Winter 2024 (Volume 34, Number 4)

News from the ASM Program Committee

By Marinka Twilt, MD, MScE, PhD

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The Canadian Rheumatology Association (CRA) Annual Scientific Meeting (ASM) Program Committee looks forward to seeing you all at the 2025 CRA Annual Scientific Meeting, this coming February 26 - March 1, 2025. We are looking forward to reconnecting with colleagues and friends in Calgary!

We will celebrate the 79th anniversary of the CRA. This year’s meeting theme, “Ascending to New Heights: Peaks of Innovation in Rheumatology”, will focus on new innovations and evidence to assist in shared decision making for our patients with rare diseases. We will once again provide unparalleled educational and networking opportunities, centered on a program that will deliver innovative leading-edge science, interactive programming, and insights from Canadian and international experts.

In addition to the Distinguished Investigator lecture, the ASM will feature three keynote addresses: Dr. Muhammad Mamdani from the University of Toronto will present his lecture titled, “Applied Artificial Intelligence in Medicine: Moving from Hype to Reality”; Dr. Micheal Ombrello from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), USA, will discuss “Still’s Disease and AOSD Across the Age Spectrum”; and the CRA’s own Dr. Dafna Gladman will present the 2025 Dunlop-Dottridge Lecture, “The Road to a New Horizon in Psoriatic Arthritis.”

This year’s ASM schedule will change slightly from last year; it will start earlier on Wednesday at 1:30 pm with core educational content featured from Wednesday to Friday evening (Wednesday morning prior to the start of the ASM and Saturday morning will be reserved for small group meetings). The meeting will commence on the afternoon of Wednesday February 26th, 2025, with the Year in Review and will end Friday, February 28th, 2024, with the gala dinner and awards ceremony. Each day will offer a full day of educational programming, with adequate time for networking. This year we have expanded the Year in Review presentation to include Pediatrics, in addition to Clinical and Basic Science highlights. Additionally, we are excited to introduce new Abstract Workshops that will feature top abstracts — your opportunity to engage directly with cutting-edge research and participate in lively discussions with leading experts.

The meeting will of course feature all the compelling content you have come to expect from the CRA ASM. We will have poster sessions and poster tours for trainees and investigators to showcase their research activities; State-of-the-Art, paired specialty and crowd-sourced workshops; satellite symposia; as well as favourites such as Mysterious Cases and Clinical Pearls, Controversies in Rheumatology, the Year in Review, RheumJeopardy and the Great Debate! This year’s debate topic is “Be it Resolved that MSK Point of Care (POC) Ultrasound (US) Should be a mandatory Component of the Rheumatology Curricula”. Opportunities to celebrate our award-winning colleagues will be featured throughout the meeting. Satellite meetings include the Residents’ Pre-Course and CRA RheumReview Course.

We welcome all CRA and AHPA members, as well as other colleagues within the rheumatology community from across Canada and around the world. We look forward to seeing you all in Calgary and celebrating all our achievements together in February 2025.

Dr. Dafna Gladman

Dr. Muhammad Mamdani

Dr. Micheal Ombrello

Marinka Twilt, MD, MScE, PhD
Pediatric Rheumatologist,
Clinician Scientist,
Alberta Children’s Hospital
Professor, Department of Pediatrics,
Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary
Calgary, Alberta