President’s Message
President’s Message
posted: February 23, 2023
It is my distinct pleasure to welcome you to the 9th Annual Meeting of the Rheumatology Association of Iowa. Much has changed since our last meeting – life slowly getting close but quite to “normal”, with normal itself transformed. A pandemic which is getting endemic, zoom meetings which are part of our ways of getting together, a more widespread use of telemedicine – all of which are likely here to stay. Also a society shaken by strife and polarization – hopefully not here to stay.
Dear Friends and Fellow Rheumatologists,
It is my distinct pleasure to welcome you to the 9th Annual Meeting of the Rheumatology Association of Iowa.
Much has changed since our last meeting – life slowly getting close but quite to “normal”, with normal itself transformed. A pandemic which is getting endemic, zoom meetings which are part of our ways of getting together, a more widespread use of telemedicine – all of which are likely here to stay. Also a society shaken by strife and polarization – hopefully not here to stay.
I am very optimistic though – we saw great strides during this pandemic, in coming together, managing a new virus, outstanding research developing vaccines and treatments, identifying and sometimes even solving specific challenges in rheumatology. All the while advancing knowledge and applying it to our patient’s care.
Our organization continued to be active through these times – we now have a fully functional RAI website (with membership information, past lectures and hopefully soon links to topics of interest for Iowa rheumatologists). We continued to be an active part of CSRO and were involved in the many policy issues relevant for our specialty – you will hear about some of the success stories and about some still in the works. And were able to put together another meeting, to help us continue building a unified front to remain active players in our calling and mission: caring for our patients. I hope we will continue to nurture collaboration and the exchange of ideas in order to make our individual and collective voices heard.
Our keynote speaker, Dr Megan Clowse, from Duke University, a national leader in issues related to reproductive health in rheumatology, will give her first lecture on this topic. As founding director of Duke Lupus Clinic, her second talk will focus on antiphospholipid syndrome in SLE. I look forward to new inputs in these challenging clinical topics.
On Friday night, will hear from Steven Churchill, CEO Iowa Medical Society, with a legislative and regulatory federal update.
This year will propose a round table section of “practice setting perspective” to hear from diverse points of view about challenges in various setting of practicing rheumatology – hopefully of interest to our younger colleagues, fellows and residents who are just starting to practice.
Networking, advocacy review and business meeting of the RAI are also on the agenda.
I look forward to an excellent meeting and ongoing collaboration for challenges ahead. Sincerely,
Bogdan Cherascu, MD, MS
President
Rheumatology Association of Iowa