The VASCERN ePAG Monthly Meeting will be taking place on May 12th, 2020 from 10 am to 11:30 am (Paris time).

Due to the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic, the International Society for the Study of Vascular Anomalies (ISSVA) 23^rd Workshop for the Study of Vascular Anomalies, that was scheduled to take place in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada from May 12-15, 2020 has been postponed by two full years, to 10-13 May 2022

In place of an in-person meeting in 2020, there will be an ISSVA Online Workshop on the Thursday and Friday of the original meeting dates: 14-15 May 2020!

The Scientific Program will be based on the in-person meeting's program and will be a venue to present the latest advances in research and science in vascular anomalies. ISSVA Online will provide a multidisciplinary forum for many specialties including - but not limited to - interventional radiologists, dermatologists, plastic surgeons, ENT surgeons, oncologists, pediatricians, pediatric surgeons, and pathologists.

Members of the Vascular Anomalies (VASCA) Working Group will attend this online event and various posters by the group will be presented.

Click here to register.

If you have already registered for the ISSVA 2020 (Vancouver) in person meeting, you can transfer your registration fees to the ISSVA Online Workshop by using the below survey: Transfer your ISSVA 2020 (Vancouver) Registration to the Online Workshop.

More information on the ISSVA Online Workshop here.

In the context of the current COVID-19 pandemic and in line with WHO guidelines, the upcoming ECRD will now take place ONLINE from May 14th to 15th, 2020. There will be NO on-site event in Stockholm. 

More information here.

ECRD is a biennial event that has allowed the rare disease community to gather since 2001 to monitor and benchmark relevant initiatives, drive the policy framework around rare disease diagnosis, treatment and care and empower the rare disease community to drive change where it is needed most. Outputs from these conferences have informed national and local policy initiatives and are referenced in decision-making around the provision of services for the community.

The overarching theme for this conference is The rare disease patient journey in 2030. 

The European Joint Programme on Rare Diseases serves as official partner of the conference and VASCERN is proud to be an Associate Partner of this event.

Submissions for poster abstracts are open until February 10th, 2020. More information here.

Applications for the Patient Advocate Fellowship Programme are open until December 2nd, 2019. More information here.

For more information on this event, take a look at the official ECRD website or the ECRD LinkedIn page.

VASCERN will hold a webinar on Thursday May 14, 2020 from 5:30-7pm CET on Heritable Thoracic Aortic Diseases (HTAD) and Covid-19.

A brief introduction on Covid-19 and the cardiovascular system will be given followed by a question and answer session where questions provided by patients (collected by the HTAD ePAG patient advocates) will be answered by healthcare professionals of the HTAD WG (including Chair and Co-Chair, Prof. Julie De Backer and Prof. Guillaume Jondeau).

The webinar will take place on the WebEx platform. To receive the WebEx link to connect to the webinar (plus receive the recording), please register below:

The Rare Diseases International (RDI) 6th Annual Meeting will be hosted completely online from May 18th to 19th, 2020. This event will bring together rare disease patient organisations from Latin America, North America, Europe, Asia and Africa to learn from each other and carry the voice of patients from their disease areas, countries and regions.

For more information on this event and to see the programme, click here.

The VASCERN PPL-WG Monthly Meeting will take place on May 18th, 2020 at 5:30 pm (Paris time).

The VASCERN VASCA-WG Monthly Meeting will take place on May 20th, 2020 at 3:45 pm (Paris time).

The VASCERN HTAD-WG Monthly Meeting will take place on May 25th, 2020 at 5 pm (Paris time).

The VASCERN MSA-WG Monthly Meeting will be taking place on June 3rd, 2020 at 6 pm (Paris time).

Due to the COVID-19, the VASCERN PPL-WG Meeting will now take place online. There will be NO on-site event in Helsinki. The meeting will occur from June 4th to 5th, 2020 from 9 am to 12 pm (Paris time).

The VASCERN ePAG Monthly Meeting will be taking place on June 9th, 2020 from 10 am to 11:30 am (Paris time).

The VASCERN PPL-WG Monthly Meeting will take place on June 15th, 2020 at 5:30 pm (Paris time).

The VASCERN VASCA-WG Monthly Meeting will take place on June 17th, 2020 at 3:45 pm (Paris time).

The VASCERN HTAD-WG Monthly Meeting will take place on June 22nd, 2020 at 5 pm (Paris time).

Professor Jondeau and Marine Hurard will be attending the ERN Coordinators Group Meeting on June 29th, 2020 in Brussels, Belgium.

The 8th Rare Diseases Summer School organized by radiz – Rare Disease Initiative Zurich, which will take place in the Kartause Ittingen, Warth (Canton Thurgau; close to Zurich) from July 15^th to July 17^th 2020.

The Summer School will contain lectures by national and international rare disease experts, workshops, and poster presentations by participants.
A high faculty-to-student ratio will allow participants to optimally benefit from the varied expertise of the faculty.

For more information, go to their website.

The European Society of Cardiology (ESC) Congress 2020 will take place in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, from August 29th to September 2nd, 2020.

For more information visit the event's website here.

The 10th International Conference of the International Lymphoedema Framework will take place in Copenhagen, Denmark, from October 1-3, 2020.

For more information, check out their website here.

Due to the recent global updates with COVID-19, the Society has decided to postpone the European Learning Conference and HEDGE study screening in Paris, France, which was due to take place March 21-22, 2020.⁠

Both the conference and the HEDGE screening have been rescheduled for November 7-8, 2020. November 7, 2020, will be health professionals day (in place of March 21) and November 8, 2020, will be community day for patients, their families and caregivers (in place of March 22).⁠

The Ehlers-Danlos Society brings together the leading world experts to discuss the latest medical and scientific information about the Ehlers-Danlos syndromes and hypermobility spectrum disorders.

For both Professionals Day and Patients Day, sessions will be translated into Spanish, French, German, Dutch, and Italian.

For more information, click here.

Due to the COVID19, the EMBO Workshop on Vascular Malformations has been postponed. The event was due to take place from April 1st to 3rd, 2020 and will now take place from November 16th to 18th, 2020 in Barcelona, Spain.

Professor Miikka VIKKULA, Chair of the VASCERN Vascular Anomalies Working Group (VASCA WG), will be one of the speakers!

• Registration deadline: October 19th, 2020
• Abstract submission deadline: October 19th, 2020
• Payment deadline: November 1st, 2020

For more information on this event (programme and registration), take a look here.

The ERN Coordinators Group Meeting will take place on November 26-27th, 2020 in Brussels, Belgium. Professor Jondeau and Marine Hurard will be attending.

The International Congress Of Research On Rare And Orphan Diseases, co-organized with IRDiRC and EJP-RD, has been postponed due to the COVID-19. The event was due to take place from March 11th to 14th, 2020 and will now take place from January 13th to 16th, 2021.

• To see the agenda: click here
• To see the time table: click here
• To register: click here