Summer 2025 (Volume 35, Number 2)

Presidential Address

By Trudy Taylor, MD, FRCPC

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Where has the time gone?  I am already one year into my two-year mandate as President of the Canadian Rheumatology Association! Although time seems to have passed quickly, it has been an exciting year with a mix of new projects and continuation of important offerings.  As always, this work is enabled by a loyal, passionate community of rheumatologists and our supporters.

Thanks to the hard work of our Scientific Committee, we had a successful Annual Scientific Meeting in Calgary.  Whether you go for the excellent Canadian research, to attend workshops to learn from our colleagues or to spend time catching up with one another, there truly is something for everyone. I could not help but burst with pride seeing the fruits of the outstanding efforts of colleagues across the country throughout the meeting, and the recognition of the amazing work of pillars of our community with the CRA Awards of Distinction!  This meeting was preceded by another outstanding virtual Rheum Review course, with a full day of high-impact topics and clinical pearls.

In the last year there have been major advances in Project Athena, culminating in the availability of two rheumatology-optimized Artificial Intelligence (AI) scribes at discounted rates for our members.  I hope that this will be an effective tool to help improve work efficiency for our members.  Another area of major advancement in the last year is the work of the Planetary Health Taskforce, which is slated to culminate in a Planetary Health Toolkit for our members.

In the year ahead, I look forward to continuing to plug away with you to support our community in the work that we do in clinical care, research and education. This work is not possible without the support of our members. As the saying goes, there is power in numbers. I hope that we can grow our membership numbers to truly represent the breadth of rheumatologists across the country. The more inclusive we are of rheumatologists across the country, the better we can support one another and ensure the health of our profession for years to come. 

I look forward to welcoming you to Halifax for our Annual Scientific Meeting next year for the first time at our new meeting time in mid-April!  I’m sure you will enjoy the East Coast culture and hospitality as much as we enjoy sharing it with you!

Trudy Taylor, MD, FRCPC
President, Canadian Rheumatology Association
Associate Professor,
Dalhousie University
Halifax, Nova Scotia