Bronchiectasis and respiratory tract infections are closely related: repeated respiratory tract infections can induce bronchiectasis, while exacerbations are the acute expression of the disease. Furthermore, infective comorbidities can worsen the prognosis of bronchiectasis and influence its management.
Bringing EBROW and the RTI Forum together to share part of the programme is therefore a natural evolution, strengthening collaboration, knowledge exchange and new thinking.
This combined meeting will bring together experts and professionals from slightly different backgrounds to explore the latest developments, share perspectives and build new connections across the respiratory community.
One programme, three separate tracks.
The 9th International Forum on Respiratory Tract Infections organising committee will be announced here shortly.
Call for abstracts and registrations opening — End September 2026
Abstract submission deadline — Monday 16 November 2026
Deadline for early registration — Wednesday 16 December 2026
Subscribe for programme updates, calls and key dates. All official communications come from info@bronchiectasis-rti.org or @lenagroup.net.
Michal Shteinberg is heading the bronchiectasis and adult CF service in the Pulmonology institute and CF center, Carmel medical center, Haifa, Israel. She is a Clinical Assistant Professor in the Faculty of medicine at the Technion, Israel Institute of Technology. Her main research interests are bronchiectasis and its overlap with other airway diseases, and adult CF.
Head of the Pulmonology Service at Hospital Clínic de Barcelona and accredited researcher in the IDIBAPS group Inflammation and Repair in Respiratory Diseases. His work focuses on airway infection, inflammation and bronchiectasis, including frequent-exacerbator phenotypes in the EMBARC registry.
He coordinates educational programmes on bronchiectasis at Hospital Clínic and publishes widely on mucins, inhaled therapies and treatable traits in chronic airway disease.
Natalie Lorent works as a consultant in Respiratory Medicine/Clinical Infectiology at the University Hospital Leuven where since 2015 she coordinates the care for adults with respiratory infections, bronchiectasis (CF and non-CF) and primary ciliary dyskinesia. She is involved in clinical and translational research in bronchiectasis and mycobacterial infections.
She is founder and president of the national NTM Consilium, a clinical advisory board and basis of a national registry; she chairs the European NTM research network (NTMnet) and the Belgian MDRTB expert group. She has been involved in EMBARC since the start. Natalie is also assistant professor at KU Leuven.
Felix C. Ringshausen is a board-certified physician for respiratory medicine and infectious diseases and head of the Adult Bronchiectasis and Cystic Fibrosis Service at the Hannover Medical School, Germany. In addition, he is principal investigator of the German Center for Lung Research (DZL).
His research interests are focused on European multidisciplinary networks and multicenter initiatives in order to promote clinically orientated research and improve patient care in the field of rare, neglected and under-researched aspects of respiratory infections like bronchiectasis, nontuberculous mycobacteria, respiratory viruses and adult cystic fibrosis.
Professor of Respiratory Medicine, Humanitas University, Milan, Italy. Consultant, Respiratory Unit and Adult Cystic Fibrosis Center, Fondazione IRCCS Ca’ Granda Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico, Milan.
Co-chair of the European Bronchiectasis Network (EMBARC). Chair of IRIDE, the Italian Registry of adult bronchiectasis. Chair of the Italian Registry on Non-Tuberculous Mycobacteria (IRENE).
Professor Michael Loebinger is Professor of Practice at Imperial College London and Director of the Lung Division and Deputy Medical Director at Royal Brompton Hospital. He co-chaired the British Thoracic Society bronchiectasis guidelines and co-wrote the BTS Non-Tuberculous Mycobacteria and European Respiratory Society bronchiectasis guidelines.
He is a founding member of the UK and European clinical and research bronchiectasis and NTM networks and has authored over 200 publications. He has helped design and lead multiple global clinical trials in bronchiectasis and NTM and was chief investigator for the first mRNA trials in primary ciliary dyskinesia.
Charles Haworth is a Respiratory Consultant working within the Cambridge Centre for Lung Infection at Royal Papworth Hospital where he specialises in treating adults with bronchiectasis, non-tuberculous mycobacterial (NTM) infections and cystic fibrosis.
He co-authored the British Thoracic Society Bronchiectasis clinical guidelines published in 2017 and the European Respiratory Society Bronchiectasis clinical guidelines published 2019.
He was also senior author of the International Cystic Fibrosis NTM guidelines published in 2015 and first author of the British Thoracic Society NTM guidelines published in 2017.
Between 2018–2021 he was a founding and executive committee member of the UK Cystic Fibrosis Medical Association.
In June 2024 he was invited to join the Board of the European Cystic Fibrosis Society.
Rhodes Chair of Experimental Therapeutics and Clinical Pharmacology, University of Oxford.
Chief Editor of the European Respiratory Journal.
Chair of the European Bronchiectasis Network (EMBARC).
Chair of the Standards of Care Committee of the British Thoracic Society.