EHS 2024
Thank you to all who contributed to a great meeting in Prague
You can still access the conference website here: https://www.ehs2024.org/
To all who contributed in any way to the Out of the Box conference in Prague last month,There were so many of you, and I won’t name anyone specifically as this newsletter cannot fill the whole web. Especially in the last six months leading up to the conference, many of you reached out to offer help, from the Czech Republic, across Europe, and even from countries far away. Sometimes just a word of confidence was invaluable. Some of you assisted in reaching out to our sponsors, who made many of the activities possible. Special thanks for that.
It was an incredible journey getting to know most of our partners in person, hearing their thoughts, and striving to fulfil what matters to them. It was almost overwhelming to see how much our education means to them. We are very fortunate, my friends and colleagues from around the globe. The companies that support us recognise the importance of being educated, trained, and knowledgeable to improve the quality of care we provide to our patients.
Anyone who knows me understands how much I believe in diversity. I believe that diverse teams work better, reach smarter conclusions, and solve larger problems. Diversity is not limited to gender, as some may think. Diversity involves bringing together people from various backgrounds, different experiences, and cultural bases. While we all share similar knowledge, our differences make us stronger, and I hope the programme reflected this diversity. It was a pleasure to see so many young people present. They are our future, and I am extremely grateful to them for putting their heart into their presentations. They did an excellent job! Equally impressive were those who presented their posters. I read them all, and my future practice is influenced by many. I only wish we had more days to meet and hear everyone out. Additionally, I wish that people from more countries had salaries high enough to make conferences like these more affordable for them. The EHS has kindly supported many in a gesture of respect and humanity, which is a core value of the society. It is a great honour to be part of such an organisation.
Many new ideas emerged during the event, and there wasn’t enough time to process them all. However, I believe many will lead to new projects in the coming years. At the end of the day, this was meant to be an idea incubator, and it served its purpose. Our patients and AHCPs contributed actively to the conference. I’m very happy to hear that they were approached by many, opening collaboration on multiple fronts. Ultimately, we are a society focused on improving patient care, and who knows quality better than those affected?
I would like to conclude with a final thank you to those who stayed home and looked after our children, helped with our daily challenges, our families, babysitters, and those who clean our homes when we are too busy, or who have fed our cats so we could go away for a few days. To our bosses who gave us time off work, and as I mentioned earlier, to our patients who trust us. I hope they see that we do not take their trust for granted.
If I may, I would also like to apologise. Towards the end, the workload connected to the conference became overwhelming, and I failed to complete some of my tasks. My time management skills let me down. I did try to be a mum at times too and despite receiving a lot of support from both my family and the team that prepared this conference, I forgot to invite many of our hernia friends, which I regret. By the time I realised this, it was too late to do so. I also did not prepare some activities for the delegates and failed to reply to several hundred emails that are still sitting in my inbox (I promise, I will as soon as I have a few minutes). I underestimated the amount of work involved. I am very sorry to all of you and again a massive thanks for being understanding. I wish I was perfect.
On behalf of the “out of the box” team, Andrew, Filip and myself, thank you for joining us, in person or in your thoughts.
Dr Barbora East
EHS 2024 Congress President
