Dear Colleagues,
On behalf of the organizing committee, I am delighted to invite you to the 16th World Intensive and Critical Care Congress (WICC), which will take place on August 26-30, 2023 in Istanbul.
The aging population, high-risk therapies, disasters, accidents, wars, terrorism attacks, immigration, and pandemics all have a great burden on the capacity of intensive care medicine. So far, the intensive care community in the developed World has acquired enormous expertise in the care of all kinds of critically-ill patients. However, intensive care resources are still severely limited in many parts of the World. It should be our mission to broaden our scope to consider all of the World’s critically-ill patients, and intensive care professionals, to bridge the gap for a better future in intensive care medicine.
The COVID-19 pandemic has recently been a big challenge for humankind and also for the global intensive care community. The pandemic emphasized the fact that multi-professional dedicated human resource is the most important factor in the practice of intensive care medicine. After a four-year break in the World Intensive and Critical Care Congresses, full of hard work and emotional burden, now it is time for the intensive care professionals from around the globe, to come together, to share knowledge and experience. Istanbul, bridging the continents will hopefully contribute to this mission of bridging the gap by hosting the 16th World Intensive and Critical Care Congress in 2023.
Istanbul has also a special meaning in the history of intensive care medicine. Florence Nightingale, one of the founders of intensive care medicine, known as “the lady with the lamp”, spent 2 years in Istanbul during the Crimean War in the 1850s to organize a nursing unit in the Selimiye Military Barracks to care for the wounded soldiers from the Crimean battlefront. 2023 is also a very special year for Turkey, as it is the 100th anniversary of the Turkish Republic. Therefore, we are very excited and motivated to perform a high-quality congress both scientifically and socially, featuring gender, age, profession, and national diversity.
We are looking forward to meeting you in Istanbul, on 26-30 August 2023, hoping your stay to be valuable and meaningful.
Prof. Dr. Arzu Topeli, MD, MSc
Congress Chair
