Allied respiratory professionals.

n celebrating 20 years of the European Respiratory Society (ERS), we have to include, since 1992, the development of the Allied Respiratory Professionals' Assembly (Assembly 9). The Allied Respiratory Professionals' Assembly originated from the need of this growing group of healthcare providers to engage in the ERS as a visible group for its stakeholders (including patients, research bodies and regulators). Allied healthcare professionals also have specific needs in terms of the development of their field. Concerns in this field are both academic and ''hands on''. Unusually, Assembly 9 doesn't represent a specific scientific area in respiratory medicine, but covers clinical functions performed by healthcare professionals who are technologists/scientists, physiotherapists and nurses. Consequently, Assembly 9 has a lot of cross-affiliations with other Assemblies and Groups (table 1), and provides and supports a comprehensive raft of Symposia, Hot Topics, Postgraduate Courses and specialist sessions at the Annual ERS Congress. The Assembly, however, is also important in the ''clinical reality'' that allied healthcare professionals confront in their different fields during a typical day at work. It is increasingly recognised that allied healthcare professionals play an important role in the diagnosis, treatment and care of patients with acute and chronic pulmonary diseases. High-quality measurement of pulmonary function plays an essential role in the diagnosis and follow-up of patients. It is one of the ERS' missions to harmonise and standardise these diagnostic tests. Similarly, nurses and physiotherapists face new challenges. Both groups increasingly participate in the education and self-management of patients in order encourage them to take more responsibility and control of their own condition. Nonpharmacological interventions, such as exercise training, typically applied by physiotherapists, have become evidence-based treatment, embedded in pulmonary rehabilitation. Breathing retraining in selected patient groups and mucocil-liary clearance techniques are other areas of interest. Most allied healthcare professionals cover several of the fields of interest across a wide age range. This Assembly offers an opportunity to learn from each other's disciplines and to achieve an outcome that is in the patient's best interest. The purposes of Assembly 9 are as follows. 1) To promote the role of allied health professionals within the ERS. 2) To raise the scientific and professional profile of allied health professionals in respiratory medicine in Europe. Nurses, physiotherapists and lung function specialists are essential players in providing integrated clinical services to patients. 3) To represent the views of the practical teams delivering respiratory policy, guidelines and standards. …