Multidisciplinary WCIRDC meeting honors cardiometabolic research pioneer
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The 20th annual World Congress on Insulin Resistance, Diabetes & Cardiovascular Disease will offer a unique blend of basic and clinical science across cardiometabolic disciplines while also providing practical implications for patient care.
The multidisciplinary 3-day CME program, dedicated to management of obesity, diabetes, lipids, hypertension, chronic kidney disease (CKD), CVD, HF and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), will also serve as a special tribute to the late researcher and clinician Gerald M. Reaven, MD, credited with first identifying “syndrome X” — later known as metabolic syndrome.
“The first session will be a tribute to Jerry Reaven,” Yehuda Handelsman, MD, FACP, FNLA, FASCP, MACE, medical director and principal investigator of the Metabolic Institute of America in Tarzana, California, and chair of the World Congress on Insulin Resistance, Diabetes & Cardiovascular Disease (WCIRDC), told Healio. “We will be looking at insulin resistance from different dimensions: from the fat cells, from the heart disease point of view, from a molecular aspect, which was Dr. Reaven’s area of expertise, and the relationship with diabetes and CVD. We are also going to look at new concepts in insulin resistance, such as the relationship between insulin secretion and insulin clearance. In essence, it is a state-of-the-art, contemporary focus on insulin resistance.”
The WCIRDC will take place Thursday to Saturday. This year’s congress will once again offer a hybrid format with sessions taking place in-person at the Hilton Los Angeles/Universal City Hotel and streamed live online. All of the conference’s sessions will also be available on demand for 90 days.
The conference is the only meeting of its size dedicated to including presentations on basic science and clinical care for every cardiorenal metabolic specialty, Handelsman said.
“One of the major differences here is we have top faculty; the best in their fields,” Handelsman said in an interview. “This congress does not just cover one type of medicine. It’s the heart, it’s the kidney, it’s the brain, it’s lipids, from basic to clinical science, and you can meet these experts face-to-face in an intimate setting. You do not see this at larger meetings.”
Other featured sessions for this year’s conference:
COVID-19 will be the focus of a session at 10:25 a.m. PST Thursday, chaired by Chris K. Guerin, MD, and Ronald Krauss, MD. The session will include presentations on race disparities in CVD during the pandemic, obesity and insulin resistance in acute and long COVID, and the CV sequelae of COVID-19 in adults.
A joint session with the journal Metabolism at 1:30 p.m. PST Thursday, chaired by Christos S. Mantzoros, MD, PhD, will include presentations on targeting sarcopenic obesity to mitigate risk for CVD, the mechanisms, presentation and treatments of diabetes comorbidities and the relationship between the daily coating of the intestine and weight loss and dysglycemia.
Handelsman will lead a session on Friday at noon PST on early intervention and intensive type 2 diabetes therapy in cardiorenal metabolic disease, followed by sessions on cardiometabolic associated women’s health and updates on what is in the drug pipeline for cardiometabolic conditions.
Saturday will include a session with a focus on CKD and diabetes at 9:05 a.m. PST, chaired by Samuel Klein, MD, and Christian Mende, MD, with presentations on obesity and dysmetabolism as CKD risk factors and CKD stage 3 as a CV risk equivalent. There will also be a joint session with the journal The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology, with presentations on the epidemiology of diabetes, the heterogeneity of type 2 diabetes phenotypes and the role of noninsulin interventions in type 1 diabetes.
The 2022 Gerald Reaven Distinguished Leader in Insulin Resistance Award will be presented to Vivian A. Fonseca, MD, on Saturday at 11 a.m. PST. Fonseca’s keynote lecture will focus on using predictive analysis to improve diabetes care.
“You will see throughout the meeting, we give [Dr. Reaven] the homage that he deserves,” Handelsman said.
The congress will also include a poster hall, oral abstract presentations and an exhibit hall. Each day will conclude with a summary session in which attendees can ask questions to several of that day’s featured presenters. The agenda also includes a separate “meet the experts” session, in which attendees have an opportunity to speak one-on-one with congress faculty including Handelsman (global approach to diabetes and cardiorenal-metabolic disease) and Ralph A. DeFronzo, MD (insulin resistance), George Grunberger, MD (technology), and Norman E. Lepor, MD (cardiac imaging).
“There are meet-the-expert themes, but everyone can ask whatever they want to ask,” Handelsman said. “[The session] is open, we say a few words and people can ask their questions.”
Healio will provide coverage of the 20th WCIRDC, including reports on the sessions and researcher perspectives. For more information on the conference and registration, visit www.wcir.org.
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