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NAMS meeting highlights technology’s role in menopause medicine
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The changing role of technology and its impact on menopause health will serve as the theme for this year’s North American Menopause Society Annual Meeting, with programming exploring topics ranging from musculoskeletal health and advances in breast imaging to migraines, mood disorders and hormone therapy.
The annual meeting, taking place from Oct. 11 to 14, at the Philadelphia Marriott Downtown, will feature experts from a range of disciplines addressing midlife women’s health and nearly 2,500 original research presentations, including symposia, oral abstract sessions and meet-the-expert sessions. The 2017 theme, “Technology: Transforming the Menopause Transition,” will be incorporated into topics throughout the 4-day event, according to NAMS Scientific Program Committee Chairman Andrew M. Kaunitz, MD, NCMP, FACOG.
“We’ll certainly be focusing on technology in the skeletal health pre-meeting, including looking at new approaches to assessing fracture risk, but also a technology theme for the overall meeting,” Kaunitz told Endocrine Today. “The presidential address will focus on social media and technology, and we’ll also have technology included in our presentation on evaluating abnormal uterine bleeding in midlife women and new technology for breast imaging, including tomosynthesis and molecular breast imaging.”
Other topics of interest at the meeting will include an update on vaginal health and genitourinary symptoms of menopause, systemic hormone therapy with both estrogens and progestin, and recent findings from the MsFLASH trials. Two less traditional topics at the meeting, Kaunitz said, will include sessions on lesbian health in midlife women and migraines and mood disorders in midlife women.
Kicking off the meeting will be a pre-meeting symposium titled Musculoskeletal Health in Postmenopausal Women: Assessment and Management of Fracture Risk, co-chaired by Michael R. McClung, MD, FACP, FACE, founding director of the Oregon Osteoporosis Center in Portland.
The meeting offers “a wealth of practical information about traditional topics that clinicians and others who have attended NAMS meetings in the past would anticipate, but also some nontraditional topics too,” Kaunitz said. “The symposium will outline best practices for bone density assessment, but will also feature detailed new imaging strategies and information on existing and newer pharmaceutical treatments for osteoporosis. There will also be a discussion on fall prevention and improving muscle function in aging women, and the program will conclude with case presentations with an interactive panel of experts, including a Q&A with the audience.”
Kaunitz highlighted several other meeting speakers:
NAMS President Marla Shapiro, CM, MDCM, CCFP, FRCP, FCFP, NCMP, will speak on technology and social media;
Arnold Advincula , MD, of the Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons, will speak on minimally invasive gynecologic surgery;
Ronald M. Krauss, MD, director of atherosclerosis research at Children's Hospital Oakland Research Institute and adjunct professor of medicine at University of California San Francisco, will speak about menopause, estrogens and lipoproteins;
Michael Policar , MD, MPH, professor in the department of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive sciences at UCSF, will discuss what has changed in US health policy and what is next.
“It is truly multidisciplinary,” Kaunitz said. “Yes, it’s true there are lots of OBGYN physicians attending, but there are also lots of internists, family physicians, mental health professionals and researchers.”
The meeting is also international in scope, Kaunitz said, with a large Canadian contingent with its own program embedded within the larger meeting, programming geared toward South American and Mexican membership, and participants attending from Africa, Asia and Europe.
“It’s a strong networking opportunity for those interested in menopause,” Kaunitz said.
Kaunitz said the meeting is particularly useful for attendees who are early in their careers, who may not have received formal menopause training.
“Something I hear from young OBGYN physicians a lot is, ‘I graduated from my residency not prepared to address the treatment of menopausal symptoms or sexuality issues that are prevalent in midlife women,’” Kaunitz said. “Recognizing that there is an organization devoted to addressing these issues and that meets these needs in a very holistic fashion, that is very positive for clinicians who want to improve their knowledge and skills in addressing menopausal issues. Here are a few days with a jam-packed program that will definitely add to a clinician’s knowledge regarding the evaluation and treatment of menopause.”
The Endocrine Today and Healio.com staff will provide coverage from the meeting, including reports on the sessions, onsite video interviews and much more. For more information on the NAMS agenda and registration, visit www.menopause.org/annual-meeting/2017-meeting. – by Regina Schaffer
Disclosure : Kaunitz reports he is chairman of the NAMS Scientific Program Committee.