Dr Kwun Fong (APSR President) and Dr David C L Lam (Immediate Past Chair of the APSR Education Committee) will be the APSR's representative speakers at the Congress.

The symposium APSR–ALAT–WHO essential medicine for respiratory illnesses: unique window of opportunity to address global equity, will be held on 08:00 – 10:00 on 6 July in La Huaca Room of the conference centre:

• "Access of essential medicines in smoking cessation"
  Dr David C L Lam
• "Access of essential drugs in COPD: LAMA"
  Dr Rogelio Perez Padilla
• "Access of essential medicines in lung cancer"
  Dr Kwun Fong
• "Access of essential medicines in Asthma: LABA / ICS"
  Dr Federico Daniel Colodenco
• Q&A

The APSR is looking forward to collaborating further with the ALAT in the future.

Although the burden of tuberculosis in Taiwan remains substantial, Taiwan has made significant progress in the fight against TB. The incidence of TB in Taiwan decreased from 58 per 100,000 in 2009 to 41 per 100,000 in 2017 (29% reduction) while the numbers of incident multidrug-resistant TB reduced from 175 in 2009 to 103 in 2017 (41% reduction). The proportion of previously treated TB among all notified TB reduced from 9.0% in 2008 to 3.6% (60% reduction) in 2017. These achievements were the results of government commitment in strengthening the National Tuberculosis Program (NTP) and the dedicated collaboration between clinicians, nurses, paramedical staffs, and public health workers. A few important milestones in the NTP are highlighted below.

The directly observed treatment (DOT) program was launched in 2006. Both the anti-TB treatment and the latent TB infection (LTBI) treatment were covered by the DOT program since 2008. The program is highly comprehensive and flexible in the arrangement of time and location for DOT tailoring to patients' preferences. The DOT providers were trained to take care of privacy to avoid unwanted stigmatization. The DOT program establishes linkage between healthcare providers and patients to promote treatment adherence which greatly reduce the risk of recurrent TB and the emergence of drug-resistant strains.

The quality assurance program for mycobacteriology laboratories was initiated in 2009. The TB diagnosis and treatment guidelines recommended universal smear, culture and drug susceptibility testing (DST). Genotypic DST for rifampicin is available in most of the Taiwan Centers of Disease Control (TCDC)-certificated mycobacteriology laboratories. Currently, all TCDC-certificated mycobacteriology laboratories are connected to the National Surveillance Network of Communicable Diseases to ensure timeliness and accuracy of TB notification and treatment monitoring.

Taiwan Multidrug-Resistant TB Consortium (TMTC) was established in May 2007. Comprehensive patient-centered care was provided at no cost to patients and DSTs for second-line anti-TB agents were performed in the Reference Laboratory of Mycobacteriology of TCDC. The treatment regimen was individualized by taking treatment history and results of DST into account. The proportion of treatment success for patients with multidrug-resistant TB increased from 61% before TMTC to 82.4% after the establishment of TMTC. To further improve the treatment quality, active drug-safety monitoring and management program was established in 2017.

Management of those with LTBI to prevent the development of active TB is critical to halt TB transmission. Diagnosis and treatment of LTBI among children and adolescents who had close contact with TB patients was started in 2008. By introducing the interferon-gamma release assays for LTBI detection, the program extended to cover TB contacts of all ages since 2016. In 2017, 81% of individuals with LTBI in the TB contact investigation program received LTBI treatment and the overall completion rate for LTBI treatment was very high.

It's obvious to everyone that air pollution is bad for respiratory health. The following BBC article, in case you missed seeing it earlier, suggests that it additionally causes lower cognitive abilities, further suggesting that those with less access to education are likely to be more affected because they tend to work in places that expose them to more pollution.

See also...

Air pollution statistics from the Asia-Pacific region from the APSR Respiratory Health Map

and

Air pollution: The public health challenge of our time, appearing in the March issue of Respirology, now available online.

There is increasing interest in the use of telehealth to improve access and uptake of pulmonary rehabilitation. Clinical trials of telerehabilitation are growing in number, size and quality. However, a wide variety of approaches have been used and there has been limited uptake in clinical practice. This webinar presented current approaches to telerehabilitation in chronic lung disease, considered requirements for implementation in clinical practice, and discussed remaining knowledge gaps in this emerging field.

The above Thoracic Society of Australia and New Zealand (TSANZ) webinar was held on 25 June and produced by Dr Anne Holland, Professor of Physiotherapy at La Trobe University and Alfred Health in Melbourne. Anne's research programme investigates supportive therapies for people with chronic respiratory disease. Her recent clinical trials have tested new models of pulmonary rehabilitation to improve access and uptake, including low cost home-based models and telerehabilitation. Anne has published over 250 peer reviewed journal articles and her publications have been cited over 9,000 times, including in 15 clinical guidelines for chronic lung disease, pulmonary rehabilitation and physiotherapy. Anne is Chair of the Pulmonary Rehabilitation Assembly for the American Thoracic Society.

