27th World Congress of Internal Medicine in Granada, September 2004

The 27th International Congress of Internal Medicine was an outstanding event! Professor Blas Gil-Extremera, the President of the Organizing Committee, and his numerous collaborators prepared a meeting covering all aspects of modern internal medicine. The congress took place in the International Congress Centre of Granada, which offered all technical facilities to run a successful medical meeting with thousands of participants. The 27th International Congress was visited by almost 4000 physicians from all over the world. The destination was especially attractive for colleagues from Latin America, the delegation from Mexico numbering more than 150! We all were very pleased by the fact that the average age of the participating doctors was remarkably low. In contrast to many international congresses taking place in touristically attractive places, people stayed in the auditoriums from early morning until late in the evening. This speaks for the high quality of the program.

Highlights of the program were the following lectures and seminars:

• Community-acquired pneumonia in an era of emerging infections and antimicrobial Resistance (Christopher Ohl, Detroit, USA)

• Advances in the therapy of chronic hepatitis C ( Alfredo Alberti, Padova, Italy)

• Microabuminuria: Predictive value and clinical management (Josep Redon,Valencia, Spain)

• Prevention of stroke in hypertensive patients, LIFE study (Björn Dahlof, Göteborg, Sweden)

• The USA experience with West Nile virus (Joseph E.Johnson, Florida, USA)

• Use of stem cells in the treatment of clinical diseases (Bernat Soria, Alicante, Spain)

• Elements and essentials for successful teamwork (Charles Vincent, London, UK)

The social program brought the participants to numerous historical beauties of the historical city of Granada: the Alhambra (a visit by night was a very special treat!), the old city, cathedral, Albaycin etc.

The 27th International Congress in Granada was one of the best organized and most interesting congresses ISIM so far had. With wish to thank Blas Gil-Extremera and his organizing committee again for the excellent job they did.

Rolf A. Streuli