Welcome of FESSH

Dear Colleagues,

Switzerland will be remembered as the organising country of the Euro 2008 Football Championship. We hope that you will also remember Switzerland as having participated in Eurohand 2008, the XIII^th FESSH Congress, in Lausanne. The European Federation of Societies for Hand Therapy EFSHT will join us for this event with their IX^th congress.

Lausanne is a delightful yet small city. Therefore you will be considered as a very personal visitor. Its many attractions include Lake Geneva, the surrounding Alps, the Olympic Museum, the Hand Museum and many more within a very short distance.

The scientific committee will do its utmost to maintain the high standards of our annual meetings. We will focus on three themes: aesthetics in hand surgery, tendon repairs in memory of Claude Verdan, and peripheral nerve surgery in memory of Algimantas Narakas. There will be a very special session on the robotic hand. The post graduate course will be on osteosynthesis, a subject in which Switzerland has always played a significant role.

Innovation too, as in a two hours session, Switzerland will present itself as not only focused on medicine, but also on some of its other prestigious achievements.

For the first time an art contest, open to all participants, will be organised in collaboration with the Claude Verdan Foundation (Museum of the Hand). All art works submitted will be presented at the congress venue, where an exhibit of the collection of the Museum of the Hand will also be shown.

We very much hope that you will be able to join us, and already extend a warm welcome to Lausanne.