Record-high Abstract Submissions & Acceptance
A record-breaking number of abstracts for poster and video presentations were submitted for the upcoming 34th Annual EAU Congress (EAU19) in Barcelona. There were approximately 5,500 abstract submissions for EAU19, which surpassed the number of submissions of all previous congresses. The Copenhagen congress in 2018 received a total of 4,676 abstracts and the London congress in 2017 received 5,038 abstracts.
Most striking is the increased number of video abstract submissions. For EAU19, 465 video abstracts were submitted, a significant increase compared to Copenhagen (318) and London (345).
Submissions for EAU19 came from 80 countries across the globe, the majority of which were in Europe and Asia. Abstracts for the Copenhagen congress originated from 78 countries, and 81 countries were recorded for London.
High quality means more accepted abstracts
Not only the number of submissions broke records, the acceptance rate is also higher than usual. The increasing quality of the submitted abstracts lead to an acceptance rate of 32.04%, which means that over 1,600 poster abstracts will be presented in Barcelona. In Copenhagen this was 30,78% and London 24.9%.
The most abstracts were submitted in the following categories:
- Prostate cancer: Screening/diagnosis: PSA and novel biomarkers – 418 abstracts
- Prostate cancer: Treatment: Surgery – 246 abstracts
- BPH: Research, Diagnosis and treatment – 235 abstracts
- Functional LUTS, incontinence and neuro-urology: Treatment – 193 abstracts
- Renal tumours: Nephron-sparing approaches – 186 abstracts
Being the most popular topics doesn’t necessarily mean that these topics will feature the most sessions. If we look at the highest acceptance rates, it’s interesting to see that the quality of the abstracts submitted differ per topic. These are the top 5 with the highest percentages of accepted abstracts:
- Paediatric urology
- Prostate cancer: Basic research: Novel therapies
- Infectious diseases
- New experimental technologies and techniques
- Geriatric urology
Additional poster sessions
The increase in the number of accepted poster submissions means that the Scientific Programme has to accommodate more poster sessions. Therefore, EAU19 will also feature more of the poster-guided tours that were introduced in at EAU18 in Copenhagen, next to the regular poster sessions. Members of Scientific Congress Office and experts in the field will act as dedicated moderators who will lead and inform groups on highlighted abstracts. Abstracts of particular interest, in terms of new insights, best practices and prospective clinical role, will be presented by the authors and commented on by the moderators to participants in the poster tour.
The idea is similar to a guided museum tour, but with participants also expected to be pro-active by way of questions and commentary. The very good interaction between moderators, authors and the attendees allows the discussion of more posters per session with an even better quality of discussion.
In total, 15 Expert-Guided Poster Tours will be scheduled in Barcelona. Check out the Scientific Programme for topics and dates.