More Medical Conferences Fall to Coronavirus

What your doctor is reading on Medscape.com:

UPDATED March 18, 2020 — At least 50 medical conferences have been canceled or postponed as COVID-19 continues to cause chaos globally.

The great majority of meetings that have changed status were scheduled to take place in March and April. However, our list includes two conferences originally scheduled for May, ARVO and ESO-WSO. Medscape’s editors will continue to update this list daily into May as needed.

The most recently canceled conferences include (listed in chronological order from their original dates):

• American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology (AAAAI) in Philadelphia. It had been scheduled for March 13-16.

• American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry (AAGP) in San Antonio, Texas. It had been scheduled for March 13-16.

• Anxiety and Depression Association of America (ADAA) in San Antonio, Texas. It had been scheduled for March 19-22.

• American Pharmacists Association Annual Meeting (APhA) in National Harbor, Maryland. It has been schdeduled for March 20-23.

• American Academy of Dermatology (AAD) in Denver. It had been scheduled for March 20-24.

• American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons (AAOS) in Orlando. It had been scheduled for March 24-28.

• American Association for Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus (AAPOS) in Austin, Texas. It had been scheduled for March 25-29. The association instead plans to host a live webinar around March 26-29.

• National Kidney Foundation (NKF) in New Orleans has converted to a “live-virtual meeting.” It is scheduled for March 25-29.

• Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA) in Atlanta. It had been scheduled for March 26-30.

• American College of Cardiology (ACC) in Chicago. It had been scheduled for March 28-30. The group is planning to provide “essential ACC.20/WCC education and science directly to our members” through virtual means.

• Endocrine Society (ENDO) in San Francisco. It had been scheduled for March 28-31.

• Society of Gynecologic Oncology (SGO) in Toronto. It had been scheduled for March 28-31. SGO is “exploring alternatives for delivering the science and education.”

• European Heart Rhythm Association (EHRA) in Vienna. It had been scheduled for March 29-31.

• Advances in Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s Therapies (AAT-AD/PD) in Vienna is now an “entirely” virtual conference, to be held during the originally scheduled dates of April 2-5.

• Schizophrenia International Research Society (SIRS) in Florence, Italy. It had been scheduled for April 4-8.

• European Lung Cancer Congress (ELCC) in Geneva, Switzerland. It had been scheduled for April 15-18.

• Society of Hospital Medicine (SHM) in San Diego. It had been scheduled for April 15-20. The society asks that attendees “stay tuned as we work towards the announcement potential HM20 virtual offering.”

• European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ECCMID) in Paris will now be completely online during the originally scheduled dates, April 18-21.

• British Society of Rheumatology (BSR) in Glasgow. It had been scheduled for April 20-22.

• International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation (ISHLT) in Montreal. It had been scheduled for April 22-25. The society is developing plans for presenting nonscientific components of the conference, including a virtual opening plenary session in April. Abstracts will be published in the April issue of the society’s journal as planned.

• American College of Physicians Internal Medicine (ACP IM) in Los Angeles. It had been scheduled for April 23-25.

• American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) in Seattle. It had been scheduled for April 24-27. Organizers are considering “several virtual options to showcase science and education from the meeting, including poster presentations and films.”

• American Association of Neurological Surgeons Annual Meeting (AANS) in Boston. It had been scheduled for April 25-29. AANS notes that in the weeks ahead it will “explore virtual options.”

• American Psychiatric Association (APA) in Philadelphia. It had been scheduled for April 25-29. The society is working to develop a virtual “on-demand” product that will feature many of the speakers that were scheduled for the conference. More information will be coming soon.

• Pediatric Academic Societies Meeting (PAS) in Philadelphia. It had been scheduled for April 25-29. More information is availble on the group’s FAQ page.

• American Academy of Neurology (AAN) in Toronto. It had been scheduled for April 25 – May 1. The group advises attendees to “look for more information on different AAN educational opportunities” during the rest of the year.

• British Society of Haematology (BSH) in Birmingham, United Kingdom. It had been scheduled for April 27-29.

• American Society for Laser Medicine and Surgery (ASLMS) in Phoenix, Arizona. It had been scheduled for April 29 – May 3. More information is available on the conference’s FAQ page.

• Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO) in Baltimore. It had been scheduled for May 1-7. The group expects to release additional information in the next 2 weeks about alternative presentation options.

• Digestive Disease Week (DDW) in Chicago. It had been scheduled for May 2-5. The group is “exploring options for virtual education” and “will keep in touch as plans for distance learning come together.” More information is available on the conference’s FAQ page.

• American Thoracic Society (ATS) in Philadelphia. It had been scheduled for May 15-20. The society is “exploring options for providing select elements of the conference content in a web-based format” later this year. ATS will announce next steps when more information becomes available.

Ten more conferences have been postponed:

Here is the latest status of other upcoming conferences as of March 18:

• Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI), Boston, 3/8/20 – 3/11/20: CROI has gone virtual. More information is available on the CROI FAQ page.

• Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS), Orlando, 3/9/20 – 3/13/20: On March 5, the society canceled the conference, calling it “clearly necessary.”

• European Society of Radiology (ESR), Vienna, 3/11/20 – 3/15/20: The conference has been rescheduled for July 15-19 in Vienna.

• Congrès de la Société Francophone du Diabète (SFD), Brussels, 3/17/20 – 3/20/20: This congress has been postponed. The next SFD congress will take place in Brussels on June 2-5.

• European Breast Cancer Conference (EBCC), Barcelona, 3/18/20 – 3/20/20: The conference has been postponed and will now take place September 30–October 2 at the same venue. Abstracts accepted for the initial conference will remain in the program, and organizers will re-open abstract submissions beginning in May.

• Diabetes UK Professional Conference (DUKPC), Glasgow, 3/18/20 – 3/20/20: The conference has been canceled.

• National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN), Orlando, 3/19/20 – 3/22/20: This conference has been postponed. No new dates have been provided, but the society notes that “NCCN staff is working as quickly as possible to notify all conference registrants about the postponement and further information regarding the refund process.”

• European Association of Urology (EAU), Amsterdam, 3/20/20 – 3/24/20: As of March 6, the conference has been postponed to July 2020.

• Society for Interventional Radiology (SIR), 3/28/20 – 4/2/20: On March 6, the society made the “difficult, but necessary and responsible, decision” to cancel its meeting.