The ACR/ARHP Annual Meeting is the premier event for specialists in the field of rheumatology. At this year’s meeting, there will be numerous opportunities for clinicians, clinical investigators, and others to learn the latest clinical findings in the field and to update their knowledge in all aspects of rheumatology. As always, the regular program will begin with the Year in Review where, this year, David Isenberg, MD, will discuss the seminal advances in clinical rheumatology reported during the year, and Daniel Kastner, MD, will provide a review of critical basic science advances.
Regular popular features will return to this year’s program. Some of these include: Curbside Consults—Meet the Professors, where clinical leaders are confronted with difficult cases and work through their diagnostic and therapeutic approaches; Thieves Market—Show Me Your Best Cases, where diagnostic dilemmas are discussed and solved; and the ACR Knowledge Bowl. Come and see if the defending champion, the University of New Orleans at Oschner, will be able to hold its title against stiff competition! In addition, The Great Debate this year will be especially important for anyone caring for patients with vasculitis, because experts will debate the relative merits of cyclophosphamide versus rituximab in the treatment of antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibody–associated vasculitis. You also won’t want to miss the Clinico-Pathological Conference, where a patient with hepatitis C and inflammatory polyarticular arthropathy will be discussed.
Aside from the special-feature sessions, there will be the usual broad array of clinical symposia discussing the latest in clinical and translational research; State-of-the-Art lectures by leaders in the field, who will review frontier treatments for a variety of rheumatic diseases; and the clinical abstract sessions. Some conditions that have not received much attention recently will be highlighted during this year’s program, including a State-of-the-Art lecture focusing on the approach to complex regional pain syndromes and reflex sympathetic dystrophy, a clinical symposium on the perioperative management of patients with rheumatic disease, and sessions on immunoglobulin G4–related disease, retroperitoneal fibrosis, and classification and treatment of Sjögren’s syndrome. The more mainstream rheumatic diseases will also be covered in great depth during the program. Finally, the immensely popular poster tours will continue to expand, with special attention this year to the clinically relevant posters.
A great deal of consideration has been given to providing sessions that will update practicing rheumatologists on best practices in the business and compliance aspects of rheumatology, including lectures on meaningful use, electronic health records, and the top 10 compliance risks of rheumatology, so we invite you to join us in Washington D.C., November 9–14.
For more detailed information on this year’s clinical science offerings, visit www.ACRAnnualMeeting.org.
Dr. Block is the Willard L. Wood, MD, Professor and director of the section of rheumatology at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago and immediate past chair of AMPC.
