Precision Medicine in Autoimmunity conference offers education for 'immediate use' in practice
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Following a successful first outing in October 2018, organizers of the Precision Medicine in Autoimmunity conference are holding a second meeting on March 11 to 13, in Denver.
“There is no doubt that precision medicine is on the cutting edge of medical science in specialties like oncology,” Kevin Deane, MD, PhD, associate professor at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, told Healio Rheumatology. “We are hoping to keep the rheumatology community abreast of how these advances will be changing our field as well.”
The ongoing advancement of diagnostic tools and imaging techniques has helped rheumatology take big leaps forward in precision medicine, according to Deane. “With these precision medicine approaches, we are able to manage our patients in a much more targeted way,” he said.
The 2018 program only included topics related to rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus and antiphospholipid syndrome. The 2020 iteration has been greatly expanded to also include precision medicine in inflammatory bowel disease, psoriasis, psoriatic arthritis and ankylosing spondylitis.
“We wanted to keep the number of topics small in the first meeting,” Deane said. “But now we feel it is necessary and appropriate to cover a broader range of emergent syndromes, some of which lie outside of rheumatology, such as psoriasis, inflammatory bowel disease and cancer-related inflammatory events.”
The extensive content offered at the meeting will include lectures by an international group of experts, abstract presentations, poster presentations and panel discussions. “We will also include some over-arching talks throughout the meeting to help put a framework around this idea of precision medicine,” Deane said. “Some of this may be familiar to rheumatologists, but we hope to also provide attendees with new information that they can then take back and put into immediate use in their practice.”
The keynote address will be delivered by Leroy “Lee” Hood, MD, PhD, chief science officer at Providence St. Joseph Health and chief strategy officer and co-founder of the Institute for Systems Biology. “Dr. Hood is a world leader in personalized medicine,” Deane said.
Other presenters include Constantino Pitzalis, MD, of the University of London, who will talk about selecting the right drug at the right time in the right patient with RA. Jim O’Dell, MD, chair of the division of rheumatology at the University of Nebraska, is set to discuss unmet needs in RA; Ted R. Mikuls, MD, also of the division of rheumatology at the University of Nebraska, will talk about anti-Malondialdehyde-acetaldehyde adducts in RA and RA-Interstitial lung disease; Liam O’Neil, MD, of the University of Manitoba, will address proteomics in the natural history of RA; Jinooz Yazdany, MD, of the University of California, San Francisco and lead investigator of ACR RISE will update attendees on the progress of this study.
Additionally, Deborah Marshall, MD, Arthur J.E. Child Chair of Rheumatology Outcomes Research at the University of Calgary, will talk about moving from trial and error to precision decisions in childhood arthritis; and Christopher Ritchlin, MD, chair of the division of rheumatology at the University of Rochester in New York, will address prevention in PsA. Deane encouraged potential attendees to view the full overview of the program on the meeting’s website.
Attendance is expected to be more than 200 doctors with “a mix of clinicians and people from industry as well as representatives from health care systems around North America and beyond,” Deane said.
The broad theme of the meeting is precision medicine, with a more specific focus on biomarkers and imaging as ways of improving diagnosis and management of the diseases that will be covered in sessions. “There will also be a sub-focus on how patient-reported outcomes can be implemented toward the end of precision medicine,” Deane said.
The meeting will take place in the Grand Hyatt Hotel in downtown Denver. “The location might not be as close to the ski slopes as some people might hope,” Deane quipped. “We make up for it by providing the unique opportunity for attendees to interact with a world class set of precision medicine experts in both a formal lecture setting and over breakfast, lunch and dinner.”– by Rob Volansky
To see how else Precision Medicine in Autoimmunity is working to advance clinical science in the prevention, diagnosis and management of autoimmune diseases, visit their website here: www.precisionmedicineautoimmunity.org.
For more information:
Kevin Deane, MD, PhD, can be reached at 1635 Aurora Court, Anschutz Outpatient Pavilion, 4th floor, Aurora, CO 80045; email: KEVIN.DEANE@CUANSCHUTZ.EDU.
Disclosure: Deane reports no relevant financial disclosures.