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by Joyce A. Kullman
Over 450 patients, family members, friends and medical personnel gathered in Kansas City, Missouri Oct. 6-8, 2000 for the Fourth International Wegener's Symposium. The meeting was truly international, with attendees coming from across the United States, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Germany, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Sweden and the United Kingdom.
The weekend was a whirlwind of learning, meeting other attendees and sharing our Wegener's experiences. We were fortunate to have the participation of many of our WG Medical Consultants including Dr. Nabih Abdou, Dr. Arnold Chonko, Dr. James Garrity, Prof. Wolfgang Gross, Dr. David Hellmann, Dr. Gary Hoffman, Dr. Carol Langford, Dr. Thomas McDonald, Dr. Ulrich Specks, and Dr. John Stone. Diane Hoffmann, RN., M.S.N. from the Cleveland Clinic Foundation also offered her expertise. These medical professionals donated their time and expertise to meet with the attendees and to share the latest information on Wegener's. The consultants made this Symposium a success and we thank them for their dedication to our organization.
The new breakout sessions, Living with Wegener's Family Issues for Young Adults and Newly Diagnosed Patients were very well received and we look forward to expanding on these and other topics in the future.
Attendance ate the Symposium continues to grow. In 1998 we had 274 attendees. This year we had over 450 attendees. We received back 271 evaluation forms and appreciate all your comments and excellent suggestions for future meetings. We value your opinion. 97% of the attendees said that the Symposium was helpful to them and that they would attend another Symposium.
Videotapes of the 2000 Symposium are now available and can be ordered by completing the order form on page 16. We encourage EVERYONE to order a copy and share them with their doctors. The tapes have the MOST CURRENT information on Wegener's and are a wonderful learning tool.
The podium speaker's presentation will also be published in upcoming issues of the Newsletter. We collected all the Question Cards from the Breakout Session and will be sharing the answers in future issues of the Newsletter. We will also be sharing pictures of the meeting.
This year's theme was "Challenging Wegener's in the New Millennium" and we can do this.
We must: