WELCOME FROM EAPM PRESIDENT

EAPM PRESIDENT’S LETTER OF WELCOME TO THE 21st EUROPEAN CONGRESS OF PERINATAL MEDICINE, ISTANBUL, TURKEY, 10th - 13TH SEPTEMBER 2008

It is my great pleasure to welcome you to the 21st European Congress of Perinatal Medicine being held in Istanbul, Turkey from 10th to 13th September 2008.  We have a full and varied scientific programme which we hope will be of interest to all our delegates. 

My thanks are due to Cihat Sen, the Congress President, Umberto Simeoni and his Scientific Committee and Kenes International for putting this excellent programme together in this beautiful city of Istanbul.  Just as Istanbul is a bridge between 2 continents, the European Association of Perinatal Medicine should be a bridge between the 2 major disciplines of perinatal medicine – obstetrics (maternal fetal medicine) and paediatrics (neonatology).  We also welcome our colleagues from other allied disciplines: perinatal pathology, genetics, epidemiology, midwifery, neonatal nursing, obstetric anaesthesia, paediatric surgery and all other subspecialties and hope that they benefit from the interdisciplinary sessions.  This Congress we have tried to include sessions on Hot Topics and have asked leading speakers from around the world to help us set these up.  You will learn more about the Cochrane Collaboration and hear the results of recent important clinical trials in Perinatal Medicine.

We must not forget the major challenges that remain for those of us working in perinatal medicine.  Perhaps the greatest of these is the provision of evidence-based healthcare to mothers and babies in the developing world.  This needs both the expertise of doctors and nurses but also political and governmental support.  We must continue to lobby for this support and ensure that closer to home our endeavours match up to the highest levels of scientific integrity when scrutinised by others.  The European Association of Perinatal Medicine, which means its members, must strive to raise and maintain its profile and standing throughout the scientific world.  These challenges are not insurmountable but will require determined and focussed effort from all quarters.

I hope you have a very pleasant visit to Istanbul enjoying both the quality of the scientific programme and the beauty and excitement of this fascinating city.

Henry L Halliday
President of EAPM