E - ISSN: 2709-5533
Vol 5 / Ene - Jun [2024]
globalrheumpanlar.org
Videoblog
PANLAR 2024, Barranquilla brings an academic program for all interests
Autor: Estefanía Fajardo: Science journalist for Global Rheumatology by PANLAR, estefaniafajardod@gmail.com
DOI: https://doi.org/10.46856/grp.233.et188
Cite: Fajardo E. PANLAR 2024, Barranquilla brings an academic program for all interests | Global Rheumatology. Vol 5/ Ene - Jun [2024] Available from: https://doi.org/10.46856/grp.233.et188
Received date: March 27th / 2024
Accepted date: March 26th / 2024
Published Date: April 5th / 2024
Manuel Ugarte, president of the Scientific Committee of the PANLAR 2024 Congress, discusses the main topics of the event, as well as the integration with other specialties and patient groups. A program for all tastes, interests, and audiences.
EF: Hello everyone and welcome to a new videoblog from Global Rheumatology, where we'll be discussing everything about Barranquilla. We're here with Dr. Manuel Ugarte, welcome, and tell us, what does the Barranquilla congress bring us?
MU: Thank you very much, Estefanía. Well, I believe this congress brings us a series of innovations compared to previous congresses. In fact, we aim to maintain the scientific quality that other PANLAR congresses already had, but this year, for example, we touch on some topics that have not typically been addressed by PANLAR. For instance, we try to get closer to the community; we have a fairly strong primary care program, where our aim is for the congress to be for rheumatologists but also for other professionals who see patients with rheumatic diseases, such as primary care physicians, family doctors, internists, so they can see what they need to know about rheumatology and have some talks that are more relevant to them. We also have a track on patient-centered medicine, where we try to understand what our patients feel. Our patients themselves will present some of the talks to tell us a bit about what they feel, how it can be managed, or we work, for example, on patient education. I think it's always important to provide a perspective from this area in a congress of this magnitude.
EF: Doctor, how was this whole process of building the program to choose all these topics you mentioned?
MU: The process began practically as soon as the Rio de Janeiro congress ended. The idea of these annual PANLAR congresses is that they also allow us to continue working at all times. So, the Scientific Committee started working, we invited all the study groups and all the PANLAR members to send their proposals. We received over 100 proposals from all over America, but also from other parts of the world, and then began the hard process of choosing. The members of the Scientific Committee would evaluate the quality of the presentation, the impact it would have, the relevance it would have, the attention we assumed it would receive within PANLAR. And we tried to maintain a balance because what we didn't want, this is a rheumatology congress, and we didn't want the congress to be solely focused on one pathology. So, we tried to ensure that all pathologies were included, inflammatory pathologies, non-inflammatory pathologies, metabolic pathologies, so that all of us felt that there were talks that caught our attention and that appealed to us. Once the talks were chosen, the next step was to coordinate with the speakers so they could come, to explain to them a bit about what the activities were about. And precisely, that is the activity we are wrapping up now, the invited speakers are already confirmed, the moderators are inviting, completing the invitations to have everything ready for April.
EF: What are those differences, what makes this Barranquilla congress special and unique? Each congress is unique, but what is that differentiating factor?
MU: In my personal opinion, I would say that the patient-centered medicine track is something that sets us apart from other congresses. I think there has been a strong emphasis on understanding what the patient with rheumatic disease feels because it's not only about how I should treat them, but also what my patient feels about their disease. Also, the primary care track, to be able to communicate with primary care physicians and have earlier referrals, have more open referrals. Not every patient with a rheumatic disease necessarily has to come to us, perhaps, but all of us who work with these patients need to understand what is happening. But without neglecting talks about the classic topics that will be discussed in PANLAR. All the most prevalent diseases are included. We have also included rare diseases, but which are relevant due to their impact on mortality or complications, so that all of us feel represented in these different activities.
EF: For those who are still undecided, will they attend today? Will they not attend today? What are those enticing, those unmissable topics of the program we have in PANLAR...
