Keynote Speakers

Montpellier, France

Jean Bousquet

TOPIC: Embedding MASK-air (digital health) and SILAM (aerobiology modeling) for optimal control of allergy to pollen

Jean Bousquet, Honorary Professor of Pulmonary Medicine at Montpellier University, France and Professor of allergology at Charité, Berlin, Germany, has chaired GINA (Global Initiative for Asthma: 1999-2000), ARIA (Allergic Rhinitis and its Impact on Asthma) and the WHO Global Alliance against Chronic Respiratory Diseases (GARD, 2006-2013). He has a research interest in the mechanisms of allergy, multimorbidity of allergic diseases, severe asthma and the digital transformation of health and care to sustain Planetary Health. He has published over 1,000 papers in PubMed, has a Hirsch factor of 118 (Clarivate) and has been listed as the most influential author in asthma with 5 of the 22 best cited papers (Qu et al, Respir Med, 2018, 137:206).

ABSTRACT:
Plant species vary under different climate conditions and the distribution of pollen can be used to assess the impact of climate change. In 2015, MASK-air^® (Mobile Airways Sentinel networK for rhinitis and asthma) was launched as a project of the European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Ageing (EIP-on-AHA, DG Santé and DG CONNECT) to develop an early warning system to inform patients about the beginning of the pollen season. SILAM (System for Integrated modeLling of Atmospheric composition) is a global-to-meso-scale dispersion model developed by the Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI). It provides information on atmospheric composition and air quality as well as pollen and pollution. POLLAR (Impact of Air Pollution on Asthma and Rhinitis, EIT health) has combined the MASK-air clinical data with SILAM data. A new Horizon Europe grant, CATALYSE (Climate Action to Advance HeaLthY Societies in Europe; grant agreement number 101057131), which started in September 2022, aims at better understanding climate change as well as ways to counteract it. One of the objectives of this project is to develop early warning systems and predictive models to improve the effectiveness of adaptation strategies to climate change. One of the early warning systems to be developed is focused on allergic rhinitis (CATALYSE Task 3.2). It stems from a collaboration between the FMI (Finland), Porto University (Portugal), MASK-air SAS (France), ISGlobal (Spain), Hertie School (Germany) and the University of Zurich (Switzerland).