Fall 2020 (Volume 30, Number 3)
Dancing at the Meetings
By Dr. Michel Zummer, CRA President, 2004-2006
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During my presidency, the CRA was focused on improving
care for our patients as well as attracting
medical residents to rheumatology training programs.
I am grateful to my Board which contributed to
many projects during those two years. In 2004, the “Canadian
Consensus Statement on Early Optimal Therapy in
Early Rheumatoid Arthritis,” a project of a subcommittee
of the CRA Therapeutic Committee led by Vivian Bykerk,
was released. The Frontiers in Inflammatory Joint Diseases
Conference, expertly organized by Hani El-Gabalawy
and Rob Inman set research goals. In 2005, I represented
the CRA at The Summit on Arthritis Prevention and Care
(SAPC) – Rock This Joint, co-chaired by Dianne Mosher,
Gillian Hawker, John Esdaile and Cheryl Koehn, an important
event that set standards for prevention and care
of arthritis. Arthur Bookman and I represented the CRA at
the Expert Panel to Health Canada on Coxibs following the
withdrawal of Vioxx. This was followed by the CRA’s Interim
Statement About Anti-inflammatories.
By far, the longest lasting legacy of my presidency has
been the CRA dance after the dinner at the annual meetings.
This was born after our first joint meeting with the
Mexican College of Rheumatology in 2006, held in Acapulco
but only after we were forced to move from Cancun when
Hurricane Wilma hit three months before the meeting. We
fostered good friendships, collaborations and a great meeting
that I co-organized with Arthur Bookman. The scientific
chair was Janet Pope – who heroically planned both the
2005 and 2006 meetings simultaneously. The closing gala
that year hosted a live band poolside with a great dance
that inspired holding the dance at our annual meetings
since 2007. Despite the current circumstances, I hope that
we will be able to continue dancing in future meetings
The first dance ever at a CRA meeting (in 2006). Pictured here: Dr. Evelyn Sutton, our current CRA President.
The CRA Board in 2005. Back row (from left to right): Drs. Janet
Markland, Jerry Tennenbaum, Michel Zummer, and Carter Thorne.
Second row: Drs. Gunnar Kraag, Jackie Stewart, John Thomson,
and Glen Thomson. Third row: Drs. Janet Pope, Christine Peschken,
Dianne Mosher, Jamie Hendersen, and Alf Cividino. Front row:
Jean-Claude Dairon and Drs. Liam Martin, Kam Shojania, Stephanie
Ensworth, Gilles Boire, and Douglas Smith.
Michel Zummer, MD, FRCPC
Rheumatologist,
CH Maisonneuve-Rosemont
Associate Professor,
Université de Montréal
Montreal, Quebec
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