8th Presidential letter
Content:
- Central European Diabetes Congresses / International Danube Symposia 2007 - 2010
in Kos, Plovdiv, Salzburg and Cluj-Napoca.
- Doctor honoris causa degree for our members Prof. E. Standl and Prof. D. Tschöpe,
awarded by the University of Medicine and Pharmacy Cluj-Napoca, our FID meeting place for 2010.
- Regional FID – Symposia in Wiesbaden 2007, 2008 and Munich 2008 on the occasion of the annual meeting of the DDG (The German Diabetes Association).
Bochum, December 14th 2007
Dear members and friends of FID, the Central-European Diabetes Association!
Central European Diabetes Congresses / International Danube Symposia :
Our 2007 Congress, hosted by Prof. E. Hatziagelaki from Athens on the island of Kos was a total success. In the “Archive” section of our web page you will find the “7th presidential letter” (german site, the translation into english is ongoing), containing a report on the congress and also lots of beautiful pictures of the participants during their visit to Asklepion available for download.
The preparations for our 2008 Congress have already begun. It will be held in the attractive city of Plovdiv, the old Philippopolis of the Greeks, hoasted by PD Dr. T. Temelkova-Kurktschiev from Sofia. The Congress will take place once again 14 days after the ADA (American Diabetes Association)- Congress, between June 19th and 21st 2008. Please keep this appointment in mind and come to Plovdiv, having one rare chance to see one place absolutely worth visiting in Bulgaria, a new EU country.
The preliminary program is already available for download (click to download).
In 2009 the congress will be organised by Univ.- Doz. R. Weitgasser in Salzburg. The meeting will be held in conjunction with the “Diabetes Professional Association of Bavaria”, Prof. P. Botterman, one of our members from Munich and co-organizer from the Bavarian site. The meeting will also take place 14 days after the ADA Meeting in June 2009.
For 2010 we can count on Prof. Dr. Nicolae Hancu (photo 1) and PD Dr. Vereşiu (photo 2) as congress organizer from Cluj-Napoca, Romania, since the International Danube Symposium will take place there, in a “classical Danube country” which is also a new member of the EU. Dr. Vereşiu has already been an active member of the FID-Symposia in the last years.
Photo 1: Congress President 2010: Prof. Dr. Nicolae Hancu, Cluj-Napoca.
Photo 2: Congress President 2010: PD Dr. Vereşiu, Cluj-Napoca.
Our new board member, Dr. O. A. Ştirban, originates also from Cluj-Napoca. He currently works with Prof. Tschöpe in Bad Oeynhausen, and will be from 2008 the “web master” of FID, being particularly in charge for the bilinguality of our website (German and English).
Visiting Cluj-Napoca
Doctor honoris causa degree for FID members Prof. E. Standl and Prof. D. Tschöpe
Prof. E. Standl (former president), Prof. D. Tschöpe, Prof. H. Schatz (president), Dr. M. Negrean and Dr. O. A. Ştirban (board member), all FID members, accepted the invitation to attend the 6th National Congress of the Romanian Federation for Diabetes, Nutrition and Metabolic Diseases, presided by Prof. N. Hâncu in Cluj-Napoca, between November 7th and 10th 2007, where they held lectures and speeches.
The highlight was the awarding of Doctor honoris causa degrees by the University of Medicine and Pharmacy from Cluj-Napoca to Prof. E. Standl, München and Prof. D. Tschöpe, Bad Oeynhausen, together with the nomination of “Visiting Professor” to Prof. D. Micic, Belgrad. (see photo 2)
Prof. Standl has worked on more occasions together with romanian colleagues and gained high merits for involvement in the romanian diabetology. Prof. Tschöpe has now for a long time cooperated in an exemplary way with Romania in the area of diabetes. He is - together with Prof. Hâncu – Honourific President of the German – Romanian Diabetes Association (website: www.drdv.de ). There are currently more Romanian colleagues working in his Diabetes Clinic in Bad Oeynhausen, not only our board member Dr. Ştirban and Dr. M. Negrean, but also as “research fellows” Dr. S. Năndrean and Dr. A. Pop.
Photo 2: Prof. Standl, Prof. Tschöpe and Prof. Micic
Following the congress, I took a 3 days tour of Transylvania, and doing so I managed to fulfill one of my decade-long dreams: visiting the world known collections of old oriental anatolian carpets in some transylvanian churches, as well as some unique castles of Transylvania. (see photos 3-6). My sincere thanks to the Romanian colleagues who have excellently organized this trip according to my wishes, first of all to Dr. Codruţa Popescu from Cisnădie, known in German as Heltau. The medieval towns of Mediaş, Sighişoara, Biertan (world cultural heritage of Unesco), Braşov with its “Black Church” and “Dracula’s Castle” Bran as well as Sibiu (European Capital of Culture in 2007) are all “must-sees”.
I wish and hope that in 2010 many FID members and diabetologists will be able to join our congress in Transylvania, where they will also have the opportunity to visit these unique places.
Photos 3-6: on the way through Transylvania with its churches, castles and ottoman carpets!
Regional FID-Symposia
On the 2nd and 3rd November 2007 another FID Symposium took place in Wiesbaden, along with the Kirchheim Diabetes Forum. Speakers coming from 3 German speaking countries (Austria, Switzerland and Germany) lectured in front of around 1000 participants about the multifaceted aspects of the therapy of diabetes mellitus. The discussions covered a broad spectrum from the guidelines of the European Association for Diabetes and Cardiology to smoking cessation in people with diabetes.
A joint Symposium of DDG and FID will be held during the 43rd Congress of the German Diabetes Association, between the 1st and 3rd of May 2008 in München. Speakers from Greece, Germany and Austria will discuss about particularities of diabetes nutrition in different regions of Central Europe and also about the Mediterranean diet in diabetes. A lecture about the effects of a AGE (advanced glycation end products) rich nutrition on the vascular system of diabetic patients is expected with great interest.
Finally, at the end of October/ beginning of November 2008, in a well-established way, another FID Symposium will take place in Wiesbaden, along with the Kirchheim Diabetes Forum.
We encourage all FID- members to organize in their countries respectivelly in their area of influence similar european-regional, international symposia or meetings. The main wish of the Central European Diabetes Association is to support the exchange of ideas and as a result from that, to align the diabetes standards throughout the FID country-members. There’s always something new that we ca learn from each other.
With sincere, “central european” greetings
Prof. Dr. Helmut Schatz
FID President
PS: On the 17th December 2007 I received telephonically a very good “Christmas message”: Glaxo Smith Kline provides FID, as always in the last couple of years, a notable sum of money to encourage young, active congress participants, in form of a “GSK- travel grant”. (see details on our homepage www.fid.at/Stipendien ). For this, I thank in particular Dr. Daniela Seidel and Dr. Kristian Löbner and their colleagues from Glaxo Smith Kline Munich, who have been with us and supported us benevolent for years.