About The Multidisciplinary Endocrine Symposium 2010
The Society for Endocrinology sponsored the 5th Hammersmith Multidisciplinary Endocrine Symposium on 10 December 2010 at Hammersmith Hospital, London. This annual meeting brings together trainees and consultants from all specialties who manage complex endocrine patients in multidisciplinary teams, so that they can share best practice and discuss difficult cases. The 190 delegates also included 30 MEN-1 and MEN-2 patients, who attended the main meeting and the parallel sessions specifically designed for them. This year’s meeting had a strong adrenal theme.
The audience were updated on the diagnosis of phaeochromocytomas by Professor Morris Brown (University of Cambridge) and learnt about localisation from Dr Bomanji (University College Hospital, London) and Dr James Jackson (Hammersmith Hospital). Professor John Wass (Churchill Hospital, University of Oxford) discussed the pre-operative preparation of phaeochromocytomas. There was lively interaction and debate from the audience during the Conn’s presentations, both presentations used roving microphones and interactive clickers so that the audience could vote for particular options. This was followed by a Society for Endocrinology sponsored seminar by Professor Martin Walz (Essen, Germany) who gave a truly unique surgical experience of 1131 retroperitoneoscopic adrenalectomies. Adrenalectomies can now be performed through a laparascopic keyhole procedure from the back! Later in the day focus turned to debating the role of surgery: Mr David Scott-Coombes (Univeristy Hospital of Wales, Cardiff) versus radioiodine treatment Professor Karim Meeran (Hammersmith Hospital) in Graves’ disease. Congratulations to Mr Scott-Coombes who had a smaller share of the vote from the audience but gained a greater swing over Professor Meeran at the end of the debate. The Society supported two £100 prizes for the bestposters which were awarded to Dr N Sznerch (University Hospital Wales, Cardiff) and Dr A Theodoraki (Royal Free Hospital, London). You can enjoy all the abstracts online at http://metmed.info. Preparations are underway for the 6th Hammersmith Endocrine Symposium, which will takeplace on 9 December 2011, for further details see http://metmed.info/.
