Over 90 members of the vasculitis community including patients, family members, friends and physicians, attended the 2013 Cleveland Vasculitis Symposium on Tuesday, April 30th. The 1/2 day symposium, hosted by the Cleveland Clinic’s Center for Vasculitis Care and Research, included presentations on vasculitis, neurological manifestations of the disease and ongoing research efforts.
Attendees kicked off Vasculitis Awareness Month by holding up posters displaying this year’s theme:
Vasculitis: More common than you think. More serious than you know.
Ed Becker, senior producer of the VF’s Extraordinary Video Project, filmed attendees sharing their stories about living with vasculitis. The videos will be edited and placed on the VF’s YouTube Awareness Channel. In addition, Ed filmed the podium presentations and they will also be available on the VF’s YouTube Education channel once editing is completed.
During the meeting Dr. Carol Langford introduced Dr. Susanne Schinke, University of Luebeck, Germany, and Dr. Ritu Chakravarti, Lerner Institute of Learning, Cleveland Clinic. Both researchers recently received funding for their pilot projects through the VF Research Program.
The Vasculitis Foundation extends a special thank you to Dr. Langford, Director of the Center, for organizing the educational meeting and engaging her staff to participate. Thank you to Dr. Carmen Gota, Dr. Rula Hajj-Ali and Dr. Atul Khasnis for sharing their knowledge, expertise and time with the group. A special thanks to Dr. Eamonn Molloy, St. Vincent’s Hospital, Dublin, Ireland for giving a presentation on large vessel vasculitis.
Photo credit: Ed Becker
