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The 5th annual Bronchiectasis Patient Conference will take place from 10:00 to 16:00 CET on 15 March 2025. The conference is an opportunity for anyone interested in bronchiectasis to learn more about the disease and how to manage it. It is organised in collaboration with EMBARC and our Bronchiectasis Patient Advisory Group (PAG).
The event will cover topics including:
We will hear from people living with bronchiectasis and healthcare professionals. Attendees will have the opportunity to ask questions to the speakers and experts via the chat.
The conference will be held in English. A live transcription service will be provided that can generate captions in over 60 languages.
More speakers will be added once they are confirmed.
Donatella was diagnosed with bronchiectasis in 2013 and joined the group to share her experiences with the disease. She is also a volunteer of the Italian Association of Bronchiectasis (Associazione Italiana Bronchiettasie APS).
Donatella enjoys being able to discuss different topics around bronchiectasis and work alongside others from different countries to improve the quality of life for patients across Europe.
Dr Pieter Goeminne is a respiratory physician in Saint-Nicholas, Belgium.
His PhD defence was in non-cystic fibrosis bronchiectasis. He is co-author of many publications on the topic of bronchiectasis, such as the ERS bronchiectasis guidelines.
He is also Board member of the European bronchiectasis registry EMBARC and regular reviewer for high impact journals on bronchiectasis. His further professional interests include air pollution and infectious disease.
Professor James Chalmers is the British Lung Foundation Chair of Respiratory Research at the University of Dundee, UK, and a consultant respiratory physician.
He is an expert in lung infections and has been involved in a number of projects during the COVID-19 pandemic, including leading the ERS Guidelines Task Force for COVID-19 and being chief investigator for several trials of new COVID-19 treatments.
He works closely with ELF to involve patients in respiratory infection research through projects such as EMBARC, and is an advocate for involving patients in guidelines, clinical research, and clinical trials.
Michal Shteinberg received her MD and a PhD in biochemistry from the Technion-Israel institute of technology. She trained in internal medicine and pulmonology, with a Fellowship in bronchiectasis and adult CF.
Prof. Shteinberg is Head of Bronchiectasis and Adult Cystic Fibrosis Unit, Carmel Medical Center, and the Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, the B. Rappaport Faculty of Medicine, Haifa, Israel.
She is a Clinical Associate Professor in the Faculty of medicine at the Technion, Israel Institute of Technology, and a member of the executive committee of the Israeli Society for Tuberculosis and mycobacterial diseases.
Her main research interests are bronchiectasis and its overlap with other airway diseases, mainly rhinosinusitis, and connective tissue diseases, as well as adult CF.
Prof. Shteinberg is a member of EMBARC management and heading Patient Activities Work package.
Joyce is 86 years old and joined the Bronchiectasis PAG when she retired, due to the lack of information available to her. She has lived with lung problems throughout her life and was diagnosed with bronchiectasis in 1987.
Joyce has been able to access more information around bronchiectasis after joining the PAG and believes this is key to having a good doctor-patient relationship.
Dr Mattia Nigro is a doctor at the Respiratory Unit of Humanitas Research Hospital and a PhD Student at Humanitas University in Milan, Italy. His main clinical and research topics include bronchiectasis and acute and chronic respiratory infections. He is an active collaborator of the European Bronchiectasis Registry (EMBARC) and a member of the European Respiratory Society Methodology Network.
Rónán is keen to raise awareness and support research for bronchiectasis after living with the condition for nearly 30 years. He is a member of the ELF Bronchiectasis Patient Advisory Group (PAG) and will share his experiences at the 5th annual Bronchiectasis Patient Conference to empower others living with the condition.
Rónán is a clinical neuropsychologist. As a healthcare professional and patient, he wants to bridge the gap between medical care and lived experience and improve outcomes for the bronchiectasis patient community.
Charles Haworth is a respiratory consultant working at the Cambridge Centre for Lung Infection at the Royal Papworth Hospital. Charles specialises in treating adults with bronchiectasis, non-tuberculous mycobacterial (NTM) infections and cystic fibrosis. He has also co-authored the British Thoracic Society and European Respiratory Society Bronchiectasis guidelines published in 2017 and 2019.
