Meetings

The Endocrine Fellows Foundation sends an invitation to every Program Director across the country to select a fellow to attend the Annual Scientific Forum.

The Annual Scientific Forum affords the opportunity for a faculty of noted experts to share clinical updated research findings with attendees. It also provides a forum for recent grant recipients to present the results of research projects through poster presentations.

Additional forums presented by the EFF include the Holvey Forum in Diabetes, and forums designed especially for senior fellows. Travel grants are provided for all such meetings that covers the cost of coach airfare, hotel and meals during the respective conferences.

In addition, scientific meetings of the Endocrine Fellows Foundation provide a venue for Fellows to interact and learn from each other's work with the goal of expanding their understanding of endocrinology. These meetings are highly regarded due to the educational content and the opportunity they give Fellows to learn from their counter-parts from around the country as well as EFF Board members and other experts in the field.

SIXTH ANNUAL EFF/ADA FELLOWS FORUM

The Endocrine Fellows Foundation, in co-sponsorship with the American Diabetes Association, presented the Sixth Annual EFF/ADA Fellows’ Forum The Forum was held on January 31, 2008 in San Francisco, Ca. It preceded the ADA’s Post Graduate Course.

The Forum provided Fellows in Endocrinology training the opportunity to hear and interact with some of the world’s most acclaimed thought leaders in various fields of endocrinology.

The program consisted of didactic lectures and pragmatic workshop experiences. Among those presenting lectures were Drs. Ralph DeFronzo (Insulin Resistance Syndrome and Steven Kahn (Relationship Between Insulin Sensitivity and Insulin Release: Importance in Glucose Metabolism.

The various workshops were mentored by Drs. Jack Leahy, Robert Ratner, Brent Wisse, Robert Henry, Clifford Rosen, Jorge Mestman, Kelly Hunt and Andrew Drexler.

The comments from the 80 attending Fellows underscored how very appreciative they were of this opportunity. They included "valuable experience", " excellent interactive approach", "outstanding program", "terrific faculty".

A special "thank you" is extended to sanofi-aventis for providing an educational grant for this Forum.

The Endocrine Fellows Foundation, in co-sponsorship with the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research, conducted the Second Annual Fellows Forum in Metabolic Bone Diseases. This Forum was held at the time of the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research Annual Meeting in Honolulu, Hawaii on September 15, 2007. The idea of this Forum is to provide fellows who are training in endocrinology and other specialties focused on metabolic bone diseases the opportunity to hear and interact with some of the world's experts in metabolic bone diseases.

The program consisted of three plenary lectures by Professors Clifford Rosen (Genetics and Biology of Bone); Lawrence Raisz (New Therapeutic Concepts in Osteoporosis), and Ego Seeman (The Periosteum: Do Bone Size and Shape Matter?). There were eight breakout sessions; four focused on clinical aspects of metabolic bone diseases and four focused on basic bone biology. The leaders of the basic bone biology breakout sessions were Drs. Mary Bouxsein (Assessment of Bone Quality: New Technologies); Jane Lian (Osteoblast Biology and Anabolic Mechanisms); Lynda Bonewald (The Osteocyte); and Stavroula Kousteni (Biochemical pathways of bone cells that lead to bone build up and bone breakdown). The clinical breakout sessions were led by Drs. Robert Heaney (Calcium and Vitamin D as Nutrients and Nutriceuticals); Stuart Silverman (Quantitative Risk Assessment: The Future of Therapeutic Decision-Making); Michael McClung (Clinical Trials: What have we learned from them; how will they be conducted in the future); and John Bilezikian (Primary Hyperparathyroidism: New Concepts and New Approaches for 2007). There were over 110 applicants from both the United States and abroad. Of the 67 applicants selected, 35 presented posters that completed the very successful day.

This Forum has made it possible for the fellows not only to learn from and interact with these world experts but also to attend the Annual Meeting of the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research, one of the most important meetings of the year for clinicians and investigators in their field. This program was made possible by unrestricted educational grants from Amgen, Merck, the Alliance for Better Bone Health (Procter & Gamble/sanofi-aventis), Eli Lilly, GlaxoSmithKline, and Novartis.

