Bringing Fellows-in-Training to the Annual Meeting

Since 2002, the ACR has supported fellows-in-training who wish to attend the ACR/ARHP Annual Meeting through the ACR Fellows Education Fund. The fund provides scholarships on an annual basis for a variety of ACR educational meetings. In 2011, more than 400 fellows-in-training from adult and pediatric training programs attended the annual meeting through the Fellows-in-Training (FIT) Annual Meeting Scholarship program. Participants received complimentary registration to one premeeting course, one complimentary Meet the Professor or Workshop session, and support for five nights of hotel accommodations and airfare.

The value of the program continues to grow each year, with approximately 82% of scholarship participants reporting they could not have attended the annual meeting in 2011 without the scholarship. While many scholarship awardees have the opportunity to attend other educational conferences during their fellowship, the ACR/ARHP Annual Meeting was rated as an excellent conference by 64% of the attendees when compared with other meetings.

The ACR is pleased to offer the scholarship again for the 2012 ACR/ARHP Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C. Any ACR fellow-in-training members in a rheumatology training program approved by the Accreditation Council of Graduate Medical Education or the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada can apply for the scholarship. Applicants must be currently enrolled as a first- or second-year adult fellow or first-, second-, or third-year pediatric fellow, and not hold a faculty appointment at the time of the meeting.

Registration for the FIT Annual Meeting Scholarship opens Monday, July 16, and closes Monday, August 13. For more information regarding scholarship eligibility and benefits, please visit http://bit.ly/ACRFIT2012, or e-mail questions to fittravel@rheumatology.org.

The ACR thanks the following organizations for their support of the 2012 Fellows Education Fund: Amgen; Abbott; Bristol-Myers Squibb Company; Genentech, a member of the Roche Group; UCB, Inc.; and Janssen Biotech, Inc.