Book excerpt: It is with great pleasure that I write this Foreword to the Proceedings of the International Conference on Behçet’s Disease which was held in Berlin in June 2002. This was the first International Conference held under the auspices of the International Society for Behçet’s Disease which was founded in 2000 in Seoul. First, I congratulate our colleagues in Berlin, led by Professor Christos Zouboulis of the Department of Dermatology at the Free University of Berlin, for having organised a most successful conference and for having compiled these proceedings so rapidly. It will be realised immediately on scanning the contents of this book that the conference was truly international with 210 participants from 26 countries, as Professor Zouboulis has noted in his preface. These included basic scientists, epidemiologists, pathologists, clinicians and, importantly, representatives from patient organisations. The latter held their own conference alongside the scientific-medical conference to mutual benefit. The combined session of patients and doctors (abstracts on pp 601 – 626) gave the opportunity for an exchange of information and fruitful discussion. The wide ranging scope of the communications is evident from the index and it was most encouraging to see their origin – from all parts of the world, from senior and junior colleagues and, from many different disciplines. Many communications may be regarded as preliminary reports of research in progress and we look forward to seeing the definitive publications in appropriate journals in due course.