The Pediatric Rheumatology Research Annual Scientific Meeting will be the forum for the pediatric rheumatology community for sharing the scientific state-of-the-art methodologies, scientific opportunities and new technologies. This proposal is a renewal of our previous conference grant to support meetings in 2009, 2010 and 2011. These meeting will be co-sponsored by the Childhood Arthritis and Rheumatology Research Alliance (CARRA), a research network comprising the majority of pediatric rheumatologists in the US and Canada. These meetings are conceived to be 2 1/2 days and all members of CARRA, the pediatric rheumatology community, individuals interested in pediatric rheumatic disease research will be invited to attend as well as invited speakers and experts in related fields (internal medicine rheumatology, immunology, epidemiology, and other pediatric research networks). The 2009 and 2011 meetings will include a one day workshop called Essentials of Clinical Research followed by 1 &1/2 day scientific meeting.. The one day workshop will offer a mix of didactic and interactive sessions on the tension between being a treating physician and PI, role of the IRB, consent forms and consenting process, adverse event reporting, optimizing study start up, recruitment and retention, monitoring of studies, site responsibilities, investigational drug handling, protocol review, and site budgeting and contracts. The 2010 meeting will be a 2 &1/2 day scientific meeting with more time for protocol development in each major disease area. All meetings will have a mix of didactic sessions on translational topics relevant to pediatric rheumatologic diseases and clinical research methodology, and time for development of protocols. Facilitated interactive sessions will identify the key research needs and opportunities in each of the major disease area, with development of the scientific priorities for future development into specific research projects. Collaborative opportunities and mentoring relationships will be identified and fostered, and translational research opportunities will be identified in coordination with clinical research questions. The objectives of this meeting are to: 1) Update the progress in understanding the pathogenesis (immune, genetic, and inflammatory), epidemiology, and current and innovative therapeutic approaches in pediatric rheumatic diseases;2) Provide a forum for development of collaborations and mentoring for the pediatric rheumatology research community;and 3) Provide training and education in major areas relevant to clinical pediatric rheumatology research. This meeting will be one of the major avenues whereby CARRA will achieve its primary mission of facilitating the development of high-quality research studies and ultimately creating a research portfolio that includes relevant research projects in every type of pediatric rheumatic disease. The Pediatric Rheumatology Research Annual Scientific Meeting is key to fostering and facilitating research in pediatric rheumatic diseases because of the absolute need for collaboration and scientific cross-fertilization in pediatric rheumatology. The family of pediatric rheumatic diseases (including juvenile idiopathic arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus, juvenile dermatomyositis, scleroderma, and vasculitis) are among the most common chronic diseases of children comparable in occurrence to juvenile Type 1 Diabetes. This meeting is the major venue in pediatric rheumatology in the US and Canada for identifying the important research questions and developing high-quality, well-conceived studies to answer these questions and ultimately improve the health outcomes of children affected by pediatric rheumatic diseases.
