(Johannes Ring)

When the Task Forces were introduced in 2005, the two coordinators proposed by the Board were informed about aims and duties of task forces which were described among others:

• to allow EADV to influence and keep updated information on matters related to special fields within dermato-venereology;
• to build a bridge (liaison) to existing sub-specialty socities in Europe;
• to propose and elaborate position statements and try to be involved in preparation of guidelines;
• to be available for contact with regard to PR activities;
• to build a platform for common research projects (e.g. EU projects, multicenter trials etc.);
• to make suggestions to the scientific program committee for congresses and symposia;
• to organize small workshops (with about 20 participants) on selected topics in the EADV House in Brussels or elsewhere;
• to develop many other ideas ...

Furthermore, the following rules for the task force activities were given:

"The work of EADV task forces is voluntary, their size is flexible. The task forces are principally open to all members interested. There is no inherent financial support connected with the work of task forces. However, task forces can ask for support regarding specific projects. When task forces organize an activity in the EADV House in Brussels, EADV will support catering and one overnight stay (no travel costs!).

Task forces can be closed at any time when there is no apparent activity. Task force coordinators have been nominated for a period of two years, most of them accepted in spring or summer 2006."

So we are actually free to redefine and reorganize the task forces.

There is only one exception: the "European Task Force Atopic dermatitis" (ETFAD) was an already exisiting "sub-specialty society" with own rules which put itself under the patronage of EADV as 'Task Force Eczema"; the EADV coordinators were the same as the chair persons of the ETFAD, namely Ulf Darsow and Alain Taïeb. Therefore ETFAD had a right to propose their own subspecialty meeting on Wednesday at our congresses. This right was not automatically granted to the other task forces.

There is a list of the current task forces and coordinators:

Acne / Rosacea (Frank C. Powell, Christos C. Zouboulis)
Allergy (Peter Schmid-Grendelmeier, Georg F. Klein)
Andrology (Frank-Michael Köhn, Gerhard Haidl)
Bullous diseases (Marcel Jonkman, Michael Hertl)
Cancer prevention (Hubert Pehamberger, Julian Conejo-Mir)
Contact dermatitis (Fabio Ayala, Ana Jimenez Arnau)
Dermatopathology (Anna Gorkiewicz-Petkow, Lorenzo Cerroni)
Drug reactions (Sidoroff, Maja Mockenhaupt)
Eczema / Atopic Dermatitis (Ulf Darsow, Alain Taïeb)
Epidemiology (Jean Jacques Grob, Hywel Williams)
Genodermatoses (Helmut Hintner, Giovanna Zambruno)
Hair and nails (Robert Baran, Antonella Tosti)
History of dermatology (Daniel Wallach, Penny Emmanouil)
HIV / AIDS (Erwin Tschachler, Norbert Brockmeyer)
HPV infection (Gerd E. Gross, Mihael Skerlev)
Irritant dermatitis (Peter U. Elsner, Stefania Seidenari)
Laser in Dermatology (Leonardo Marini, Zerbinari)
Lymphoma (Wolfram Sterry, Rein Willemze)
Melanoma (Andreas D. Katsambas, Peris)
Mycology (Roderick James Hay, Schaller)
Non-melanoma skin cancer (Lawrence Scerri, Ettore Minutilli)
Occupational skin disease (Antti Ilmari Lauerma, Swen M. John)
Office management (Rolf Ostendorf, Monica Gniadecka)
Operative dermatology (António Silva Picoto, Cristina Magnoni)
Pediatric Dermatology (Zsuzsanna Szalai, Carlo Gelmetti)
Phlebology (Martino Neumann, George S. Tiplica)
Photodermatology (Thomas Schwarz, Ferguson)
Psoriasis (Louis Dubertret, Jonathan Barker)
Psychodermatology (Uwe Gieler, Françoise Poot)
Quality of Life (N.N.)
Skin aging (Kaya, Flohr)
Skin disease in pregnancy (Sarolta Karpati, Gudula Kirtschig)
Teledermatology (Gregor Jemec, Pietro Rubegni)
Urticaria / Angioedema (Carsten Bindslev-Jensen, Torsten Zuberbier)
Vitiligo (Mauro Picardo, Alain Taïeb)
Wound healing (Susanne Eming, Romanelli)
STD (Derek Freedman, Angela Robinson)

Updated on November 1, 2009

For further information, please contact office@eadv.org
If you are a member and wish to contact directly one of the coordinator, you may also go to the members' search option "Find a member", in the section "My corner".