On March 25, 2012, The Myocarditis Foundation held its first ever Research Network Event in Chicago, IL. It was held during the American College of Cardiology’s (ACC) annual meeting at the Whitehall Hotel.
The goal of the event was to bring together all of the foundation’s researchers, their board of directors, as well as all medical professionals that had an interest in learning more about myocarditis. The foundation held an evening event for all medical professionals allowing them to listen to presentations highlighting the most recent research and interesting case studies on myocarditis.
The event was extremely well received and far exceeded the foundation’s expectations. The day began with an all-day board meeting for their Board of Directors, and an all-day collaboration session for their grant recipients. Then in the afternoon, they had asked several families to come and speak to the board and grant recipients, telling their story of myocarditis. This was an extremely moving experience and left not a dry eye in the room. It reinforced how important the foundation’s efforts for raising money for research truly are. We hope that one day we can eliminate these terrifying and heartbreaking stories myocarditis brings to so many families.
The evening event began with all of our grant recipients presenting their research findings through a poster display. This was extremely beneficial to both our grant recipients and to the physicians attending the event, and allowed for a detailed question and answer session to take place for each poster. It sparked a lot of discussion and many future research questions were raised.
The main talks were given by leading physicians and researchers from around the world and included:
- Leslie Cooper, MD, of the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota
- Ulrich Jorde, MD, and Nir Uriel, MD, of Columbia University Medical Center, New York Presbyterian Hospital
- Dennis McNamara, MD, of the Cardiovascular Institute at University of Pittsburg Medical Center
- Mario Deng, MD, of the Heart Failure Program of UCLA Medical Center
- Bruce McManus, PhD, MD, FRSC, FCAHS, of the University of British Columbia-St. Paul’s Hospital; The Heart Center – Providence Health Care
- Lori Blauwet, MD, of the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota and DeLisa Fairweather, PhD, of Johns Hopkins University in Maryland
These presentations created much discussion and brought forth a great deal of crucial information regarding the diagnosis and treatment of myocarditis.
The success of this event made is clear that this is an event that needs to be held each year. The value of the collaboration on research and sharing of diagnosis and treatment protocol is essential to the ultimate goal of the foundation: saving more lives.
The Myocarditis Foundation would like to thank all of their grant recipients, their presenters, their Medical Advisory Board, their Board of Directors, the Thoratec Corporation, and those who continue to support the Myocarditis Foundation.
