This November, the Windy City will host some of the world’s most gifted speakers and educators in the field of rheumatology. Mark your calendars now for the ACR/ARHP 75th Annual Scientific Meeting, because there will be no better place to be to learn the state of the art in clinical rheumatology.
Like the World Series-winning Chicago White Sox in 2005, opening day at the Annual Scientific Meeting will feature an all-star lineup of speakers for the Review Course, addressing such topics as vasculitis, enthesopathy, neuropsychiatric lupus, inflammatory eye disease, chronic pain syndromes, peripheral neuropathies, Sjögren’s syndrome, and immunodeficiencies.
Clinical reviews and special sessions, including the treatment of lupus nephritis, difficult Raynaud’s, hyperuricemia and gout, insights into spondylarthropathies, and oral health in patients with rheumatic disease will also appear in this year’s lineup. The State of the Art lectures add to the diversity of topics with talks titled, “Cervical Spine Surgeries in Rheumatic Diseases,” “Biomarkers in Lupus,” and “Omega-3 Fatty Acids in Inflammation and Cardiovascular Health.”
This fall in Chicago, you won’t have to walk a Magnificent Mile to find a wide range of clinical topics delivered by the experts in their field. “Looking Ahead to Kinase Inhibition in Rheumatoid Arthritis,” “Extra-Glandular Manifestations of Sjögren’s Syndrome,” “Heart Disease in Rheumatoid Arthritis,” “The Three P’s of Dermatologic and Autoimmune Disease: Pyoderma, Panniculitis, and Pemphigus/Pemphigoid,” “Management of Antiphospholipid Antibody Syndrome,” and “Impact of Environmental Health on Autoimmunity” represent only a fraction of the large number of exceptional 90-minute clinical symposia that will be presented.
For an array of “stumper” cases, make certain you check out the Thieves’ Market session. And, if you have a great case, submit it online at www.rheumatology.org/annual. Also back by popular demand is the case-based Curbside Consults, in which the most challenging cases of scleroderma, myopathy, and lupus will be tackled by expert consultants. The ACR Knowledge Bowl will be a new interactive and entertaining opportunity for teams to compete in front of the audience by answering clinical rheumatology questions in a Jeopardy-like format. And no annual meeting would be complete without the Rheumatology Roundup, which provides a summary of the most interesting and significant abstracts presented during the 2011 Meeting and their impact on clinical practice.
The great debate in Chicago is usually over who makes the best deep-dish pizza; however, the Great Debate at this year’s meeting will be over the role of bisphosphonates in osteoporosis. Two bone experts will debate the evidence for and against the use of bisphosphonates in the session titled, “Is Too Much Suppression of Turnover Bad for Bone?” Also during the meeting, perspectives on “Biosimilar Products in the U.S. Market,” essentially generic versions of current biologic therapies, will be explored. And make sure you add the fantastic Medical Aspects of Rheumatic Disease talks to your itinerary, which include talks on “Celiac Disease,” “Anemia of Inflammatory Disease,” and “Lipid-Lowering Therapy.”