MU: I believe everyone would have their list of priorities, but if you ask me mine, what I find unmissable in this program, I believe it's the rheumatoid arthritis guideline because it's our guideline, PANLAR's guideline, there are guidelines from ACR and EULAR, but I believe our guideline will allow us to understand a bit better how to manage our patient. Because it not only bases itself on evidence, PANLAR's guidelines are published in top specialty journals. We have truly demonstrated that our guidelines are of scientific quality. But besides being of scientific quality, they have a regional focus to understand what is happening in our region and how to better care for our patient. We will have the advancement of the lupus guideline. It's true, we won't have the final version, but we believe the advancement of the lupus guideline will be interesting because it will likely include the new medications being studied. We will have very important speakers from around the world. To give some examples, since I mentioned rheumatoid arthritis, we will have Dr. Smolen, Dr. Aletaha, Dr. Balsa as speakers at the congress. In lupus, for example, among those who are not PANLAR member countries, we have Laurent Arnaud, who will also talk about lupus, but we also have our own PANLAR speakers. We have, for example, Bernardo Pons-Estel in lupus, we have from the ACR, which is one of PANLAR's member societies, we have Rosalind Ramsey-Goldman, who will also talk to us about epidemiology in lupus. We have the topic of spondyloarthritis. In spondyloarthritis, we will have, for example, Xenofon Baraliakos as part of those who are coming to speak, but we also have Wilson Bautista, we have Enrique Soriano, we have Sebastián Herrera, we have Rodrigo García, just to mention a few of the speakers we have in the strongest pathologies that perhaps we are handling now, I mean, due to the guidelines we are currently releasing. But we not only talk about that. We talk about the impact of women in rheumatology. Gender within the specialty, within specialty congresses, is increasingly being studied or analyzed more rigorously. Although women already outnumber men in the field and specialty, particularly this is not yet reflected in positions of power. And that is something that PANLAR is also trying to work on. So, one of our symposia is precisely gender in rheumatology. And although it's true, we didn't achieve a gender-balanced congress in terms of speakers, in fact, we are over 40% women as speakers, so this surpasses the numbers that, for example, EULAR had until recently. Until recently, EULAR did not reach 40%. We are already exceeding 40%. Hopefully, in the not too distant future,
we can really see conferences where women had more talks and others where men had more talks. I think another interesting topic we will have is discussions, for example, on the topic of osteoporosis, which sometimes rheumatologists overlook a bit. We have a debate precisely to see how to change our management paradigm, whether we should use bone forming agents or anti-resorptives. Or, for example, a talk proposed by Asoreuma, the society hosting us in this PANLAR, which is a debate to see in osteoarthritis if it should be primarily a disease for us as rheumatologists or if we should be part of a team. Personally, I find this debate interesting because I believe rheumatologists will automatically think we should be the main actors and perhaps we shouldn't be, maybe we should be part of a larger team and not necessarily the leader, but precisely that is a talk that due to its design seems quite challenging to me and I think it will support us. But also, we maintain other activities we have regularly had, such as the pediatric pre-congress, which is quite strong, which also includes talks within the congress; the pre-congresses on ultrasound; capillaroscopy pre-congress; we have added a physical examination pre-congress, pre-congresses on guided procedures, there is the Asoreuma pre-congress, the organizing association. In other words, we have talks for all tastes, for all interests. I think none of us will be able to say they didn't find the topic they were looking for. I think that's the great advantage of this PANLAR.
EF: Nobody can say no after all this summary you just gave us, doctor. But you also mentioned ACR and you talked about EULAR. How does PANLAR articulate globally with everything that is being generated? And PANLAR also generates research, products, all these debates and discussions.
MU: For example, EULAR and ACR have sessions at the congress. In fact, EULAR's session is precisely that, How do we integrate? So EULAR will tell us a bit about their perspective on how they integrate with the world, precisely to see what differences and similarities we have. ACR, although it's true, has a symposium mainly focused on lupus, but not from the ACR's perspective per se, but from a global perspective. A talk on the global epidemiology of lupus, where precisely Dr. Ramsey-Goldman will tell us what is lacking or what we have in the region. Unfortunately, I fear she will tell us that we have little information and that we need to work a bit more. The other talk is by Dr. Tim Newell. So, we will really have not only a North American reality but also a regional one. But we will be discussing how we interact with our environment. In fact, PANLAR's objective is to be a society that, while reflecting what is happening in the region, interacts with the world, has a global impact. I believe that is currently being achieved. I think the example I mentioned of guidelines published in top journals worldwide, the example of the registries being worked on. There are registries that have been around for many years. GLADEL has been around for 25 years, has published a lot of high-impact journals. But we already have new registries. We have the registry of new biologic and small molecule treatments, which will present information now at PANLAR, we have the ESPALDA registry, which is the spondyloarthritis registry, which will also present data now at PANLAR. The new cohort of GLADEL will present data. We have a series of novelties within what we produce in our region that have a global impact.
EF: Doctor, and to wrap up, then, the invitation so that they don't miss what PANLAR will be this year in Barranquilla...
MU: Well, for us who have been working on this Congress for so long, I believe we have done our best to make it the best possible. I am sure that all of you will feel very satisfied with the Congress. Let's remember that in the end, at PANLAR, we are all one. So if we want this Congress to be a success, we need each one of us to go to Barranquilla, enjoy Barranquilla, and actively participate to make this Congress truly the best in our history.
EF: Thank you very much, doctor. So, the appointment is in Barranquilla. See you in Barranquilla.
MU: See you in Barranquilla.
