Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Constant motion...

Monday was my second day at the American College of Chest Physicians (CHEST) meeting.

CHEST is about one-third the size of the larger American Thoracic Society meeting but, with about 4,500 registrants, there's still a lot of activity...and much of it relates to PH.

Because so many of the people we work with come to this meeting, it's also a place for us to do PHA's own business.

At 7:30am, Dr. Channick, editor of PHA's medical journal, Advances in Pulmonary Hypertension, met with his editorial team to plan upcoming issues of the publication. Topics include Transplant and Living with PH. An interesting discussion took place as the editors considered an article looking at PH through the experiences of physicians around the world.

I had a chance to visit PHA's exhibit booth staffed by Sherrie, Donica and Christa before our noon Corporate Committee meeting. This year, the booth features a video from Dr. Bob Frantz who led the development of PHA's new medical website, PHA Online University (more about that in another blog).

PHA's Corporate Committee has 14 member companies. This meeeting was called to discuss three items, supporting Dr. Benza and Frantz's upcoming Kilimanjaro Climb to benefit PHA's research and patient-serving program,supporting the Conference scholarship programs and reviewing PHA's support group guidelines and activities. With about a dozen members and three physicians in the room and another 5 or 6 participating via conference call, the discussions brought in many perspectives and, I believe will generate valuable outcomes.

The CHEST sessions today were a rich mix of pH education and information and, from the ones I was able to observe, all seemed well attended. The day closed with a United therapeutics discussion of progress in patient-focused care and the debut of a video that included interviews with many of the doctors and patients we work with, as well as PHA itself.

3 comments:

  1. I appreciate hearing about some of the other activities of PHA.

    I see the PHA Online University as an excellent venue to educate medical professionals like GPs who are member of the PH patient's team of physicians and coordinate with the patient's PH specialist. Has PHA prepared a brochure about PHA's Online University that can be distributed to these medical professionals?

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  2. We are so fortunate to have the author of this blog, Rino Aldrighetti serving as the president of PHA. Just when I thought there was no way to get a single additional minute out of his day, he starts a blog to keep us all better informed. He must be writing this between 3:45-4:00 AM. Rino is a true hero to all of us affected by this terrble disease. We can never thank him enough for all he does.

    Carl Hicks
    Chair, PHA Board of Trustees
    & PH Parent

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  3. You're right on target Nancy. There are over 600,000 genberal practitioners in the U.S., compared to 32,000 cardiologists, pulmonologists and rheumatologists. So, the GPs have been an unattainable audience for us...until now. We do have a mmarketing plan for them and I'll lay it out shortly. Our public launch will be very shortly.

    Carl...I'm blushing!

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