9th ESAU: breaking barriers in science and knowledge-sharing

On 10-12 November 2011, St. Petersburg, Russia, hosted the 9th Meeting of the Section of Andrological Urology (ESAU) of the European Association of Urology (EAU). The meeting was attended by specialists - practicing surgeons with an interest in andrology - from twenty-seven countries. During the three days, scientists and clinicians gave more than fifty reports and lectures, performed about twenty operations and discussed dozens of controversial issues.

A total of about a thousand of experts attended the meeting, another 700 people watched the progress of the event in real time - on websites www.academy.uroweb.ru and www.esau-2011.com in Russian and English, respectively.

"It was great that the organisers arranged the transmission of the sessions in two languages,” shared his impressions Prof. V. Mirone, Chairman of the EAU Section of Andrological Urology (ESAU). “Due to the lack of language barriers, it was possible to make information available to more doctors and participants from the remote areas of Russia where English is a huge issue."

Those 1409 participants who registered and watched the event online will receive certificates, together with those present at the congress. According to Prof. Andrey Novikov, who presided the 9th ESAU Meeting “during this event those attendants who followed the course online did not only listen to the reports, but also watched live surgery and shared experiences - this is an important part of advanced subspecialty training.”

Among the various sessions, the surgery workshop was received with most enthusiasm. During the workshop, the best doctors of Europe and Russia operated on patients with complex and uncommon clinical situations in real time. From the conference room the doctors had the opportunity not only to observe, but also to discuss various nuances of surgical procedures with the operating specialists. On the final day, the meeting did not host any online surgeries, but accommodated for a session during which the experts demonstrated videos with surgical details and long-term results of surgeries.

It is important to note that this edition of the ESAU meeting was the first European event in Andrology held in Russia.

"The meeting was successful,” said Prof. Andrey Novikov. “We hope it has become the beginning of a closer and more effective cooperation between Russian and European experts. We were also very happy to have had the opportunity to show that Russian experts can be well relied on, both in terms of creating an high-quality programme and hosting an event of this scope.”

"We were also very happy with the level of participation,” underscored Prof. Mirone. “There were plenty of experienced and motivated specialists in the audience, which enabled us to have a very interactive and highly useful interaction on the floor.”

Those who have missed the 9th ESAU meeting or any part of it are welcome to watch webcasts which will soon appear on the official website www.esau-2011.com