President’s Message December 2021

Dear Colleagues and Friends,

The end of each year is marked by holidays across Europe as we spend more time reflecting on the past months and setting goals for the coming year. As 2021 comes to a close, I reflect on my first year as ESRS President of a Board who has yet to meet in person and look forward to meeting with the entire ESRS family at Sleep Europe in Athens in September 2022. In 2022, ESRS will celebrate its 50th Anniversary. Despite travel restrictions, technology and science have kept us together. The Board has held monthly video meetings and we were pleased to be able to offer the ESRS Sleep Science School in person for vaccinated participants and faculty. There were several highlights for ESRS in 2021 and I am sure 2022 will continue to be a year of growth for the society.

One of the largest accomplishments of the year has been the publishing of the expanded 2nd Edition of the Sleep Medicine Textbook with 15 sections, 92 chapters and over 1,000 pages. With 120 authors and editors, I do not need to remind you of how large of a project this was. The textbook has already received endorsements from twelve societies including EAN, ERS, and many national sleep societies.

I am proud to announce that the ESRS exam took place at the end of November and even though the official results have not been announced, I hear we have now surpassed the 1000th certification. This is an impressive milestone and a true compliment to the Education Committee and all who have worked to develop and continually improve the ESRS Certification and Examination over the years. The application period for the 2022 exam opened 1 December and will close 31 January.

You have been active as members of ESRS committees as well. We have seen the introduction and rejuvenation of several new projects this year including the Gender Equality Forum (GEF), Website Editorial Board (WEB) as well as working groups on accreditation of sleep centres, guideline development and paediatric initiatives. Over the past months the Scientific Committee, ESRS Board and several volunteers have been working together to evaluate symposia, select keynote speakers and plan valuable teaching courses.

We recently surveyed our members and I was pleased to see your interest in both Sleep Science Friday (SSF) and the re-introduction of monthly newsletters. The full results of the survey will be published soon and SSF and monthly newsletters will continue into 2022.

ESRS has continued to support educational offerings including the joint conference with ERS, Sleep and Breathing, two webinars and a Sleep Science School. I would also like to draw your attention to the open application for ESRS Grants and Fellowships. ESRS will offer three different grants for 2022, all with an application deadline of 31 January. New webinars ae also planned for the coming year.

Looking into the next year, I would like to remind everyone that we will open abstract submission for Sleep Europe 2022 in January. The number of symposia proposals submitted surpassed expectations and we hope to receive a record number of quality abstracts.

I look forward to seeing you at to Sleep Europe 2022 in Athens. This meeting will be a reunion of the society and also the celebration of 50 years of ESRS. I enthusiastically encourage you to save the date, 27 – 30 September 2022 and plan to meet in Athens for 50 years of ESRS. You can help make this the best meeting yet by sending us your best work by the abstract submission deadline.

Wishing you a restful holiday and good sleep in the new year.

Pierre-Hervé Luppi
ESRS President