The American Thoracic Society and the European Respiratory Society visit the GARD secretariat in Geneva
8 January 2008, Geneva, Switzerland
Representatives from the American Thoracic Society (ATS) and from the European Respiratory Society (ERS) visited the GARD secretariat at WHO in Geneva. Both societies have been GARD participants since the alliance was formed in 2005.
From ATS, Stephen Crane, Executive Director, Fran du Melle, Senior Director, International Activities and Philip Hopewell, Associate Dean, University of California San Francisco participated. From ERS, Jean-Luc Eiselé, Executive Director, was present.
"Building partnerships - Serge Resnikoff, Coordinator, Chronic Disease Prevention and Management, said - is the approach used by GARD, in order to advocate for chronic respiratory diseases and to discuss effective strategies and policies".
The meeting was aimed at discussing GARD's most recent developments, challenges and opportunities for future collaborations between the parties. Alvaro Cruz and Elisabetta Minelli, from the GARD secretariat at WHO, highlighted the key role ATS and ERS continue to play and discussed new ways of enhancing their participation in the alliance. Both ATS and ERS have pledged to provide world-renowned chronic respiratory diseases experts to support GARD working groups in order to assist low to middle-income county initiatives.
ATS and ERS are participants of the Global Alliance against Chronic Respiratory Diseases(GARD).