Joana Cruz, Nádia Hipólito and Sara Pimenta were present at the ERS congress that took place in Milan, from September 9 to 13. 

This annual event gathers the world’s respiratory experts to showcase all the latest advances in respiratory medicine and science.  

ciTechCare was represented in this international and remarkable event by three researchers who have been working in the field of physical activity and Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), through the presentation of posters and as chair of several panel discussions. 

Joana Cruz, PhD, was a chair in two mini-symposia entitled ‘Exercise training, physical activity and self-management at home’ and ‘Rise of the machines: advances in home mechanical ventilation’. One of the points that the first session brought out was that although physical exercise, physical activity and self-management interventions can be implemented at home (since studies have shown promising results), the truth is that it is still necessary to carry out the evaluation of patients in specialized centers, since the existing measures are not adapted to the home context. 

She was also involved in two different discussions: one of them was dedicated to the participants of the NEXT program, which is a program directed at the participants of the congress who are Early Career Members (ECM) and who were identified as having the best abstracts. This program aims to empower ECM with transversal skills (scientific writing and communication, work-life balance, …). The session co-chaired by Joana was focused on the importance of work-life balance, where some strategies to find balance among different areas of life were shared, along with testimonials from participants and speakers.  

By being an ECM representative of Assembly 9 (non-medical professionals), Joana Cruz and other representatives were also invited to informally speak with the ECMs, for them to better understand how they can be more involved in ERS activities. 

The ECM representatives Thomas Gille, Maxime Patout, Niki Ubags, Sheila Ramjug, Jana De Brandt, Tiago Alfaro, Merel Hellemons, Lowie E G W Vanfleteren, Joana Cruz, Catharina C. Moor, Carolina Gotera, Orianne Dumas, and the previous ERS Presidents Marc Humbert and Anita Simonds, also had a poster exhibited entitled ‘The impact of COVID-19 on early career members (ECMs): an ERS ECM survey’, as a result of their joint research work. 

Regarding the posters, two of the recent studies based on OnTRACK project were exhibited in the congress. Both of them were presented by research fellows who have been working on this project, which goal is to promote physical activity behaviours in patients with COPD through a digital platform. 

Nádia Hipólito, PhD student, presented the poster entitled “Usability of the OnTRACK platform to promote physical activity in COPD”, a mixed-method study that intended to evaluate the usability of the OnTRACK platform among the end-users, in particular people with COPD and healthcare professionals. This digital tool with two apps, mobile and web, aims to promote physical activity behaviours in people with COPD. The participants found the platform easy to use although, for a better experience, tutorials and feature improvements are necessary, especially for patients who are older and have less digital experience. 

The presentation of the poster ‘Are physical activity levels different between non-frail and pre-frail patients with COPD?’ was carried out by Sara Pimenta, MSc student. This study was a secondary analysis using baseline data from the OnTRACK project. The authors concluded that physical activity levels are already reduced in pre-frail when compared to non-frail patients with COPD, which highlights the need to conduct future studies to explore if increasing physical activity in pre-frail patients reduces their risk of progressing to a frailty status.