More about this program

Every year our organization attends two of the most important scientific conferences - the American College of Rheumatology (ACR) and European Alliance of Associations for  Rheumatology (EULAR) Congress formerly the European League Against Rheumatism. 

For EULAR 2022, AiArthritis paid for passes for 16 patients from around the world to attend EULAR 2022 virtually, alongside our team of three who attended in person. Several others have joined us as 'insiders' - meaning they are not able to access and watch the sessions virtually, but they have been getting insider videos and updates from the team attending in person (Katie, Tiffany, and Deb).  Thanks to all of those "going with us", the #gowithus hashtag  TRENDED on Facebook starting the first day of the conference and continued the entire week! (Search #gowithus in the search box on social platforms to find our posts.)

The "Go with Us! to Conferences" pilot program was developed in 2020 and is fully launching in 2022, as our team attends conferences in person and intends to invite others to 'go with us' either in person or online*. "We have been attending scientific conferences for a decade now," explains CEO Tiffany Westrich-Robertson, who is also living with axial spondyloarthritis. "These meetings are different because they are geared towards educating health care professionals (doctors, nurses, researchers), so the content is often complex and can be difficult for most patients to comprehend. Between our long term attendance, internal work at patient-research partners and clinical trial grant reviewers, and professional backgrounds as educators, we felt we are in a position to connect other patients to this experience."

Over the last couple of years we have tested various ways to include more patients, globally, in our work. "We experimented with several methods of involvement, including private online chats, webinars, and live research review parties. Then for EULAR2021, we paid for three patients to attend with three of our core team (two of us who have extensive conference experience).  In addition to conference passes, they were invited to participate in our team meetings and real time chats, have access to our notes and other resources, and welcome to take part in these video debriefs."  For ACR 2021, still online due to COVID-19, we worked to finalize the program for 2022, as hybrid attendance (in person and online) is resuming.  So, some of the team attend in person,* some can go with us online.