RE: Reno Conference: March 12-15, 2009
To the IACFS/ME community:
I would like to thank everyone who attended the IACFS/ME conference in Reno, Nevada.
We are happy to report on another productive and successful conference. It featured renowned speakers and researchers from all over the world. There were 403 attendees from 17 different countries.
Thorough conference planning resulted in a well-run meeting with plenty of opportunities for networking. It is always a great experience to reconnect and exchange information and ideas on research, diagnosis and treatment, to meet old friends and make new ones. It provides a valuable source of education and information for medical and healthcare professionals, scientists and the patient community.
The conference featured the latest advances in biomedical research in ME/CFS and fatiguing illness more generally, and offered 4 new professional workshops with an impressive enrollment of 150.
Changes in Board of Directors
We thank Dr. Nancy Klimas for her service who is stepping down as president of the IACFS/ME after four years. She will remain on the Board through the end of 2009. Dr. Lenny Jason has also stepped down from the Board, due to his increased commitments to research and many other activities. On behalf of the organization, I would like to acknowledge his many significant contributions to IACFS/ME over the last decade. (Lenny will remain on the journal committee.) Also, Drs. Cindy Bateman, Birgitta Evengard, and Hirohiko Kuratsune are cycling off the Board. We acknowledge their service to the organization.
We would also like to announce our 5 new Board members: Jonathan Kerr, MD, PhD (UK), Teruhisa Miike, MD, PhD (Japan), Staci Stevens, MA (US), Rosamund Vallings, MD (New Zealand), and Suzanne Vernon, PhD (US). These distinguished professionals all have long track records of research productivity and/or clinical expertise. All have indicated a commitment to strengthening the organization through fundraising, increasing membership, and fostering international collaborations.
Some other new and exciting developments:
Research Fund/Donor Reception
We have now established a new $1 million IACFS/ME research fund. A well-attended Donor Reception for the Fund sponsored by the Whittemore-Peterson Institute was held at the Nevada Museum of Art. We would like to thank Annette Whittemore for her generous support of the reception and her sponsorship of our conference keynote speaker, Governor John Kitzhaber.
Peer Review Journal in Progress
This is a new initiative to evolve the quarterly newsletter, the Bulletin of IACFS/ME, into a Medline peer review journal. We are in contact with a potential publisher and encourage submissions for our next issue in June, 2009. Please contact Dr. Gudrun Lange (Gudrun.Lange@va.gov).
Future Conferences
We are talking to potential sponsors worldwide about presenting mini-conferences for professionals and patients in the next year.
Our next major conference location will be based on sponsorship from interested individuals and organizations. I encourage anyone who may be interested in having the IACFS/ME conference in their city to contact me (fred.friedberg@stonybrook.edu).
Thanks to all who made the conference a success and for your continued support.
Best wishes,
Fred
Fred Friedberg, PhD
President
IACFS/ME