June 22, 2012 (Houston, Texas) — ENDO 2012: The Endocrine Society 94th Annual Meeting kicks off in Houston, Texas, this week as more than 7500 members of the international endocrinology community converge at the George R. Brown Convention Center for 4 days of learning, listening to news of breaking research, and networking with the world's most prominent endocrinologists and thought leaders.
The meeting is designed to offer something for just about everyone, Lynnette K. Nieman, MD, chair of ENDO 2012, told Medscape Medical News.
"ENDO 2012 seeks to meet the needs of its tripartite constituents — clinicians, clinical investigators, and basic scientists — and to promote interactions between the groups," said Dr. Nieman, who is a senior investigator with the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development's Section on Reproductive Endocrinology. "There are more than 200 scientific sessions covering all areas of endocrinology."
Several regular events have been expanded this year to cover broader ground, Dr. Nieman noted.
"New this year are presidential symposia that are cross-cutting, such as the effects on the brain of hyper- and hypoglycemia and non–glucose mediated actions; imaging and noninvasive testing of the parathyroid, adrenal, and pituitary glands; and the role of nuclear receptors in inflammation and immune regulation," she said.
The major theme for this year's meeting will be "Reducing Health Disparities and Improving Care Through Endocrine Science," taking into consideration "the incidence, prevalence, mortality, and burden of diseases that exist among specific population groups."
A host of the meeting's activities and sessions will address the initiative. One presidential symposium, titled "Geographic and Ethnic Variation in Fracture Risk: Clinical Implications," will focus on fracture risk across populations, a Minority Affairs Community Forum will highlight endocrine-related health disparities research, there will be a meet-and-greet with poster presenters, and another presidential symposium, held on June 25 and titled "Reasons for Ethnic Disparities in Diabetes," will focus on prevalence and diabetes therapies in Asian and black populations.
Plenary sessions at the meeting are set to address a wide variety of additional pressing issues in endocrinology, with topics including "Causes & Consequences of Obesity: Insights from Genetics" and "Aging of the Female Brain: Phenotypes of Vulnerability & Targets of Opportunity to Prevent Neurodegenerative Disease."
The meeting's popular "Master Clinicians" sessions have also been expanded to cover 3 topics this year, focusing on "Difficult Type 1 Diabetes Cases," "Diagnosis & Treatment of Peripheral Precocious Puberty," and "Difficult Pituitary Cases."
More intimate "Meet-the-Professor" sessions will allow for in-depth exploration of a wide variety of issues such as adrenal cancer, chronic kidney disease and bone, management of prediabetic states in a multiethnic population, contraception for obese women, chronic fatigue, and specialized lipid testing.
The case management forums will grapple with a host of patient-oriented management issues related to adrenal, bone, diabetes, male reproduction, pituitary, and thyroid issues, such as "Diagnosis & Management of Male Hypogonadism in the Older Man" and "Management of Pediatric Thyroid Cancer or Hyperthyroidism."
"Year In" sessions also are planned to provide overviews of key developments of the past year.
In the clinical realm, Robert S. Sherwin, MD, the CNH Long Professor of Medicine and chief of Endocrinology at Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut, will present on "The Year in Diabetes," and Ira J. Goldberg, MD, the Richards Professor of Medicine and chief of the Division of Preventive Medicine and Nutrition and Division of Cardiology at Columbia University, New York City, will present on "The Year in Lipids."
Noted experts will also present "Year In" sessions on basic science topics, including sex differences and obesity and cancer.
The meeting will feature an abundance of research, with as many as 2600 posters set to be presented at the ENDOExpo and findings from hundreds of additional studies to be unveiled in oral sessions. The research will cover everything from basic science to emerging therapies and hot-off-the-press findings from clinical trials.
In the latter category, late-breaking data will be presented on June 25 on indeterminate thyroid nodule fine-needle aspiration cytology and a novel approach to preoperative diagnosis.
The session will also feature new research regarding treatments for diabetes, male hormonal contraception, weight loss surgery and diabetes, and an effective, and somewhat tantalizing, dessert-for-breakfast diet.
The presentations, and those of other research developments, can be viewed online on the meeting's Web page.
In addition to posters and product exhibitors in more than 70 different endocrinology-related categories, the ENDOExpo will feature the Hormone Foundation's Cooking for Pleasure, Healthy for Life stage, a 3-day series including interactive cooking demonstrations from top chefs who will offer practical tips on nutritional meals for various hormone-related conditions that clinicians can pass along to their patients.
Attendees can also look forward to the ENDO Trivia Cup Challenge, in which teams can enjoy cocktails and appetizers while competing as teams in answering light-hearted endocrine-based trivia questions via an audience response system.
Finally, the meeting will wind down on June 26 with the Clark T. Sawin Memorial History of Endocrinology Lecture, which will be presented this year by Leonard Wartofsky, MD, from the Washington Hospital Center in Washington, DC.
Dr. Wartofsky's talk, titled "Nobel Prize Laureates in Endocrinology," will describe the numerous winners of Nobel Prize Medals for Medicine and Physiology that have involved endocrinology or endocrine physiology.
A full listing of the meeting's sessions can be accessed in the online program.
ENDO 2012: The Endocrine Society 94th Annual Meeting. June 23-26, 2012.
Medscape Medical News © 2012 WebMD, LLC
Send comments and news tips to news@medscape.net.
Cite this: ENDO 2012 Heats Up Houston - Medscape - Jun 22, 2012.
Comments