Report on the 11th annual EAPM conference
in Lausanne, Switzerland
written by Fritz Stiefel, EAPM 2024 Conference President and Michael Sharpe, EAPM President
“Investigation, Innovation and Integration” was the theme of this year’s EAPM 2024 conference, held in Lausanne, where a previous congress of the EACLPP, a forerunner of EAPM, was hosted in 2006.
From June 13-15, Lausanne University Hospital (CHUV) welcomed 531 participants from 38 countries. They displayed a keen interest in psychosomatic medicine, liaison psychiatry, biopsychosocial medicine, and integrated care.
On the first morning the five, almost completely full, masterclasses were given by Prof. H.H.J. Das from the Netherlands (Medically unexplained symptoms for long Covid), Prof. Gerd Kvale from Bergen (Clinical interventions for long Covid), Drs Dana Pamfile and Laurent Michaud from Lausanne (Liaison psychiatric assessment and support before and during medical-assisted gender transition), as well as Alison Creed Awardee Prof. Bernd Löwe from Hamburg (Research on persistent somatic symptoms: open questions, challenges and methods) and Frits Huyse Awardee Dr. Annette Boenink from Amsterdam (Shared decision making: bringing integrated care of complex patients to a higher level).
Main auditorium
The highlight of the opening ceremony on Thursday morning was a lavishly illustrated lecture (Body I have and body I am) by Nathalie Herschdorfer, Director of Photo Elysée Museum for Photography in Lausanne. As a historian of art and photography, and curator of various national and international exhibitions bringing together history, photography and art, Nathalie Herschdorfer provided a lively and stimulating survey of the human body by putting into play body images and body politics and both historical and present-day bodies as represented in photography and art, shaped by fashion, sport, work, vulnerability and aging, or science and technology. This spectacular opening lecture was followed by the first keynote lecture on “Climate crisis: what is awaiting medicine?” by Prof. Nicolas Senn, Professor in Family Medicine and Vice-Dean for sustainability of the Faculty of Biology and Medicine of Lausanne University. From then on a rich program unfolded with 21 symposia (e.q., Health anxieties, Traumatic intrusive memories, The social sciences in liaison psychiatry), 20 oral sessions (e.q., post-Covid-19 conditions, Mind-body interactions, Subjective illness experiences), and 10 workshops (e.g., Coaching for health professionals, Psychotherapy and climate crisis, Persistent physical symptoms in primary care), some of them organized by the Swiss Academy of Psychosomatic and Psychosocial Medicine, and the Swiss Society of Consultation Liaison Psychiatry. The day ended with two other keynote lectures by Prof. Claudine Burton-Jeangros, a Professor of Sociology from Geneva University, who addressed the topic “What about the “social” in the bio-psycho-social?” and by Prof. Enny Das from Nijmegen on “New trends in research on communication and MUS”. Finally, Michael Sharpe directed the General Assembly and reminding all that next congress will be held in Munich from September 10-13, 2025.
Friday’s keynote lectures were begun by Prof. Micheal Sharpe (Oxford), who made a call for the still needed integration of biopsychosocial medical care investigating the current state of integration of the “psycho” in medicine (“Biopsychosocial medical care: where next?”), by Prof. Roland von Känel (Zürich), who provided an overview on the psychic in cardiovascular disease (“Interdependence of bio and psycho: cardiovascular disease”) and Prof. Gerd Kvale (Bergen), who summarized the psychiatric literature and lessons learned regarding the Covid-pandemic (“Covid-related mental distress”). The conference award was given to Ana Aguiar, Anneline Rauch, Clara Stein, Helena Gebarska, Manon Enting and the following persons were awarded EAPM fellowships: Franziska Geiser, Bernd Löwe, Hans-Christian Deter, Monika Keller, Silvia Ferrari, Josef Jenewein, Carsten Leue, Else Guthrie, Marta Novak, Margarita Beresnevaitė, Ursula Werneke, Gerhard Schüssler. Following persons were awarded EAPM Junior Fellowships: Tara Petzke, Franziska Regnath, Caroline Rometsch, Chloe Saunders, Abigail Smakowski, Nick Mamo, Brodie McGhie-Fraser, Caoimhe McLoughlin, Lina Münker, Saya Niwa, Mais Tattan, Höbe Treufeldt, Verónica Cabreira, Asma Chaabouni, Aleksandra Kustra.
The guided poster tours, held on Thursday and Friday, were assumed by Anne-Françoise Allaz, Konstantinos Tzartzas, Laurent Michaud, Vincent Hanappe, Sebastian Euler, Stéphane Saillant, Dagmar A. Schmid and Dana Pamfile. Among the posters, 15 were chosen as the best posters, with 10 of them selected to be orally presented on Saturday morning’s best poster session. The best poster award, selected by Cédric Lemogne, Kostas Tzartzas and Peter Henningsen, went to Luisa Peters, Urvi Saini and Marc Semmlin.
The gala dinner on Friday evening in the restaurant of the Olympic Museum with its spectacular view on the lake, was preceded – thanks to mild weather by an aperitif on the terrace, fittingly a rainbow over the lake accompanied the excellent dinner.
 Prof. Claudine Burton-Jeangros |
 Prof. Michael Sharpe |
 Prof. Enny Das |
 Prof. Fritz Stiefel |
On Saturday, in addition to the Special Interest Groups meetings, the last symposia, workshops and oral sessions to place, followed by the EAPM awards lectures: Prof. Bernd Löwe, Alison Creed Awardee, gave a lecture on “Persistent somatic symptoms: Clinical presentation, etiology and treatment”, the Frits Huyse Awardee Dr. Annette Boenink on “Back to basic: reflections on integrated care” and the Elsevier/EAPM Young Investigator Awardee Dr Tara Marlena Petzke on “And how do you feel? Repeated symptom queries enhance symptom reports elicited by negative affect”.
The closing session provided the opportunity to thank all the people, who – in a collective effort – made this very successful congress possible: local staff, award committees, chairs of symposia and oral sessions, speakers, poster tour organizers, scientific and organizing committees, workshop presenters, EAPM board, participants … Thank you all!
Fritz Stiefel
EAPM 2024 Conference President
