The European League Against Rheumatism has canceled its annual congress scheduled for June 3-6, 2020, in Frankfurt, Germany, and will instead hold a virtual meeting around the same time frame, according to a message from the organization’s president, Iain McInnes, MD, PhD.
“As a scientific medical society, it is our duty to ensure that our medical and health professional participants are available at the forefront of patient care. We are also concerned that bringing our RMD [rheumatic and musculoskeletal disease] patient delegates into a large meeting venue would be extremely unwise at this time,” Dr. McInnes wrote.
While the details of the virtual congress experience have yet to be worked out, Dr. McInnes said that its offerings “will be accessible on demand over a timeframe of several months,” and they “will also publish abstracts/posters online and provide registered delegates with the 1-year access to our journal, the Annals of Rheumatic Diseases.”
The EULAR president also asked for patience as the details of the virtual congress are determined. “We ask you to be patient for a little while longer to give us the time to develop clear answers to all your questions. Our volunteers and staff in the EULAR Office are currently working hard to develop the best possible solutions for this new scenario.”