Welcome back, ACR Convergence: Thoughts from the field
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It has been a busy year, and I am gearing up for the American College of Rheumatology Convergence 2023. After having just spent the last hour cruising through the elaborate ACR website, let me say, for starters, I am impressed.
Most importantly, to me, this is going to be a real meeting once again, replete with real poster sessions attended by people, which is where I really go to network — and learn. The absence of such in-person poster sessions in last year’s meeting left a gaping hole in both the architecture and impact of the meeting, and I am so happy it has been corrected. After all, person-to-person interaction is the essence of actually going to meetings and unequivocally, for me, it all starts in the poster hall. In addition, the poster experience is bolstered by several 360 poster-tour sessions on Sunday morning for clinical, basic and ARP constituencies, as well as a tutorial on how to traverse the poster experience for trainees. I love it.
The meeting events of traditional note for me have always included the review course, where I am so humbled to return as the closing speaker on Saturday to discuss clinical challenges of viral infections in rheumatology. This topic has undergone tectonic changes since I last discussed it at this meeting many years ago, and I am still working on it now. The other traditional “pre-course” highlight, if it fits your interests, should be the basic and clinical research conference, also held on Saturday, which this year is all about pain in rheumatic diseases. The program looks really fascinating.
This year’s program is deep in both mechanistic aspects of all forms of pain, as well as in many clinical aspects of pain assessment and management, highlighted for me by a talk on harnessing the placebo effect in practice as a nontraditional therapeutic modality. As I have written in this column in the past, the placebo effect has been long ignored by our profession and this presentation will be delivered by my friend and collaborator Luana Colloca, MD, PhD, the noted placebo-nocebo scientist.
For those of you who are new to ACR meetings, let me share with you a few things well known to the old hands that I believe you should try not to miss. Day one kicks off with the year in review, which is always delivered by rheumatology superstars known for their knowledge and delivery skills. Another must see is the great debate, which matches two superstars of the field in a back-and-forth regarding a topic of current interest. This year’s topic conveniently lands in a space close to my heart — namely the issues swirling about polymyalgia rheumatica and the role of advanced therapies. Next, look over the plenaries on each day to find those in line with your passions and your needs, and of course be sure to download the app and make a plan.
I also am generally partial to the many guidelines and classification presentations each year, for they are our working tools. Finally — and also not to be ignored — are the many industry sponsored events that traditionally cover many hot topics and feature great speakers, if they fit your interests.
In closing, I must say that there is so much in this program that for me to tell you what I found of interest, in my rapid review, is akin to my viewing the Milky Way and pointing out to you the few bright stars that have caught my eye. For now, my counsel is to hit the program online and study in advance to map your strategy. And finally, for those of you in the #rheumtwitter (aka, X) world, start tweeting your thoughts, impressions and ultimately your experiences at #ACR23. That’s my take on how to plan for #ACR23, now please tell me yours? Please share your thoughts with me at calabrl@ccf.org or at rheumatology@healio.com.
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Leonard H. Calabrese, DO, is the Chief Medical Editor, Healio Rheumatology, and Professor of Medicine, Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University, and RJ Fasenmyer Chair of Clinical Immunology at the Cleveland Clinic.
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