Virtual insulin resistance meeting highlights cardiometabolic care, COVID-19
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Experts across cardiometabolic specialties will lead an international program this week designed to explore new research in metabolic diseases along with the latest developments related to COVID-19.
The World Congress on Insulin Resistance, Diabetes and Cardiovascular Disease (WCIRDC), now in its 18th year, is a multidisciplinary CME program taking place for the first time in an interactive, all-virtual format from Thursday through Sunday. The congress is dedicated to diabetes, obesity, lipids, CVD and energy balance, linking basic research to clinical practice.
Registration this year is free, and the 4-day conference will be available on demand for 90 days. Each session will be followed by a live, interactive Q&A format.
“The congress is the premier global multidisciplinary meeting dedicated to metabolism, obesity, diabetes, lipids, hypertension, chronic kidney disease, cardiovascular disease, heart failure and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease,” Yehuda Handelsman, MD, FACP, FNLA, FASCP, MACE, medical director and principal investigator of the Metabolic Institute of America in Tarzana, California, an Endocrine Today Editorial Board Member and conference chair, told Healio. “It is innovative and unique in addressing the interrelationship of the various metabolic disorders by international diverse faculty representing all related disciplines. It is the only conference of its size, which spans basic science to clinical practice.”
The program, Handelsman said, is designed to evaluate clinical and basic science aspects of diabetes, obesity, hypertension, dyslipidemia, heart failure, CVD, CKD and related cardiometabolic conditions by also focusing on insulin resistance, hyperinsulinemia, fat inflammation and energy metabolism. There are multiple interactive sessions focusing on state-of-the-art clinical management of diabetes, dyslipidemia, CKD and CVD. The goal is to understand the pathophysiology of each condition and develop appropriate, comprehensive clinical management plans, he said.
Handelsman said the strength of the meeting is its faculty, all leaders in their respective fields, who link basic research with clinical practice.
“Another unique feature of the conference in its pursuit of improved patients care is the incorporation of ‘implication to practice’ following all sessions, including basic science sessions,” Handelsman said.
The meeting also offers attendees the chance to network with global faculty in a virtual format, Handelsman said.
The congress offers several highlights this year:
A session on lipotoxicity Thursday at 8 a.m. PST will focus on the pathophysiologic link behind “cardiometabolic syndrome,” with Robert Chilton, DO, Ralph DeFronzo, MD, Kenneth Cusi, MD, and Eric Ravussin, PhD.
Also on Thursday, Martha Gulati, MD, Gina Lundberg, MD, and Howard Hodis, MD, will participate in a session on heart disease in women that explores sex differences on coronary artery calcium, sex-specific differences in risk factors for heart failure and estrogen replacement, atherosclerosis and CVD.
Philipp Scherer, PhD, and Gerald Shulman, MD, PhD, will debate the best target to treat insulin resistance — the ceramide pathway or diacylglycerols and acetyl-CoA — on Friday at 9:15 a.m. PST, followed by a live audience vote and panel discussion.
Sunday’s session on the kidney in diabetes, beginning at 12:50 p.m. PST, will include presentations on new guidelines for diabetes, CKD and hypertension, featuring Matthew Weir, MD, and the treatment of diabetic nephropathy with GLP-1 receptor agonists and SGLT2 inhibitors, featuring David Cherney, MD.
The conference also includes joint sessions with the journals Metabolism and The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology. Those sessions will focus on the history of insulin resistance and metabolism and COVID-19, diabetes and metabolism, respectively.
“There is also one more dedicated COVID-19 session focusing primarily on management addressing early approaches, sex differences, the role of antibodies in management and a just-completed special study on obesity,” Handelsman said.
Handelsman said the goal of the meeting is to bring specialties together to drive home the message of comprehensive care that is not segmented.
“The traditional approach to medical care has been to focus on one disease/condition at a time,” Handelsman said. “This has been how pharmaceutical companies approached drug development and promotion and how the medical establishment functioned within specific experts’ medical societies. As a result, the approach to care was segmented. Evidence to the system was the development of practice recommendations, which served only a narrow area. The congress brings together diverse global leadership in the hope that it will lead to development of a multipronged approach to the treatment of the patient. The message is to drop the old approach to patient care in lieu of the new, total metabolic concept addressing all related medical conditions.”
Healio will provide coverage of the World Congress on Insulin Resistance, Diabetes and Cardiovascular Disease 2020, including reports on the sessions and researcher perspectives. For more information on the conference and registration, visit www.wcir.org.
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