Welcome Message

Dear colleagues, dear friends,

            It is a great honour for me to invite You on behalf of the Department of Otorhinolaryngology and Head and Neck Surgery of Rudolf and Stefanie Benešov Hospital and the Department of Otorhinolaryngology and Head and Neck Surgery, 1st Faculty of Medicine, Charles University and Motol University Hospital, Prague to the 82nd Congress of the Czech Society of Otorhinolaryngology and Head and Neck Surgery CLS JEP which will be held on 17–19 June 2020.

            Our original intention was to welcome You to Benešov, a town of Piarist culture, which is closely connected with famous noble families, surrounded by their opulent residences, in places where, without exaggeration, the echoes of history still resonate. An integral part of the city is the hospital, which bears the name of the successor to the Habsburg throne and his wife. It was founded in 1898 and, from the outset, it has become an integral part of the health care of patients not only from the region, but in many areas even from distant locations. The ENT department has been developing in the hospital since its inception, and in 1944 it was one of five hospital departments with a capacity of 55 beds. The current Department of Otorhinolaryngology and Head and Neck Surgery builds on these traditions and thanks to its state-of-the-art equipment, it continues to provide quality care in our field, including one of the largest sleep laboratories in the Czech Republic.

           Due to the increasing number of participants at the national congress, when we even encountered the limits of accommodation capacity in previous years, we have been long considering the venue. In addition, during the preparation of the professional content, we managed to establish cooperation with the American Academy of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery Foundation. For the first time in the history of the national congresses, the so-called Joint Meeting, with the participation of top American experts who will present their contributions on current topics and participate in panel discussions, will be included. Such a privilege, which is given only to selected professional events across Europe, pushes the congress far above the regional level with the expectation of an even greater interest in participation. This fact together with the extraordinary offer of new congress premises led us to move the venue to the capital city. We are pleased that we will be able to welcome You to the most modern congress centre in the Czech Republic, which provides unprecedented comfort and quality. Cubex Centre Prague, however, meets the most demanding criteria even on an international level and was selected the best new event location in the world at the 9th Global Eventex Awards 2019.

            After ten years, the congress thus symbolically returns to Prague, where, in 2009, the now well-established programme scheme was used for the first time at the congress organized by Professor Jan Betka. In addition to panel discussions with the world's leading experts, which will be held in English, other parts of the programme include instructional courses, round tables, free communications as well as poster presentations. The main topics of this year's summit will be sleep medicine and rhinology.

            I believe that You will enjoy not only the rich scientific programme of high-quality, but also the accompanying social programme, which will be used for informal meetings in a friendly atmosphere.

We are looking forward to Your participation.

On behalf of the organizers

Jaroslav Kraus, M.D., Ph.D., LL.M., MBA
President of Congress