The International Liver Congress 2019 - ILC

Dear Colleagues,

Welcome to Vienna for The International Liver Congress™ 2019 (ILC 2019) – the 54th annual meeting of the European Association for the Study of the Liver (EASL).

We are delighted to invite you to join the international liver community at the Reed Messe congress centre in Vienna from the 10th-14th of April 2019.

Hepatology is changing – major increases in the burden of metabolic liver disease and liver cancer worldwide, novel innovative treatments for rare liver diseases and hepatitis B emerging as a growing challenge. For hepatitis C attention is moving to case-finding and treatment of difficult to access cohorts. Recognising the multi-disciplinary nature of modern hepatology we are forming new alliances with diabetes, obesity and oncology associations to enhance educational programming and clinical care. Public health research is also booming and EASL is becoming ever more active in driving policy agendas.

ILC 2019 brings together clinicians, scientists and hepatologists from all around the world creating a unique opportunity to interact and discuss clinical innovation, scientific breakthroughs and research challenges and to network and develop future collaborations.

Some of the 2019 ILC highlights are:

• Over 1,500 original scientific projects presented – from almost 3,000 submitted abstracts
• Complete topic tracks within all major topics of hepatology tailored to your interest
• Enhanced interactivity throughout scientific and educational components, with further refinements to the “research think tanks” and “meet the experts” sessions
• The launching of the all new “hepatology arena” to maximize discussions on topical challenges
• Comprehensive public health track with involvement of all major stakeholders, including governmental agencies such as WHO and CDC
• Strong basic science representation, with a multi-day basic science course focusing on liver immunology and immunotherapy
• Clinical postgraduate education across a wide range of interactive formats, with this years postgraduate course focusing on end-stage liver disease
• State of the art lectures on “Shared mechanisms in cholestatic and fatty liver disease – implications for current and future treatment”, “How big data integration can provide new insight to liver biology and disease” and new this year – a translational state-of-the-art lecture on “Cell therapy for advanced liver disease “
• Three full days of transplant and surgery programming, including a multidisciplinary postgraduate course
• Upgraded version of the “skills learning track”, with hands-on training opportunities for all
• Further developments of the « home of hepatology » concept with collaborative sessions with multiple societies
• For the first time, full online access to all sessions by free-of-charge webcasting
• Further development of the post-congress material, including powerpoint slide-decks summarizing the best original work from all topic tracks

Young investigators, clinicians, basic scientists, nurses, researchers,  industry partners, patients and policy advocates are all invited to attend. We look forward to seeing you for an exciting week of liver discoveries and exchange.

Looking forward to seeing you in Vienna.

Warmest regards,

Tom Hemming Karlsen
EASL Secretary General

Philip N. Newsome
EASL Vice-Secretary

ILC 2019  scientific programme will include:

Educational sessions:

• Basic science highlights
• Basic science seminar: Liver immunology and immunotherapy
• Breakfast morning rounds
• Critical reflections on landmark papers
• Grand rounds
• Meet the experts
• Postgraduate course: End-stage liver disease
• Pros and cons sessions
• Research think tanks
• Skills in hepatology
• State-of-the-art lectures
• Solve the case
• Symposia
• Targeted sessions:
  • Nurses and Allied Health Professionals sessions
  • Liver transplantation sessions
  • Public health sessions
  • Young investigators

Abstracts presented in different formats:

• Oral presentations:
  • General sessions
  • Parallel sessions
• Poster presentations:
  • ePoster screens
  • Oral ePoster sessions
  • Paper posters
  • Poster tours
  • Best poster session