Australians will be amongst the many clinicians and researchers sharing their expertise at the American College of Rheumatology annual meeting (ACR Convergence 2022) in Philadelphia next week.

Dubbed ‘the world’s premier rheumatology experience’, ACR Convergence 2022 appropriately features a virtual Global Summit ahead of the official program.

The Global Summit’s opening session will address the challenges posed by climate change, conflict and migration on the health of populations across the globe. (Thurs, 7.30am).

Leading Australian rheumatologist Professor Rachelle Buchbinder will present on strategies to improve health and reduce resource waste in different healthcare settings around the globe. (Thurs, 2.25 pm)

Professor David Hunter will also feature in Community Hub sessions on osteoarthritis including a discussion on whether it is time to reimagine what a disease-modifying osteoarthritis drug is. (Thurs, 1pm).

The limbic will be in attendance at ACR Convergence 2022 which is being held at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia from 10 – 14 November and virtually. [link here]

One of the many highlights of the annual meeting is the Year in Review session which will feature the important advances in both basic and clinical science. (Sat, 10am) A similar session on paediatric rheumatology will also be held. (Sat, 11 am)

New on the program this year are the Ignite Talks – five-minute presentations of the top-ranked posters.

In one of these sessions, Dr Alannah Quinlivan from St Vincent’s Hospital Melbourne will present data from the Australian Scleroderma Cohort Study on the association between gastroesophageal reflux disease and interstitial lung disease. (Sun, 1.35 pm)

Other clinicians and researchers from Australia on the program to present posters include Associate Professor Philip Robinson, Dr Sabina Ciciriello, Dr Thomas Khoo, Dr Hendrik Nel and Arkady Manning-Bennett.

ACR president Dr Kenneth Saag said the program contains “something for everybody.”

“There continue to be major advances in nearly every one of our disease areas, with many new studies looking at new therapeutics, basic science discovery, and population-based studies for understanding prevalence and risk factors for diseases and outcomes,” he said.

New and updated guidelines being discussed at the meeting include:

• 2022 ACR COVID-19 Vaccination Clinical Guidance for Patients with Rheumatic and Musculoskeletal Diseases (Sat, 4.30 pm)
• 2021 ACR/Vasculitis Foundation Guideline for the Management of Kawasaki Disease (Sun, 8 am)
• ACR Guidelines for the Prevention and Treatment of Glucocorticoid-induced Osteoporosis (Mon, 9am).
• 2022 ACR Guideline for Exercise, Rehabilitation, Diet, and Additional Integrative Interventions for Rheumatoid Arthritis.
  (Sun, 4.30 pm)
• Draft ACR/EULAR Antiphospholipid Syndrome Classification Criteria (Sun, 3 pm)
• ACR/EULAR Classification Criteria for Calcium Pyrophosphate Deposition Disease (Mon, 4.30 pm).

New York Times bestselling author and physician Professor Abraham Verghese from Stanford University will deliver the keynote presentation at the Opening Session on “Physician, Patients, and the Nature of Heroism in Medicine.” (Sat, 9 am)

Join the conversation on Twitter by following the official hashtag #ACR22 or @thelimbicrheum