Dear colleagues,
Dear members of the DWG,
Hamburg is always worth a visit! I am delighted to invite you to the 19th Annual Meeting of the German Spine Society in the north of Germany.
After 2011, the Annual Meeting will once again take place in the Hanseatic city, the "Gateway to the World", from 27 to 29 November 2024. The venue is the modernised CCH - Congress Center Hamburg. With its light-flooded modern architecture, the new CCH is one of the most modern and largest congress centres in Europe. It is located in the city centre and is only a few minutes' walk from the Dammtor ICE train station. This makes the Annual Meeting in Hamburg an event of short distances.
The motto of the Annual Meeting is: "Spine between clinical experience and artificial intelligence". It is supposed to put emphasize on the pressure our clinical work cannot run from, and that other knowledge-based areas of science have to face too.
The conference will take place from Wednesday to Friday in is established form without parallel sessions. The clinical focus will be on degenerative diseases, registries and the detection of complications, as well as the application of artificial intelligence in everyday clinical practice and research.
As a result of the increasing acceptance of robotics in spinal surgery, we are planning an overview talk followed by a presentation of the currently available robotic systems. This will build on the Annual Meeting in Munich four years ago.
Professor Paul Hodges from Australia will discuss current research approaches on the topic of "Low Back Pain". He is one of the world's leading researchers in this field, with more than 500 publications and many international awards (including four ISSLS prizes).
Employee recruitment and retention is playing an increasingly important role in everyday worklife. The expectations and demands of the younger generation (Generation Z) are often difficult to realise in the clinical environment due to a variety of restrictions. After an introduction to the topic, a panel discussion with various protagonists from the healthcare system is planned.
Following the very positive experience at the Annual Meeting in Berlin, we will also be paying particular attention to professional policy issues in Hamburg. In addition to a separate meeting of the professional associations, a presentation on the impact of the Hospital Reform Act on future work in spinal surgery is planned.
The host country in 2024 will be Portugal. The historical connection to the Hanseatic city of Hamburg has existed for many centuries. We would also like to intensify this in the field of spinal diseases and look forward to welcoming prominent speakers from the Atlantic coast to Hamburg at the North Sea.
Next year, special emphasis will be placed on the nursing and therapist conference. The nursing conference, or in contemporary terms: the conference of functional services anaesthesia and OR, will take place on Thursday. There is no shortage of challenges in day-to-day OR life: promoting team spirit, integrating foreign specialists, defining reserved tasks, practical guidance, and professional self-confidence. There will be no universal recipe, but there will be an instructive exchange of experiences!
Interprofessional perspectives on the topic of backs - in line with this motto, we look forward to looking at the care of our patients from different perspectives at the therapists' conference. Physiotherapists, doctors, sports scientists and psychologists will provide a varied, high-calibre programme and look forward to a plentiful professional exchange with you.
Of course, the social aspects of our annual conference will not be neglected in Hamburg either. The DWG Party Night of the Young Forum will take place on Wednesday evening in the GAGA Club on the famous Spielbudenplatz on the Reeperbahn. We have chosen the Chamber of Commerce as the event location for the festive evening. The historic ballrooms with their over 100 shining columns and beautiful stucco facades create the perfect setting for our gala on Thursday evening.
Curious about the DWG 2024 in Hamburg? Well then, off to the North...
With best regards,
Yours
Ralph Kothe