Transition to adult care: what we can learn from cystic fibrosis?
Symposium Chairs: Ian Balfour-Lynn (London, United Kingdom), Susan Madge (London, United Kingdom)
Aims: To highlight the important area of transition of adolescents/young persons with a chronic lung disorder from paediatric to adult healthcare services. This age group is notoriously difficult to manage and cystic fibrosis healthcare professionals have a lot of experience that can be applied to other chronic lung conditions. The symposium will discuss adolescent healthcare and what research has been done and what still needs to be done to improve it. We will then concentrate on how to help the families - especially parents - to deal with the massive shift into adult care, focusing on psychological needs. We will then discuss rare conditions, and how best to deal with a situation where often adult physicians have not seen cases before, or where the patient does not fit well into a specialist category. Finally we will hear results from the joint ECFS/ERS taskforce on adult cystic fibrosis care in Europe.
Target audience: Clinician, Fellow, General practitioner, Junior member, Paediatrician, Patient, Pharmaceutical industry representative, Pulmonologist, Researcher, Resident, Respiratory physician, Scientist, Student, Trainee, Allied health professional, Nurse