The first day of autumn is always a little bittersweet: it signals the end of the long days of summer and vacations, but there’s also excitement about the new season and a fresh start. Of course the work never stops for an organization like CARRA, but the Fall season is again bringing many exciting changes! It’s clear that Arthritis Foundation support continues to be critical to the progress that we’ve made since our partnership began in 2015.
Here’s what we are expecting for CARRA in the last quarter of 2017:
There are also exciting new international initiatives afoot. Here are just a few examples:
Discussions about a range of potential collaborations were held with PReS leaders at their annual meeting in Athens earlier this month, ushering in what will hopefully be a new era of global initiatives in pediatric rheumatology. I spoke at both the PReS general meeting and the PReS executive council to update members about CARRA activities and potential joint efforts. In addition, Hanna Kim spoke for the CARRA Early Investigators at the PReS Young Investigator Meeting, generating even more excitement about working together. We also began a patient/parent exchange program for the CARRA and PReS meetings this year which has spawned new ideas about patient engagement in care and research. As the meeting progressed, it became clear that PReS and CARRA share many goals and challenges and are pursuing parallel initiatives. Frequent communication at many levels of both organizations and collaborating on projects and approaches to our challenges will increase efficiency and open our small communities to the best ideas from around the world. The CARRA leadership looks forward to working together with our international colleagues going forward, and welcoming more international participation at our annual meetings. Working together will certainly bring more powerful, less redundant and more expedient benefits for patients, families, clinicians and researchers alike.
I look forward to speaking to many of you about these and other initiatives at the ACR meeting in San Diego!
Yukiko Kimura, MD