WELCOME

Dear Friends and Colleagues

On behalf of the British Society for Rheumatology and the British Health Professionals in Rheumatology, we have great pleasure in inviting you to Rheumatology ’09, which will return to the impressive SECC in Glasgow.

Those who attended our 2008 event in Liverpool will know that the meeting continues to flourish, with this new venue attracting more delegates and exhibitors than ever before. We hope to continue this success in Glasgow.

As always, we have an excellent programme for you to look forward to and invite you to submit your work for presentation in one of our popular oral or poster sessions. The BSR and BHPR continue to work together to offer a more integrated event with more joint sessions being built into the programme.

Regular plenary sessions the Heberden Round and Oration, the State of the Art Lecture and the BHPR Droitwich Lecture will again feature. This year's Orator will be Prof Stuart Ralston whose talk “Thirty Years’ Progress in Bone Disease” will review advances in our understanding of the causes of bone disease. The Round will be delivered by Prof Patricia Woo who will discuss interesting paediatric rheumatology cases in a talk entitled “More than Meets the Eye”. Droitwich Lecturer Prof Jim Woodburn will answer the question “What is Hidden in the Shoes? How to find your RA patients’ real clinical CV”.

In addition to our regular programme and following a fantastic delegate response in 2008, the Tuesday programme will again feature special day symposia for our scientists and primary care representatives. The 2009 scientific symposium will look at
the Biology of SLE and is sure to be in great demand. Alongside this, a full day primary care symposium on the Foot and Ankle will be of interest for our PCR, BSR and BHPR delegates alike.

The 2009 AGM will also mark the BSR’s silver jubilee. To celebrate 25 years we will be running a number of special events including a Now and Then exhibition and a special anniversary social event.

The deadline for submission of abstracts will be 28 November 2008, so don’t miss your opportunity to present your work.

We look forward to seeing you at Rheumatology ’09.

Yours sincerely,

Dr Deborah Bax – President, BSR

Diana Finney – President, BHPR