Dear Members,
From a small side meeting of 50 researchers at the 2015 ACR annual meeting, to a respected resource for advances in gout and crystal-associated diseases research (220 members strong!) G-CAN has seen substantial growth in the past 7 years.
Our annual meeting has grown in attendance every year, with record numbers of more than 180 attendees in 2020, despite the challenges of COVID-19. This year’s meeting – which will again be primarily virtual – is expected to have even more attendees and will include new opportunities for networking among members, early career investigators and sponsors.
Initiated in 2016, our Early Career Investigators program has continued to expand with close to 30 research abstracts submitted last year. Of these, six are accepted for oral presentations at the annual symposium with the top ranked receiving the H. Ralph Schumacher Memorial Award, and the rest selected for poster presentations.
Since 2017, G-CAN has supported several consensus statements and research projects, such as developing a gout nomenclature consensus agreement. This is a key part of our organization’s mission and such projects have contributed greatly to advancements in the field. Recently, G-CAN leadership completed and shared an updated procedure for project proposals that provides a transparent process for approval of G-CAN- supported projects. A copy of the procedure can be found on our website.
G-CAN-supported research projects, performed by our board and general membership, have been published in Annals of Rheumatic Disease, Arthritis and Rheumatology, BMC Rheumatology, Rheumatology Advances in Practice, The Journal of Rheumatology, and other respected journals in the field. We invite you to visit our website’s publication page to see the entire body of G-CAN-sponsored project work to date.
With the support and participation of our membership, and the financial support of our sponsors, G-CAN is well on course to expand our voice and impact as a force in the field of gout, hyperuricemia, and calcium crystal-associated disease. We encourage you to visit our website, and to take advantage of the many benefits that the no cost G-CAN membership has to offer. You can also stay up to date on publications and trends in the field by following us on our Twitter account, @G_CANgout. We welcome your feedback and ideas, including suggestions for G-CAN projects and initiatives. Please feel free to contact us through our website or by emailing our Executive Director, Rebecca Snyders Hill.
Sincerely,
Robert Terkeltaub, MD
President
Hyon Choi, MD, DPh
Vice-President and Treasurer