The European Society of Radiology (ESR) has revealed that plans are being devised to stage the 2021 ECR at least partially as an onsite event. The society has promised to give more details in late November.
ECR is scheduled to take place from 3 to 7 March. The ESR has been tight-lipped about what an in-person experience might look like, but it says the congress will be completely different than any previous ECR.
The announcement comes on the heels of a mass-testing experiment at the Austria Center Vienna, which has hosted ECR since 1991. The experiment assessed the feasibility of holding safe, large-scale events and suggests that daily, rapid testing could be part of the plan to hold an in-person event next March.
The ESR also said it is working with the Austrian government to set "world-leading standards" for meetings during the pandemic in order to hold the event both online and in-person in Vienna.
"With your support, we expect ECR 2021 to set an example that will serve as [a] blueprint for medical meetings in the next years to come," the ESR stated on its website. "Our goal is to give you the best congress possible under the current circumstances, but it goes without saying that the safety and health of our participants will always be our highest priority."
