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Your monthly news & updates
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ECTS Announcements and Events
Other Announcements and Events
- Bisphosphonates' 50th anniversary meeting, Sheffield, UK 15-17 July 2019 - More information
- The 5th International meeting on Bone Marrow Adiposity, SDU, Odense, Denmark, 21-23 August 2019, Early bird and Abstract Submission Deadline 15 June 2019. More information
- Joint meeting Greek and Dutch Bone and Mineral Societies. Athens, 10-12
October 2019 More information
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ECTS and Mellanby Centre Training Course: Diagnostic Tests for Osteoporosis Clinical Use of Bone Turnover Markers
By Richard Eastell and Christian Meier
The ECTS and the Mellanby Centre for Bone Research (Sheffield) have worked together to provide training courses about diagnostic tests in osteoporosis. It is planned to hold a course on the clinical use of bone turnover markers at the University Hospital, Basel, Switzerland on Thursday 12 September, 2019. Bone Turnover Markers (BTM) have long been used as diagnostic tests for metabolic bone diseases. In the past 20 years, markers that are more specific to bone have been introduced and have been found to be useful in osteoporosis, particularly for monitoring treatment. This course aims to provide a background to the clinical use of bone turnover markers. This day-long course is open to clinicians (e.g. endocrinology, rheumatology, care of the elderly and clinical chemistry), laboratory scientists and nurses involved in the clinical management of patients at risk of osteoporotic fractures.
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Joint meeting Greek and Dutch Bone and Mineral in Athens, 10-12
October 2019
By Polyzois Makras and Natasha Appelman-Dijkstra
From 10 to 12 of October 2019 a joint meeting of the Hellenic Society for the Study of Bone Metabolism and the Dutch Society for Calcium and Bone Metabolism will be held in Athens, in replace of the annual meetings of the two societies. The aim of the joint meeting is to improve the knowledge of participants on osteoporosis and other metabolic bone diseases. Participants will receive important information for the recent advances in clinical and basic research as well as their interrelationship. Additionally, the implementation of current data and guidelines in the everyday clinical practice of the two countries will be thoroughly discussed in order to pinpoint common problems, different strategies and solutions. The program includes distinguished National and International speakers who are expected to provide high quality lectures.
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ECTS Newsletter faces East: Portrait of the Japanese Society for Bone and Mineral Research
by Yoshiya Tanaka and Teun de Vries
Since the kick-off of our "Portraits of the national bone and mineral societies" series in May 2018, we have had wonderful insights in the organization, the specialties and peculiarities of bone and mineral societies from European countries such as Spain, Denmark, the Netherlands, Denmark, Austria and Hungary. Since many years, ECTS maintains warm relationships with Asian bone and mineral societies. On behalf of the ECTS board, Claus Glüer until recently played an important role in this, now enthusiastically succeeded by Salvatore Minisola. Time for introducing the bone and mineral societies of Japan, China and South-Korea! In the coming months, we will learn more about the societies in Japan (July), China (September) and South-Korea (November). Next year, we will continue covering European societies as well.
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When English is not your mother tongue.
By Carmen Huesa.
There is no doubt that English is a great language to communicate science. It is simple enough to learn and it has the ability to be incredibly specific as well as completely vague. The fact is that most of us didn't grow up speaking English, and this poses a potential problem. Are non-native English speakers at a disadvantage? The general consensus of the article we present this month agrees that it is probably an issue and that more has to be done to improve English learning at undergraduate and postgraduate level. The article goes also further, into studies that require local knowledge where locals may not actually speak English and it advocates for scientists to open their minds and try to find a way to utilise this essential source breaking the language barrier. In general, many of the interviewees in the article ask for scientists not to be so judgemental when a colleague's English is not perfect as we would be 'missing out on a lot of perspectives and a lot of good research'.
Personally, I agree with many of the statements in the article. I have been fluent in English since the age of 17 and I have lived for over 22 years in Scotland, which means I can understand any English accent on the planet. I think and dream in English, and if at any point someone asks me to explain what I do in Spanish I break out in a cold sweat because I have no idea how to explain it in my mother tongue. Despite all of this, I still struggle. Mine is a stylistic issue driven by the fact that I was taught to write in the Spanish style, which consists of making sentences as long as grammar would allow me and with as much information as I can condense in them. Apparently, this confuses people. I have learned a lot from those who know how to write, and 20 years on I'm still learning. The most important thing is to ask for help from someone who is good at scientific writing.
It is within our grasp to be more open, tolerant and helpful. Science is a multicultural micro-society and we are thriving because of this diversity. Therefore I ask: what can you do to help your colleagues?
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ECTS Announcements and Events
Other Announcements and Events
- Bisphosphonates' 50th anniversary meeting, Sheffield, UK 15-17 July 2019 - More information
- The 5th International meeting on Bone Marrow Adiposity, SDU, Odense, Denmark, 21-23 August 2019, Early bird and Abstract Submission Deadline 15 June 2019. More information
- Joint meeting Greek and Dutch Bone and Mineral Societies. Athens, 10-12
October 2019 More information
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ECTS is thankful to its Corporate Members and other companies that have supported ECTS activities through unrestricted educational grants. These sponsors have in no way contributed to or influenced the content.
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Editor in chief: Teun De Vries (Amsterdam, The Netherlands)
Co-editors: Carmen Huesa (Edinburgh, UK), Cristiana Cipriani (Rome, Italy)
Marco Ponzetti (L'Aquila, Italy)
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