ACC Liverpool will host the UK’s first World Congress on Osteoarthritis in 2018.
More than 1,400 international delegates from the United States, Japan, China, Australia and Europe are due to attend the four day event in April.
ACC Liverpool co-ordinated the bid together with the Osteoarthritis Research Society International Association (OARSI) and ambassadors Professor Jim Gallagher and Professor George Bou-Gharios, both from the University of Liverpool.
The Congress, the most important annual event on OARSI’s calendar, will provide an opportunity for medical experts to share knowledge and address the challenges of osteoarthritis in education, clinical practice and research.
Anthony Celenza, director of meetings and exhibits at Osteoarthritis Research Society International, said: “Liverpool has many strengths in osteoarthritis such as the international centre of excellence for research into alkaptonuria at the Royal Liverpool Hospital, the new national research centre dedicated to arthritis treatment and the MRC-Arthritis Research UK Centre for Integrated Research into Musculoskeletal Ageing (CIMA).
“It was therefore an ambition of everyone involved to bring the annual congress to Liverpool, and indeed the UK. We are looking forward to bringing our delegates to ACC Liverpool for the first time in 2018.”
The event, now in its 27th year, has taken place all over the world including Sydney, Berlin and Washington with next year’s event taking place in Las Vegas. Liverpool competed with Athens and Lisbon to win the 2018 congress.
ACC Liverpool has hosted a series of annual conferences in the osteoarthritis field such as the British Society of Rheumatology, the British Orthopaedic Association and the British Association for Surgery of the Knee. This latest conference will generate £2.4m in economic impact for the city region.
Kerrin MacPhie, director of exhibition and conference sales at ACC Liverpool, said: “This event is an example of the city capitalising on its expertise in the medical sector as both the University of Liverpool and Liverpool John Moores University lead the way in this field.
“Ambassadors are crucial in the bid process, particularly when competing against other international destinations, as they can help highlight to their own important networks the facilities we have at ACC Liverpool and our world class location.”