This and other TSANZ webinars are available for public viewing:

• The Human Respiratory Virome
• NIV Therapy – viewed via a community lens
• Accelerated Silicosis, kitchen benchtops and the emerging epidemic
• Research Techniques To Study Respiratory Diseases
• What's in a cough? Implications for the care of people with flu and MROs
• Primary Ciliary Dyskinesia: Common symptoms from an uncommon condition
• The Impact of Climate Change on Respiratory Health
• What we have learned about children who present to hospital with acute wheeze
• How respiratory specialists can best assist smoking patients to quit
• Telerehabilitation for chronic lung disease – where do we stand?
  (Note: At the time of preparing this Bulletin for release (28 June) this webinar was not yet available for download)

To access any of the above, click www.thoracic.org.au/events/category/past-tsanz-webinars-on-demand-recordings. Note that for non-TSANZ members, some of the above webinars require payment of a A$10 (plus A$1 GST) pay-as-you-view fee to the TSANZ.

Dear APSR Pulmonary Circulation Assembly members, colleagues and friends,

Although pulmonary vascular diseases have been mainly treated by cardiologists in APSR countries, more respiratory diseases may accompany pulmonary hypertension (PH) defined as mean pulmonary arterial pressure of >20mmHg according to Nice criteria. We should remember that even mild PH has more than 60% of pulmonary vascular impairment. Biomarkers for early recognition of pulmonary vascular diseases, and novel approaches for treatment of PH due to respiratory diseases are essential for respirologists. Please join our assembly.

Invitation to APSR Assembly Members, and (new members if they join the Assembly before 2019 Hanoi APSR Congress) to apply for the APSR Teaching Library Award

It is a great pleasure for the Pulmonary Circulation Assembly to invite current and new Assembly members to submit applications for this Award.

As you might know, the APSR is developing a Library of respiratory cases and teaching vignettes for compilation into its online Library to be used for education and training of APSR members in the near future.

The Pulmonary Circulation Assembly invites its members (current or those who join before the 2019 Hanoi Congress) to kindly submit cases for this library via: apsresp.org/education/teaching-library/index.php

If your teaching case or vignette is accepted into the Library after Peer Review, you have the chance to be awarded 50% discount to your APSR Hanoi registration fee. There are 10 Awards available to Pulmonary Circulation Assembly members this year.

The closing date is 15 September 2019. The APSR Secretariat will contact successful candidates.

Thank you for your kind consideration and looking forward to seeing you in Hanoi

Sincerely yours,

Pulmonary Circulation Assembly Troika

A warm welcome to the following members who have recently joined APSR assemblies. They will undoubtedly enjoy working with and networking with their assembly colleagues.

The following members have kindly sent his donation towards the Society's goals, as outlined at apsresp.org/members/donors.php.

• Kazuhisa Asai (Japan)
• Chunxue Bai (China)
• Erlina Burhan (Indonesia)
• Noriyuki Enomoto (Japan)
• Tomoyuki Fujisawa (Japan)
• Akira Fujita (Japan)
• Masaki Fujita (Japan)
• Yoshinosuke Fukuchi (Japan)
• Satoru Fukuyama (Japan)
• Kazuki Furuhashi (Japan)
• Naoki Hamada (Japan)
• Masayuki Hanaoka (Japan)
• Chu Thi Hanh (Vietnam)
• Eiji Harada (Japan)
• Yoshinori Hasegawa (Japan)
• Tomoaki Hoshino (Japan)
• Hironao Hozumi (Japan)
• Naoki Inui (Japan)
• Shinichiro Iwakami (Japan)
• Eiji Iwama (Japan)
• Takashi Iwanaga (Japan)
• Keiko Kan-o (Japan)
• Masato Karayama (Japan)
• Takashi Kijima (Japan)
• Akira Koarai (Japan)
• Yohei Korogi (Japan)

• Kozo Kuribayashi (Japan)
• Kazuyoshi Kuwano (Japan)
• Bao Le Khac (Vietnam)
• Kazuto Matsunaga (Japan)
• Yasuo Morimoto (Japan)
• Yasushi Murakami (Japan)
• Yutaro Nakamura (Japan)
• Ho Namkoong (USA)
• Chau Ngo Quy (Vietnam)
• Hiromasa Ogawa (Japan)
• Yoshitaka Oku (Japan)
• Keiichi Ota (Japan)
• Phuong Phan Thu (Vietnam)
• Chin Kook Rhee (Republic of Korea)
• Toshihiro Sakakibara (Japan)
• Yuichiro Shindo (Japan)
• Yuanlin Song (China)
• Takafumi Suda (Japan)
• Eiichi Suzuki (Japan)
• Yuzo Suzuki (Japan)
• Nobuhiro Tanabe (Japan)
• Akira Umeda (Japan)
• Giap Vu (Vietnam)
• Yasuhiro Yamauchi (Japan)
• Mutsuo Yamaya (Japan)
• Hideki Yasui (Japan)

The APSR is profoundly grateful for their generosity.

We are delighted to announce that Honorary membership has been bestowed on Dr Hai Van Nguyen (Canada) and Dr Christian Osadnik (Australia).

Congratulations to the following members who have recently become APSR Fellows.

• Garinda Almaduta FAPSR (Indonesia)
• Tri Wahju Astuti FAPSR (Indonesia)
• Shalin Diwanji FAPSR (United Kingdom)
• Yunita Eka Wati FAPSR (Indonesia)
• Thahri Iskandar FAPSR (Indonesia)
• Prawin Kumar FAPSR (India)
• Ajoy Samuel Mammen FAPSR (India)
• Wara Pertiwi FAPSR (Indonesia)
• Joko Susilo FAPSR (Indonesia)

If you have news or announcements that may be of interest to other APSR members, please send details to Bulletin Coordinator Dr Arata Azuma (a-azuma@nms.ac.jp) or APSR Bulletin (bulletin@apsresp.org).