Dear colleagues and friends
On behalf of ECTRIMS and its Executive Committee, it is our pleasure to welcome you to Berlin on the occasion of the 34th Congress from 10 - 12 October 2018.
Together with the local organising committee we have prepared a program that we trust catches the most exciting new developments in all areas of multiple sclerosis, including treatment, genetics, pathology, imaging, immunology and epidemiology.
Paying special tribute to the rapid developments of informatics and bioengineering we selected and highlighted several topics that relate to these areas, such as multi-omics analysis, big-data-mining, predictive algorithms and medical robotics. We also want to address recently emerging technologies with potentially high impact for multiple sclerosis, including proteomics, deep sequencing, immunophenotyping and molecular imaging.
Because of the growing number and complexity of treatment options, the dialogue between “stakeholders” (neurologists, patients, health insurers, pharmaceutical industry) on the one side, and regulatory authorities on the other, is more important than ever. We have therefore added several topics with specific input from regulators, including a hot topic on “Biosimilars in multiple sclerosis” which impinges on world-wide access to immunomodulatory treatments.
As usual, the programme will offer teaching courses, plenary lectures, free communications selected from abstracts, as well as hot topic, young investigator and poster sessions.
The time frame of the Berlin meeting will be slightly different from previous ones: the core program will begin on Wednesday morning and end on Friday evening. We hope that this new format will not discourage, but on the contrary, encourage you to spend some additional time in Berlin, a bustling and lively European city that holds many surprises, and offers new spots to discover even for those who already know it well.
We look forward to welcoming you to Berlin!
Reinhard Hohlfeld
ECTRIMS 2018 Chair
David Miller
ECTRIMS President
Bernhard Hemmer
ECTRIMS Vice-President
Chair Scientific Programme Committee