Pancreas Events Attract 600+ to Cincinnati
Post Date: August 7, 2024 | Publish Date:
The week of July 21, 2024, was a busy one for both the pancreas care community and Cincinnati.
For the first time, The National Pancreas Foundation’s PancreasFest, the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases’ Heterogeneity in Pancreatitis event, and The Pancreas Club’s meeting all took place in Cincinnati. These large-format events happened days apart from one another and brought more than 600 experts to the Queen City to study and share knowledge about pancreatic disease and potential therapies.
Headlining the week was the 19th-annual PancreasFest, which drew a record 290 attendees. This annual gathering of pancreas physicians seeks to find new ways of collaborating and improving patient care by better understanding the origin and progression of pancreatic disease. Cincinnati Children’s can be thanked for the location of the meeting, as Maisam Abu-El-Haija, MD, medical director of the Pancreas Care Center, chose the health system’s hometown as host. Abu-El-Haija also holds a historical role as the first pediatrician to be president of the large-scale meeting.
“To set the stage, the culture of this conference is focused on bringing scientists, clinicians, industry sponsors, funding agencies, as well as patient advocacy groups together in one room to develop consortium,” Abu-El-Haija said.
Over the course of two-and-a-half days, the event offered attendees education programs, discussion sessions for new ideas in pancreas care, opportunities to learn from other healthcare disciplines, investigator meetings, and efforts to help young investigators with their own research. The networking and collaborations fostered during the meeting set the stage for future advancements in pancreas research.
Members of Cincinnati Children’s pancreas team, which also included Michelle Saad, MD; Peter Farrell, MD; Garrett Sprague; Neha Santucci, MD; Juan Gurria, MD; Alex Bondoc, MD; Sue Evans, MD; Andrew Trout, MD; Jonathan Dudley, PhD; Deborah Elder, MD; and Amy Shah, MD, presented and chaired sessions throughout the meeting. Their involvement largely focused on active research at the health system, featuring topics like, acute pancreatitis in children and imaging as markers of pancreatic disease.
