This is the time I would normally be getting excited about traveling to Chicago for the ASCO Annual meeting. I would be thinking about what shoes would be best to walk the many miles required in McCormick Place. I would be checking the bus route from my hotel to McCormick Place, the locations of the Patient Advocate Lounge so I could be sure to plan rest periods and the schedule for after meeting events. I would have downloaded the mobile meeting app and chosen the sessions and set up a schedule. I would be looking forward to seeing the fellow members of the ASCO Clinical Practice Guideline Committee and the ASCO Social Media Work Group. And I would be getting excited to be seeing my friends, advocate and oncologists alike, who I interact with on Twitter over the years.
But this year it is different. I won't be traveling to Chicago since the in-person meeting has been cancelled due to the Corona virus. Instead, I am checking the ASCO website for the #ASCO20 virtual meeting schedule so I can take part in the meeting on my lap top. Depending on the weather I may sit out on my patio or at my desk or in a chair in my sun room. The Scientific Program schedule is out now so I have started to plan my days next weekend. ( https://meetings.asco.org/am/virtual-program). I will be tweeting from the meeting using my @womenofteal handle along with the #gyncsm and #ASCO20 hashtags. So far I have picked out these Scientific sessions to "attend".
Saturday, May 30:
11:30 AM ET: Highlights Sessions: Hematological Malignancies; Gynecological Cancers
2:30 PM ET: Highlights Sessions: Cancer Prevention, Risk Reduction, and Genetics; Symptoms and Survivorship
4:30 PM ET: Special Clinical Science Symposium: Cancer Care in the time of COVID: Assessing Impact and Future Directions
Sunday, May 31 :
1:00 PM ET: Plenary Session
4:00 PM ET: Highlights Sessions: Developmental Therapeutics; Care Delivery and Regulatory Policy
I am looking forward to the live chat available during some of the sessions. This will make it feel more like the live sessions where attendees can interact and ask questions of the researchers after data is presented.
Have you checked out the abstracts available online here? Be sure to check out Abstract #14113 Social media and gynecologic cancers: The impact of Twitter #GYNCSM. The #gyncsm health care moderators Drs Sarah Temkin, Shannon Westin and Rick Boulay as well as my co-founder Christina Lizaso and I submitted the abstract based on the #gyncsm Twitter Community's 2019 survey. The ASCO website provides the ability to create collections of the abstracts so that you can read them at your convenience and have available when you are taking part in the virtual meeting. I have shared some abstracts on Twitter and plan to write about others in a blog post.
Be sure to check out the DAILY NEWS page for podcasts and commentary (https://dailynews.ascopubs.org/). I would always pick up a paper copy to see commentary on the late breaking apps and upcoming sessions.
If you are not an ASCO member you can still join in the meeting. Registration information may be found at https://meetings.asco.org/am/registration .
I will miss sharing the time with fellow advocates and researchers as in 2019 ...
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| Research Advocacy Network advocates 2019 |
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| ASCO 2019 |
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| ASCO 2019 |
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| ASCO 2019 |
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| ASCO 2019 |
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| ASCO 2019 |
The theme for this year's Annual Meeting is Unite and Conquer: Accelerating Progress Together. I hope to see many of us uniting next weekend and sharing progress made for the improvement of care for cancer patients worldwide.
See you online at the meeting!
Dee
Every Day is a Blessing!