The Second Annual Endocrine Fellows Research Forum in Metabolic Bone Diseases

The Endocrine Fellows Foundation, in cooperation with the Endocrine Society, presented its Second Annual Endocrine Fellows Research Forum in Sante Fe, New Mexico on August 1-2, 2007. This program was part of the Osteoporosis Update Program of the Endocrine Society. This program was designed for a selected group of Endocrinology fellows who are focusing their training in metabolic bone diseases. The Forum consisted of four faculty giving plenary lectures: Dr. John Bilezikian "Primary Hyperparathyroidism: New Concepts"; Dr. Deborah Sellmeyer (University of California, San Francisco) "Nutritional Aspects of Skeletal Health and Disease"; Michael McClung (Director, Oregon Osteoporosis Center) "The Design of Clinical Trials: Promises and Pitfalls" and Dr. Steven Harris (University of California, San Francisco) "Paget's Disease of Bone".

The program is a unique one, in that all of the fellows presented their own research either in the format of an oral abstract presentation or a poster viewing. This was a highly successful experience for fellows, many of whom were given their first opportunity to present their research in a public forum. We are grateful to the following companies who provided unrestricted educational grants for this program: Amgen, Eli Lilly, Merck, Novartis, NPS and Roche.

DIABETES TRAINING FORUM SERIES  

The first Diabetes Training Forum for 2007 was presented on April 20-22 in Kansas City, Missouri . It was the continuation of the collaborative series, starting in 2004, presented by the Diabetes Freedom Foundation, the Endocrine Fellows Foundation and DM Strategies, Inc.

The successful focus of this Forum is to provide Fellows with both didactic information and pragmatic workshop experiences in various areas. Among the learning objectives are: 

• Identifying behavioral aspects of treating diabetes, and use referral resources.
• Utilizing current standards of diabetes care in treating diabetic patients.
• Incorporating the element of empathy into treating the patient with diabetes.
• Implementing basic and ongoing nutritional counseling for diabetic patients, using referral as needed. 

Over 55 Fellows attend these symposia which featured a most distinguished faculty speaking on a variety of informative topics. Derek LeRoith, MD, Ph.D., Chief, Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Bone Diseases at The Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, gave the featured presentation on Friday evening. It covered "Late-Breaking News in Metabolic Syndrome." 

The additional distinguished faculty included John Buse, MD, Ph.D., Chief of the Division of Endocrinology, at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine in Chapel Hill; Belinda Childs, ARNP, MN, BC-ADM, CDE who words at Mid-America Diabetes Associates; Marion Franz, MS, RD, LD, CDE who is a consultant with Nutrition Concepts by Franz, Inc.; Rachel Gifford, RN, MN, CDE, who is the Directing Consultant of DM Strategies, Inc.; John Guyton, MD, Professor of Medicine and Director of the Lipid Clinic at Duke University Medical Center and William H. Polonsky, Ph.D, CDE, President and Founder of the Behavioral Diabetes Institute. 

The topics addressed included Are You An Agent of Change?, Overcoming Personal Barriers: Strategies for Improved Diabetes Care; Diabetes Standards of Care and Treatment, Lipid Management and Treatment of Risk in Diabetes and Basics of Nutrition for Diabetes. In addition to attending the didactic lectures, all of the Fellows had the opportunity to attend 2 or 3 workshops that were presented by the entire faculty in two different sessions of the weekend. 

Please watch for news about future Diabetes Training Forums. 

A special thank you is extended to AstraZeneca for providing an educational grant for this series.

FIFTH ANNUAL TAKEDA HOLVEY FORUM

The Fifth Annual Sherman M. Holvey Forum in Diabetes was held from January 26-28, 2007 at the Westin La Cantera Resort in San Antonio, Texas.

An outstanding faculty joined 42 Fellows in a program designed to facilitate the growth of future thought leaders in the field of diabetes and metabolism - both adult and pediatric.

The Forum started with two very informative keynote addresses presented by Dr. Aaron Vinik and Dr. Ralph DeFronzo.

The Fellows then broke into two colleges - one Clinical and one in Basic Science. Drs. Edward Horton, Denis Daneman and Silva Arslanian addressed the Clinical Fellows. Drs. Ron Law, Louis Philipson and Derek LeRoith led the educational sessions of the Basic Science group.

