Dear colleagues,
On behalf of the Lebanese Dermatology Society (LDS) and its Board, I would like to
welcome you at the 15th Congress of the LDS.
In this year 2020, there were three big events. The first one was the economic crisis in Lebanon leading to the departure of many of our colleagues to other countries for new horizons; the second one was the pandemic COVID-19 that struck in Lebanon and the entire world.
The last most important one in Lebanon was the explosion of the port of Beirut on the 4th of August creating a disaster, destroying a big part of the city and killing about two hundred people, injuring over five thousand citizens and leaving three hundred thousand people homeless. Many of our colleagues were injured in the explosion and some of them having their families wounded too.
I would like to address a special thanks to the societies that sent a message of support in this tragedy, especially the French Society of Dermatology and Venereology who offered the registration to their annual congress in December 2020 and the European Society of Dermatology and Venereology who sent a financial support to the injured Lebanese dermatologists. I hope that their support will let us keep our Lebanese dermatology on the level and to maintain our activities as seen in this conference.
Due to the COVID-19 health crisis the program this year will be entirely presented as webinar and divided into 3 days. It will include a variety of interesting topics that are mentioned in specific sessions, aesthetic and dermsurgery, inflammatory diseases, atopic dermatitis, psoriasis, telemedicine, COVID-19 and others. Besides local lecturers, well recognized international speakers will be presenting their topics.
The presentations were evaluated by the CME committee of the LOP and the congress was accredited 22 CME. Besides this, many of accredited webinars were supported this year by the LDS for their accreditations. We are looking ahead to organize the psoriasis day this year on the 29th of October.
Despite all the events that happened all over the world this year and have caused pain and sorrow to the Lebanese people, we are glad to be with you in this congress keeping up with this challenge and looking forward to better days in the near future.
Wish you a successful dermatology congress 2020 and hope to see you soon here in Beirut for the next Lebanese Dermatology Congress.
Pr Fouad EL SAYED
Professor of Dermatology
President of the LDS