The year started with publication of the proceedings of the 6 th World Symposium on Pulmonary Hypertension, providing key updates on pathogenesis, genetics, diagnosis and treatment of all classes of pulmonary hypertension [1-14]. The World Symposium has been held every 5 years since 1973 and the proceedings provide comprehensive guidance on the state of the art in pulmonary vascular disease. This series was published in the ERJ for the first time in its 45-year history, and perhaps the most impactful article of the series was that on the new haemodynamic definitions and updated clinical classification of pulmonary hypertension [5]. This document proposed a threshold of pulmonary artery pressure >20 mmHg to define clinically significant disease. Whether or not this new threshold should lead to a rewriting of the textbooks of medicine was addressed in a pro/con editorial a few months later, and generated significant debate [15-20]. The series further discussed future clinical trial design and also the critical impact of patient perspectives [9, 14]. The entire series was published open access in acknowledgement of the critical nature of these articles for the global pulmonary community. The ERJ has two regular review series: "state of the art", which aims to give a high impact current update on key clinical and translational topics; and "back to basics", which provides accessible reviews of basic and translational science topics [21, 22]. 2019 saw a focus on COPD, with reviews and perspectives focused on controversial topics, including the role of inhaled corticosteroids, early COPD, and imaging and biomarkers [23-25]. Precision medicine in COPD and airways disease continues to develop and will have more and more impact on clinical respirology in the near future [26-28]. One major aspect is the question about how to assess airway inflammation in practice. The Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD) science committee published the justification for the recent GOLD strategy update in 2019, explaining the decision to include blood eosinophils in the decision-making process for use of inhaled corticosteroids for the first time [29]. Treatable traits, a concept originally