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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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