Many interesting sessions and symposia will be presented on Wednesday, the last day of the 2010 ATS International Conference.
If you are planning to leave New Orleans after sessions conclude today, you will be missing out on some of the best sessions and symposia that the ATS International Conference has to offer. Wednesday will feature a strong program covering a wide range of topics, from caring for the critically ill in various practice settings to treating asthma in children and teenagers who live in urban environments.
The last day of the conference will begin with a Clinical Year in Review session that will highlight advances that have been made in mechanical ventilation, critical care medicine, asthma and the ethical aspects of end-of-life care of critically ill patients.
“Clinicians cannot review every article in the field and, even if they could, they don’t often know which papers are most important,” said Christine Fukui, M.D., a pulmonologist with Kaiser Permanente in Hawaii. “With these sessions, you have the advantage of an expert in the field selecting what are the best articles in the last year or so and explaining why they may change how you practice medicine.”
Another major session is the ATS Public Advisory Roundtable’s annual symposium, which will address cells in lung injury and repair. This year, the program will focus on the importance of translational research, using lung biology as an example. “Leading experts will highlight recent advances in our understanding of the role of lung cells in maintaining normal homeostasis and the potential for therapy involving cells,” said Teresa Barnes, chair of ATS PAR and vice-president of patient outreach and advocacy at the Coalition for Pulmonary Fibrosis.
And as always, the patient perspective will be an important component of the program. “In addition to highlighting the importance of translating basic research into patient care and cures, this symposium also demonstrates the value of the collaboration and communication that exist among PAR’s member organizations and the ATS,” said ATS immediate-past president Jo Rae Wright, Ph.D., who will co-chair the session with Ms. Barnes.
At noon, representatives from NASA will present new data from their constellation of Earth-observing satellites and how those findings aid the study of the environment and disease. “Satellite earth observations present a unique vantage point of the Earth’s environment from space, which offers a wealth of health applications for researchers,” said Sue Estes, who is deputy program manager of NASA public health applications at the Universities Space Research Association in Huntsville, Alabama.
“Speakers will focus on the results of the remote sensing observations of earth and health applications, specifically detailing ongoing projects within NASA related to incorporating satellite remote sensing for studying pollen and its relationship to asthma,” she said.
The program will also describe how NASA is using the Syndrome Reporting Information System (SYRIS) to study environmentally induced lung and cardiac diseases.
After lunch, a panel of experts will convene at session D88, “Top-Notch Decisions in Lung Development and Disease,” which will focus on the Notch pathway, a major regulator of cell fate decisions in developing cells that is also implicated in the pathogenesis of a number of human disorders. “The program will cover a range of exciting new aspects of Notch in the lung from progenitor cell development to airway and vascular disease, cancer and therapeutic targeting,” said Wellington Cardoso, M.D., Ph.D., from Boston University , who will co-chair the session with Anne Tilley, M.D., and Marlene Rabinovitch, M.D.
Speakers will highlight the novel findings on how Notch influences pulmonary epithelial and vascular smooth muscle development. They will also discuss evidence implicating the Notch pathway in COPD, asthma, pulmonary hypertension and lung cancer from human studies and animal models. The symposium also includes a discussion on recent strategies and trials for therapeutic targeting of Notch.
For more information about the sessions on Wednesday, please visithttp://digital.virtualmarketingpartners.com/vmp/ATS/2010-advance-program/index.php#/130.