European Congress of Internal Medicine 2017

“Thinking outside the box in a world of limited resources”. This was the title of the 16th European Congress of Internal Medicine, held from 31st August to 2nd September at the prestigious University of Milan.
Prof. Maria Domenica Cappellini, ECIM 2017 Chair, and Prof. Runolfur Palsson, EFIM President, welcomed about 1.100 internists from all over the world: from Eastern Europe to the United States and the Middle East. The largest number of participants came from Portugal (254), Italy (122), Turkey (76), Switzerland (73) and Spain (68). The conference touched hot topics going from the role of internal medicine in a world of limited resources, to the aging of the population, from the concept of “Less is More” to migration medicine.
“I am totally satisfied that the Congress permitted internists (5.000 only in Italy) to provide the best treatment to patients in all Europe through the awareness of the most recent scientific progresses”, stated Prof.  Cappellini, who was very proud of the results of the congress, but above all proud of the engagement of younger generations (416 young internists) through the introduction of real time hot topics.

The format included interesting and variable lectures that touched all fundamental disciplines of Internal Medicine, from a very complex and multi-disciplinary branch of medicine (hematology, cardiovascular medicine, respiratory medicine, diabetology/endocrinology, nephrology, emergency medicine, hepatology/gastroenterology) to Clinical quality assessment and medicine training, Successful ageing, Migration medicine and Antibiotic resistance. Participants were greatly engaged and fully involved in the sessions. Being up-to-date is not only a matter of technology or scientific progress, but also a matter of being socially and humanly involved in what is going on in our world while we are alive!

A total of 1.326 abstracts were received from 50 different countries.
The greatest number of submitted abstracts came from Portugal, Spain and Italy, followed by Turkey, Tunisia and Greece.
The congress started on Thursday morning following two Ultrasound hands-on courses at the hospital, Fondazione IRCCS Ca’ Granda Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico. 30 practising internists and internists in training had the opportunity to keep up to date about the Lung and Abdominal topics and join the small group activities. During the Congress 12 outstanding e-posters were selected to be presented by the authors in a special oral session with the support of EJCRIM (European Journal of Case Reports in Internal Medicine). Like in previous congresses, FDIME presented two Research Grant recipients and awarded the winners with a check of € 10.000 each one, furhtermore  the FDIME supported  the ceremony for 3 best poster awards. The winners received respectively a grant of € 500, € 300 and € 200.
The best case reports were selected together by EFIM Young Internists and the European Journal of Case Reports in Internal Medicine. The winners will have the opportunity to publish an article in EJCRIM. We would like to thank John Kellet, EJCRIM’s Editor in Chief, who welcomed the young people at the EFIM booth and gave all the needed tips to write an article. The Young Internists Corner was a great success. A lot of activities and interesting topics were presented during the congress. The young internists had the opportunity to debate on Why Choosing Internal Medicine, Less is more, Refugee medicine, Education and Quality of care Internal Medicine and Gender Medicine.

On Friday night the prestigious Palazzo Visconti Socrea welcomed the faculty for a welcome cocktail and dinner with Italian touch. The three-day event concluded on Saturday with a closing remarks from Prof. Maria Domenica Cappellini thanking all the participants, the faculty and the sponsors for their active participation that made this congress a huge success. Prof. Palsson invited the participants to the following edition of ECIM in Wiesbaden (Germany) from 30th August to 1st September 2018.

The congress was granted 15 CME credits by the European Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (EACCME) of the European Union of Medical Specialists (UEMS).

Gallery with photos from the congress are available on the congress webiste: http://www.ecim2017.org/photo-gallery/ 

Presentations from the ECIM 2017 in Milan are available for a download from the congress website by entering your congress password: http://www.ecim2017.org/presentations/ (available only for the congress participants)