The Saturday afternoon session featured six individual groups, each comprised of 7 Fellows, who were assigned the task of developing an entirely novel research project to be presented and critiqued by the entire group during the Sunday morning session.

Six exceptional projects were presented on Sunday that illustrated the unique abilities of the attending fellows. Two presentations were honored: "Role of GLP-1 in Preservation of Beta Cell Mass and Function in T2DM." This was presented by Fellows Clare Flannery, Florencia Halperin, Kateryna Kotlyarevska, Malek El Muayed, John Stafford, Charles Harris, Sue-Anne Toh, Sabyasachi Sen and Emily Tan (mentored by Dr. Ralph DeFronzo); and "Preserving Beta Cell Function with Exenatide in Adolescents with Newly Diagnosed Type 1 Diabetes." This was presented by Fellows Melina Bellin, Marcie Drury-Brown, Eda Cengiz, Jyothi Juarez, Haytham Kawji, Ya-Yu Lee and Jennifer McVean (mentored by Dr. Denis Daneman).

Case studies presented by the meeting attendees will be submitted for the EFF website and ENDOTRENDS.

The Forum was generously supported by an unrestricted educational grant from Takeda Pharmaceuticals.

EFF/ASBMR Forum in Metabolic Bone Diseases

Endocrine Fellows Foundation conducts, with the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research, its first Annual Forum on Metabolic Bone Diseases.

On September 14, 2006, the EFF joined forces with the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research (ASBMR) to conduct its first Annual Forum on Metabolic Bone Diseases. Designed to coincide with the Annual Meeting of the ASBMR in Philadelphia , the forum was attended by over 100 Fellows, including 6 from abroad. The format of the meeting was an interactive one with breakout sessions of 25 fellows each in 4 clinical and 4 basic science categories. Eight distinguished thought leaders conducted the break-out sessions in which major topics were covered by these experts in an interactive way. There were also three plenary lectures on the Genetics and Basic bone biology, therapeutic horizons, and the importance of the periosteum. Another high point of the day was a poster session at which 23 fellows presented to other fellows and to the faculty the results of their own research.

The Endocrine Fellows Foundation and the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research are grateful to: NPS, Amgen, Lilly, Merck, Roche, P & G Pharmaceuticals and sanofi-aventis for their support.

DIABETES TRAINING FORUM NEWS

The second Diabetes Training Forum for 2006 was presented on September 8-10, 2006 in Marina Del Rey, California. It was a collaborative symposium presented by the Diabetes Freedom Foundation, Endocrine Fellows Foundation and DM Strategies, Inc.

The objectives of the Forum are to provide Fellows with both didactic information and pragmatic workshop experiences in various areas including:

•  Implementing an integrated approach to care for the patient with metabolic syndrome or diabetes;
•  Incorporating the element of empathy into treating the patient with diabetes;
•  Using a team approach to diabetes management, using referral sources within the community

Seventy-three fortunate Fellows attended this program, which featured a stellar faculty speaking

on very informative topics. The distinguished faculty included: John Buse, MD, PhD, Marion J. Franz, MS, RD, LD, CDE, Rachel Gifford, RN, MN, CDE, Directing Consultant of DM Strategies, Inc. and the founder of the Diabetes Freedom Foundation, William Polonsky, PhD, CDE, Henry Ginsberg, MD, and Belinda Childs, RN, MSN, ARNP, CDE.

The topics covered the Metabolic Syndrome, Lipid Management and Treatment of Risk in Diabetes, Diabetes Standards of Care and Treatment, Basics of Nutrition for Diabetes and Overcoming Personal Barriers and Strategies for Improved Diabetes Care. Each Fellow had the opportunity to attend 2 or 3 workshops that covered Metabolic Syndrome/Lipids; Why Doc? Frequently Asked Patient Questions Regarding Food, Daily Life and Alcohol, Educational and Technical Tools for Diabetes Self-Care and Referral Resources for Diabetes Education and Physician-Patient Communication.

The third Forum in this series will be held on April 20-22, 2007 in Kansas City, MO. Invitations will be sent to all Endocrinology Program Directors.

A special thank you is extended to AstraZenca for providing the educational grant for these symposia.