Charles is a steering committee member of several clinical trial programmes and a member of the European Bronchiectasis Registry (EMBARC) Steering and Scientific Committees.
Pamela J. McShane, MD, is professor of medicine in the Department of Medicine, Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care at the University of Texas at Tyler in Tyler, TX.
Dr McShane completed her pulmonary and critical care medicine fellowship at the University of Chicago. During her fellowship training and subsequent faculty years at the University of Chicago, she developed a regional research database and clinic in bronchiectasis and nontuberculous mycobacterial lung disease.
Dr McShane went on to work in the field of nontuberculous mycobacterial lung disease at the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, MD. Most recently, Dr McShane works at the University of Texas Health Science Center in Tyler, TX, where she is principal investigator for approximately a dozen clinical trials in bronchiectasis and pulmonary NTM disease.
Pierre-Régis Burgel is Professor of Respiratory Medicine at Cochin Hospital/Université Paris Cité, France. He is the national coordinator of the French Cystic Fibrosis (CF) Reference Centre Network (47 CF centres), the president of the French CF Society, and an associate editor of the Journal of Cystic Fibrosis and the European Respiratory Journal.
He was awarded the 2022 Mid-Career Gold Medal in Cystic Fibrosis from the European Respiratory Society.
He has published over 340 manuscripts in peer-reviewed journals, including Lancet Respir Med, Am J Respir Crit Care Med, Eur Respir J, Chest and Thorax. His main research interests include cystic fibrosis, bronchiectasis and COPD.
Bridget was diagnosed with bronchiectasis in 2014 and has lived with bronchiectasis symptoms for about 25 years. She is a member of the bronchiectasis patient support group in Edinburgh and joined the Bronchiectasis PAG as a result of James Chalmers coming to speak to the group.
In her professional life she worked for more than 30 years as a nurse in critical care, combining clinical work with research. This experience showed her how important patient and family input can be in improving care. Her own research included patients and healthy volunteers and she has participated as a patient in a number of research studies.
She values the opportunities and support the PAG offers for developing and providing information and education resources on bronchiectasis for patients and professionals and contributing to the research agenda.
Eliza holds a PhD in Criminal Law and works as a barrister in Greece.
She has been a member of the ELF Bronchiectasis Patient Advisory Group since 2021 and has engaged with its activities and represented it in different projects and working groups over these years.
Alan was diagnosed with bronchiectasis in 1990. In 2015, he became the first patient member of the Bronchiectasis Patient Advisory Group (PAG), and shared his experiences within European Respiratory Society (ERS) guidelines. Alan is keen to make information for patients accessible and now actively contributes to advancements in research and treatment for bronchiectasis through ELF.
Justine was diagnosed with bronchiectasis and non-tuberculosis mycobacterial (NTM) lung disease in 2018. She wanted to share her experiences to help others in a similar situation so Justine founded the French NTM organisation MNT Mon Poumon Mon Air.
As bronchiectasis and the NTM lung disease affect people worldwide, it is important to make the voices of French patients heard in groups such as the ELF Bronchiectasis Patient Advisory Group (PAG). This gives us an opportunity to share our experiences with healthcare professionals to advance treatments and research.
Dr Arietta Spinou is a Lecturer in Cardiorespiratory Physiotherapy Practice and Research at King’s College London, UK. She is a Specialist Respiratory Physiotherapist and has extensive research experience, with a special interest in bronchiectasis.
As part of her PhD work, Dr Spinou developed the Bronchiectasis Health Questionnaire, and for the first time objectively assessed cough frequency in a group of people with bronchiectasis.
Currently, Dr Spinou co-leads the ERS Task Force for the airway clearance techniques in bronchiectasis.
This event is developed with and supported by EMBARC, a pan-European network and the ELF Bronchiectasis Patient Advisory Group.
This is the fifth instalment of our annual bronchiectasis patient conference. Watch the recordings from our previous events below.
ELF does not charge for its events and materials. We want to make sure they are available to anybody who wishes to join or use them. To ensure we can keep doing this we ask that those who can afford to pay to make a donation. We are grateful to everyone who supports us in this way and helps lung health patients to understand more about their condition and have their voices heard.
