The Annual Meeting of the ECEMC (Spanish Collaborative Study of Congenital Malformations) was held on October 25 and 26 in Estepona.
On Thursday, October 24 at 18.00, at the Museum of Archaeology in Estepona, the Councilor for Cultural Heritage of the Estepona City Council, Jose Maria Guerrero, and the Director of Tourism, Aleksandra Broch, welcomed those attending the congress with a guided tour of the old quarter of Estepona and the city’s sights, ending in the emblematic Plaza de las Flores.
Later, at about 20.00 in the Garo Museum, the group was officially received by the Deputy Mayor, Pilar Fernandez-Figuares; the Councilor for Tourism, Marina Segovia and the Councilor for Citizen Participation, Susana Casaño, and, on behalf of Hospiten, The General Manager of the hospital, Benjamin Palmero and Gloria Colli, Head of the Hospiten Estepona Pediatrics Service and the event organizer.
The welcome act finalized the inauguration of the meeting and on October 25-26, the program’s scientific meetings were held at Hotel Barcelo Estepona.
Every year the ECEMC holds the meeting in the city of origin of one of the pediatricians taking part in the research carried out. Dr. Gloria Colli, Head of the Hospiten Estepona Pediatrics Service and as organizer of this year’s event, chose one of Estepona’s traditional central streets for the front cover of the event program.
At this 36th meeting, the participants updated their knowledge of the latest research into congenital malformations.
80 pediatricians from all over the Spanish mainland have had two intensive days of 9 presentations and 5 sessions on the main topic " Rare syndromes, cytogenetics - molecular genetics: Identification, interpretation and application in pediatric clinical practice"
About ECEMC
The Spanish Collaborative Study of Congenital Malformations (ECEMC) is a Research Program into the causes of congenital defects and malformations observed in newborn children.
Most alterations in embryonic and fetal development have individually very low incidence rates, and so are a paradigm of rare diseases (RD). For that reason the ECEMC Program is a thematic, multidisciplinary and cooperative network in which doctors from hospitals all over Spain and a Coordination Team made up of researchers from different fields participate.
The main aim of the EMEMC is to find the causes of alterations in embryonic and fetal development to establish measures impeding alterations in development. To do so, results obtained from the research carried out are not only published for the international scientific community, but are also passed on to those who to whom the results apply – mainly medical professionals and the general public, particularly those of an age to have children.