Congress of Clinical Rheumatology-East to celebrate ‘milestone’ 40th anniversary

This year’s Congress of Clinical Rheumatology-East will celebrate the annual meeting’s 40^th anniversary with banquets, record in-person attendance and a host of new presenters.

“Forty years is a big milestone for us,” David A. McLain, MD, executive director of the Alabama Society for the Rheumatic Diseases, and symposium director of the Congress of Clinical Rheumatology, told Healio Rheumatology. “We will feature a lot of new faces, as well.”

The meeting will run from May 9 to May 12 at the Sandestin Hilton and Conference Center in Destin, Florida. Nearly 700 attendees from 45 states and 11 countries are expected to attend.

In addition to its usual golf tournament and Saturday banquet, attendees will be invited to an extra reception on Friday night to celebrate CCR-East’s ruby anniversary.

“One of the things we are going to do differently is have a reception on Friday after the poster rounding,” McLain said. “This will be a celebration of 40 years and be held in addition to the banquet on Saturday evening. It is going to be a great event.”

As for the program, Ronald van Vollenhoven, MD, PhD, of Amsterdam University Medical Centers, in the Netherlands, is set to run the North American Young Rheumatology Investigators Forum (NYRIF).

“We have had over 200 abstracts submitted for NYRIF,” McLain said. “There has been a big response from the fellows.”

Van Vollenhoven will also provide an update on lupus treatment, which he says is “getting better all the time,” according to McLain.

“In addition, he will cover biologics in lupus, with a focus on precision medicine,” he said. “That should be an interesting talk to help attendees figure out which patients need which medications.”

The thieves’ market, as in previous years, will be run by Alan L. Epstein, MD. It is scheduled for Thursday, May 9.

Some of the new faces slated to present at this year’s CCR-East include Alexis Ogdie-Beatty, MD, MS, of the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, in Philadelphia, who will cover psoriatic arthritis, and Nigil Haroon, MD, PhD, president of the Canadian Rheumatology Association and head of the division of rheumatology at the University Health Network and Sinai Health, in Toronto, who will talk about ankylosing spondylitis.

“We have a lot of new treatments in ankylosing spondylitis to talk about,” McLain said.

Meanwhile, CCR mainstay Philip Seo, MD, rheumatology medical editor for UpToDate and associate professor of medicine at the Johns Hopkins Vasculitis Center, will dig into eosinophilic granulomatosis with polyangiitis in one of his talks.

“He will also give a general update on vasculitis,” McLain said. “Phil is always an entertaining speaker.”

Scleroderma will be covered by Dinesh Khanna, MBBS, MSc, of University of Michigan Health, according to McLain.

“He will also give us a new guideline for the diagnosis and management of scleroderma interstitial lung disease,” he said.

In addition, N. Lawrence Edwards, MD, of the University of Florida, will give a talk on the management of gout.

“He is a gout expert,” McLain said. “He always gives a great talk.”

Attendees with an interest in dermatology, meanwhile, will want to see the presentation by Ruth Ann Vleugels, MD, MPH, of Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School.

“She runs the rheum-derm clinic at Harvard,” McLain said. “She is excellent and we have had her speak before. She will give us plenty of pearls from the derm-rheum clinic.”

Bryant England, MD, PhD, of the University of Nebraska Medical Center, will offer attendees some perspective on multimorbidity in rheumatoid arthritis.

“He will talk about the web so many RA patients are tangled in,” McLain said. “He will also go over all of the RA guidelines and how to use and interpret them.”

Rheumatologists with patients of childbearing age will not want to miss the presentation by Megan E.B. Clowse, MD, of Duke Health.

“She will give a talk on helping your patients have a healthy pregnancy,” McLain said. “Pregnancy in rheumatic diseases is her area of expertise.”

A deep dive into antiphospholipid syndrome will be undertaken by Doruk Erkan, MD, of the Hospital for Special Surgery and Weill Cornell Medical College.

“He will let us know what is happening with this challenging disease,” McLain said.

Meanwhile, Mike Lewiecki, MD, of the University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center, will offer attendees insight into current management of osteoporosis, according to McLain.

“The talk will address individualizing treatment decisions for patients with renal failure, or cancer or other challenging comorbidities,” he said. “He will go over different cases for attendees to consider.”

Anne-Marie Malfait, MD, PhD, of Rush University, is on the schedule for two talks.

“One will be on skin joints and pain, and another is on osteoarthritis in 2024,” McLain said. “She will see whether we are making progress in OA. She spoke once before and is very good. She spent 13 years of her life doing research trying to slow down OA.”

Not to be outdone, Jack Cush, MD, is on the schedule for three presentations.

“We like Jack so much we gave him three spots,” McLain said.

One is on difficult cases of established RA and another will be a “Back to the Future in Rheumatology” presentation.

“He will look ahead to see what is coming in the specialty,” McLain said. “Then, on Sunday he will give the rheumatology year in review presentation that is always popular at CCR.”

Finally, on Sunday, Jason Busse, DC, PhD, a professor of anesthesia and member of the Michael G. DeGroote Institute for Pain Research and Care at McMaster University, will be the first chiropractor to speak at a CCR event.

“He is very productive in pain research,” McLain said, noting that his research covers cannabis and opioids for chronic pain in addition to other mainstay medications. “He will untangle the various clinical practice guidelines, approaches and medications used for pain management.”