Lymphologie 2019
A week ago, I visited Germany to participate in the Lymphologie 2019 conference, which took place in Bad Krozingen near Freiburg.
The conference is jointly organized every two years by the DGL (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Lymphologie) and the GDL (Gesellschaft Deutschsprachiger Lymphologen). The meeting is overall very hands-on and clinically oriented with many workshops and practical advice. Therefore, it's highly recommended for practitioners who are able to understand German. However, there is also a "basic science" track, and the organizers always manage to recruit some decent scientists for this track (see here: https://www.lymphologie-kongress.de/programm/samstag-03-10-15/). Notably, the talks are delivered in German, which doesn't make the recruiting task easier. Lymphologists in Germany continue to play a leading role in the treatment of lymphedema (and recently lipedema) with uniquely specialized experts and facilities (Földiklinik), but English has become the language of biomedical research also in Germany. However, there is still a need for dissemination of research results in German language and that's why I contribute occasionally to the German-language journal "Lymphologie in Forschung und Praxis". Here is a link to the abstract of my talk (in German): https://jeltsch.org/Abstrakt-BadKrozingen2019
The biggest problem of the basic science track was the limited time, that was allocated to each talk: 15 minutes (including questions). Some handled it very gracefully by omitting all details (Vivian Schacht), while others were rushing through the data (myself included). Imho, both approaches are not very satisfactory for the audience (which was preselected due to the parallel track setup and included therefore only those interested in basic science). Maybe a poster session would be more appropriate? In a poster session the presenter can tailor the message according to the viewer, and questions can be handled extensively without the need to stay within schedule. I do not know the answer, but maybe one could experiment with the format.