BERLIN- ERS President Leonardo Fabbri, MD, spoke with me today about his experience at the conference this year and his thoughts on Mayor Michael Bloomberg challenging doctors worldwide to stop smoking. ''His speech was an excellent amplifier of lung health prevention,'' he explained. ''His program is the most impressive available ...

BERLIN - Yesterday evening, after Mayor Michael Bloomberg departed the ERS amid a standing ovation, I was able to catch up with an ERS attendee for his reaction to the address. ''I liked his speech very much. Smoking is a real problem in the world and now we are finally taking action,'' said Macelino DeVega, a pulmonologist from Argentina. ''It ...

BERLIN -- New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg completed his tour of Berlin by addressing the ERS Congress attendees and receiving the European Lung Foundation Award tonight. He is the first non-European to receive the award. ''Tobacco is the only product I know where if you follow the instructions on how to use it and do it correctly, it'll kill ...

BERLIN -- Last night the largest respiratory conference ever kicked off with an opening ceremony that featured a look back and ahead. Just as more than 20 years ago the Berlin Wall fell and became the Eastside Gallery, one day the European Respiratory Society hopes the different national societies will become branches of the ERS. ''I'm ...

Greetings from Berlin! I have just settled into my hotel before the opening ceremony of the 2008 ERS and wanted to let you know that I will be blogging each day of the Congress.  As this is our first time covering the event, we hope to bring some of the flavor home to you, our readers. Tonight the congress kicks off with the opening ...

Hot weather and peak flow meters?  It must be another summer at asthma camp! Congrats to Kristi Hack, a recent respiratory graduate, for organizing this camp in Wyoming. ''It's really important they learn a little bit more about it so they can get out there, have fun and not feel different,'' Hack said. ''They may feel like they have to sit ...

Becoming the therapist I want to be often seems like a long impossible road. So I try not to focus on the road or the finish per se; I focus on the small baby steps that are taken that are so important in making me more independent and separating me from that ''new grad student'' mentality. Baby steps, like the first successful unsupervised blood ...

I love presentations that compare the effectiveness of expensive MDI spacers and the good old fashioned toilet paper roll.  Not sure how well this company's do-it-yourself spacer performs, but the price is certainly attractive. Using paper and a precise system of cuts and folds, we have designed a spacer that can be produced for ...

Wednesday June 11th 2008 à D-Day I pulled into the parking lot 2 hours early. I was determined to be on time for my 9:00 am appointment. If there was a chance of me not walking home a certified respiratory therapist, it wouldn't be on a technicality like arriving late for the test. I decided to stay in the car and study even more for the ...

The most nervous build-up of my life. 18 months of strenuous studying, information overload, banning together with fellow classmates to try and make sense of it all... It all comes down to this... In the final weeks of school, we were encouraged to apply for a temporary permit. Most hospitals in the area would allow us to work on a permit, and ...