The co-occurrence of physical and/or mental illness in an ageing population represents a major challenge to health systems. This symposium welcomes abstracts on topics that address a greater understanding of shared pathophysiological mechanisms, novel therapeutic approaches and the design of more efficient care pathways to manage older people or those with multimorbidity across the life course.

Though individually rare (usually defined as affecting no more than 5 per 10,000 people), their sheer number (6-8000) means that rare diseases represent a major public health concern, affecting around 30 million EU citizens. This symposium invites abstracts on topics that include the diagnosis and management of rare diseases, including novel approaches to therapeutic studies and overcoming the issue of equitable access to service and research.

Increasing appreciation of disease heterogeneity, coupled with increasing financial pressures upon the NHS, mandate novel, personalised approaches to disease management. This symposium welcomes abstracts that address either novel diagnostic or therapeutic approaches to disease.

Preventative approaches to improving population health, including the deployment of effective behavioural interventions, are an essential strategy in creating a national “health”, rather than a national “disease”, system. This must address major health inequalities that pervade our society. The effective use of data science represents a critical tool in our armament to improve population health. This symposium invites abstracts on any aspect of population health, including the innovative use of data science approaches.

The Association warmly welcomes a wide range of themes under its ‘open theme’ category.