The wide variety of topics covered appealed to Hossein Karimi, PhD, a native of Iran who works as a rheumatologist in the department of medicine at Stockholm South General Hospital in Sweden. “This morning, I was at a case report on hepatitis C, and I went to an ARHP update on gout. I frequently see polyarthritis and acute arthritis patients,” said Dr. Karimi, while comparing notes with a hospital colleague between sessions. “I will attend a session on scleroderma and bowel disease, and probably also neuropsychiatric lupus in children and adolescents.”
He also enjoys time away from the convention center during the annual meeting, and on his first day in the city, he went to a local park for a walk. “Washington is a very good city for the meeting. It’s very nice here,” Dr. Karimi said.
San Francisco–based researcher Polly Pine, PhD, vice president, pharmacology at Rigel Pharmaceuticals in San Francisco, said she enjoys overview presentations like a lecture on the pathogenesis of RA. “If something is relevant to what I’m working on, I go. I attend poster sessions too, particularly on mechanistic studies,” said Pine, while strolling through booths in the Exhibit Hall. “I probably go for basic science, mainly, and a lot of clinical stuff, too, although for my work it’s not as useful. I’d probably like to see a little more on lupus this year, because right now I’m doing lupus research.”
Since the meeting offers sessions and posters based on 2,700 abstracts, rheumatologist Raj Kiran Dudam, MD, a staff physician at Care Hospital in Hyderabad, Banjara Hills, India, writes out a complex schedule of events he’d like to attend. “See? I usually make my own timetable like this one,” he said, while munching on an apple. This day, he planned to attend a session on hepatitis C virus with polyarthritis, as well the annual Knowledge Bowl competition based on the game show “Jeopardy!”
Some attendees even made time to sightsee. “I have more of a clinical practice, and see a variety of patients,” said Dr. Karimi. This was his first trip to Washington, so he made a list of museums to explore, and had already toured the U.S. Capitol Building. “Mostly, I hope to learn about all the new advances in treatment here. Also, I meet a lot of people here from different countries. I want to exchange opinions with everyone.”
