⇓Paediatric respiratory medicine (PRM) is established as a board-certified paediatric subspeciality in several parts of the world. Training programmes have existed in Australia since the seventies and in the USA since 1986 1, 2. In contrast, PRM has grown inhomogeneously in Europe; a survey in 1990 showed large differences in the professional and scientific situation between nations, but also between different areas, hospitals, and medical schools in the same country 3.
From the institution of the European Respiratory Society (ERS) in 1990, its Paediatric Assembly has been a scientific and professional platform for European PRM. The Long Range Planning Committee of this assembly, founded from 1992, is concerned with long-term assembly projects including a standardisation of PRM training in Europe. As several European countries have started to establish national training programmes in PRM, standardisation at a European level, if done timely and competently, has the potential to harmonise these different national training concepts.
In 1994, the ERS Paediatric Assembly established first contacts with the Union of European Medical Specialists (UEMS) sections on Paediatrics and Pneumology. Subsequently, the ERS president (at this time a paediatrician) was invited to the 1995 meeting of the paediatric UEMS section (Confederation of European Specialists in Paediatrics (CESP)). CESP had then already set up a European Board of Paediatrics in order to standardise training in all aspects of Paediatrics at a European level. Negotiations were initially difficult but CESP finally agreed that it should develop a clearly defined position and programme for PRM as a model for tertiary care paediatrics. Subsequently, CESP has also invited other paediatric subspecialities to cooperate, and PRM can pride itself with having had a pioneering role in this development. The ERS Paediatric Assembly subsequently applied for a subsection status of PRM in the UEMS section on paediatrics. …
