Sept 2009

With a closing date of 31 October the deadline for the call for focused symposia is fast approaching.  

Submissions are being sought covering any topic with international appeal that fit at least one of the programme tracks for World Physical Therapy 2011. In addition, a number of hot topics have been identified:

• advanced scope of practice (eg specialisation, consultant physical therapists)
• direct access
• diseases of civilisation/lifestyle diseases and their impact on global health (eg obesity, diabeties, CVD, smoking related problems)
• health promotion
• professional leadership, strategy and policy development
• the International Classification of Functioning (ICF)

Each focused symposia will be headed by a convenor, who will lead a group of international presenters through a series of linked presentations and conclude with key take-home messages. The presenters should come from at least three WCPT regions, to maximise learning opportunities and ensure that issues are relevant to a wide international audience. Submissions should be completed by the convenor.

If you are considering submitting a proposal but don't necessarily have contacts across the WCPT regions, please contact WCPT tbury@wcpt,org, as we can assist you in identifying potential contributors from around the world.

There is a limited budget allocated to support the inclusion of symposium presenters from low resource countries, for full details please go to http://www.wcpt.org/congress/participation_fund. The convenor must indicate that they have a presenter wishing to apply for assistance in the online submission and the individual presenter must complete and submit an application form prior to the symposium submission deadline.

The convenor should complete the online submission form on behalf of all the presenters: 

• go to www.wcpt.org/congress
• click the 'my congress' button 
• if you already have a user account on the WCPT website click the 'login' button
• or if you have forgotten your username or password click the 'Forgotten your password?' link 
• if you don't have a user account on the WCPT website click the 'Create an account' button
• select the 'My congress' tab
• follow the instructions under the 'My focused symposia' section
• you may edit the form any time before finally submitting
• deadline is 31 October 2009 

To download a full copy of the call for focused symposia please go to http://www.wcpt.org/congress/fs.

The general call for abstracts for platform and poster presentations will be available from 1 January 2010 with a submission deadline of 15 September 2010. Information will be published via the January issue of Congress update and on the WCPT website.

If you know of anyone who may be interested in attending or finding out more about World Physical Therapy 2011 and receiving Congress update, please ask them to register their interest on the WCPT website at www.wcpt.org/user/register.