Another short post this week, because while I did finally finish the manuscript yesterday and sent it off to my beta reader, my brain is now mush.
But I can’t miss the chance to let you know that the American Society for Bone & Mineral Research (ASBMR) — one of the two professional organizations that include members who research the various forms of hypophosphatemia — is holding its annual conference this weekend in Vancouver.
Like most years, there’s a pre-official-conference Rare Bone Disease Symposium, and it’s great to see that one of the keynote speakers is a patient! (Different bone disorder, but a strong advocate for all patients.) The other keynote speaker is Dr. Mike Econs, an XLH expert who treats both kids and adults. Plus, Carolyn Macica, a fierce advocate for better understanding adult XLH issues, will be speaking about XLH and osteoarthritis.
For the main conference, I don’t see any major presentations on XLH, but there is a session on bone metabolism in general, which will undoubtedly address the various hypophosphatemias. There are likely some relevant posters, but the abstracts are available to the public only for a substantial fee, so I couldn’t search them.
You may recall that the XLH patient community has had posters at two previous ASBMR conferences. One was many years ago, and could well have been the first time a patient group’s research was ever presented at an ASBMR event. And then there’s the one we did more recently, reminding researchers and clinicians that XLH is a whole-body, whole-life, whole-family disorder.
If you want to follow what’s happening at the conference this weekend, and you’re on Twitter, check out the hashtag #ASBMR2023. I’m trying to find ASBMR attendees on Bluesky, but haven’t found many yet. The hashtag I’m using there is just #ASBMR (and #Medsky). My hypophosphabot account on Twitter and my personal account on Bluesky will be monitoring both hashtags and reposting relevant information.
And that’s it for this week. I hope to be more rested and thoughtful in time for future posts. Early warning though that I’ll be going on hiatus in December while I enjoy the holidays and prepare for the release of MY OLD KENTUCKY HOMICIDE (The Bourbon B&B Mysteries #1) on January 9!
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Please note that the author is a well-read patient, not a doctor, and is not offering medical or legal advice.
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