Dear Colleagues,
It has been my honor and privilege to serve as your President for the past year. This is my last letter to you as the President of the Pediatric Endocrine Society, and at the end of this month, Sharon Oberfield will take over as the new President. I look forward to working on the PES Board for another year as Past President, and to Sharon’s leadership over the next year.
What a year this has been! The COVID-19 pandemic, the lockdown and rapid switch to televisits and virtual meetings, Black Lives Matter, the passing of RBG, an election like no other, the storming of the Capitol…. However, we are hopefully now more or less on the other side, though a lot is now revealing itself that still needs to be addressed. But that is the nature of life- nothing is ever quite as tidy as one would like it to be.
This really has been a year like no other- with the onset of the pandemic came the cancelation of the 2020 meeting, and I took over from Erica Eugster with a virtual passing of the gavel. We moved to virtual platforms for Board meetings, and decided early on that the 2021 meeting, our very first standalone meeting, would by necessity need to be virtual as well. After that, the path forward was clear. The Program Committee, the Board and I were committed to ensuring that the 2021 meeting, while virtual, would be a stellar meeting with superb, first ever international plenaries and a plenary hosted by the Equity-Diversity-Inclusion initiative, state-of-the-art symposia, numerous Meet the Professor and Year in Review sessions, new Doc-in-a-Box sessions, virtual presidential and regular posters, three oral abstract sessions, and other scientific and also social events, including a showcase of membership talent in ‘PES Got Talent’, and Yoga sessions.
We have record registration for the meeting with over 860 registrants at this time, and the number is likely to increase further as we close in to April 30th. I look forward to ‘seeing’ you soon at the meeting. Maureen Thompson and Feborah Dixon have been working tirelessly behind the scenes to ensure that the sessions flow smoothly and that all wrinkles in the virtual platform are ironed out well before the meeting begins. Many thanks to all registrants, to the speakers for recording your talks ahead of time, to the Program Committee, and to those working behind the scenes to ensure a seamless virtual meeting.
I will be acknowledging the Board of Directors at the Business meeting on April 30th, but wanted to take this opportunity to convey my heartfelt thanks to an outstanding group of colleagues, who have been amazingly generous with the time they have dedicated to the Board, and in turning around approvals for position statements, amicus briefs, and open letters in record time, sometimes overnight, and their thoughtfulness and stewardship of the PES.
There are many ‘firsts’ that we achieved this past year as a Board. We implemented four new Laureate Awards, and details of these awards and the inaugural 2021 awardees are included below. With the Education Committee, we initiated the Student Endocrinology Exposure Development (SEED) program to engage trainees early in considering a career in pediatric endocrinology, and launched PedsENDO 365, a fellow education series. With the SIGs, we started monthly State-of-the-Art webinars, and with our Mission Alliance Partners (MAP), the Industry Sponsored Symposia. We established the MAP Spotlight page with a raffle for those visiting this webpage. Two new Special Interest Groups (PCOS and Adrenal) were initiated. The Nomination Committee completed its FAQs directed at the Board regarding board positions to encourage members to apply for leadership roles in the PES, and we launched the Equity-Diversity-Inclusion taskforce. The Workforce Taskforce wrote and published its recommendations for sustaining the pediatric endocrine workforce. A position statement emphasizing the importance of gender affirming hormone therapy in transgender and gender diverse youth was published on our website. We initiated a relationship with the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research Network of Experts Program. All in all, this has been an extraordinarily productive year, and kudos to the Committees, SIGs, the Board and the management for making all of this happen. The PES is what it is because of its membership, and the work being done in the Committees and SIGs by our member volunteers is truly mind boggling
None of this would be possible without the work done behind the scenes by Maureen Thompson, Feborah Dixon, and so many on the Degnon staff. I want to convey my sincere gratitude to all, and particularly to Maureen for having been such a wonderful partner to me during my tenure as PES president. Maureen is the heart and soul of the PES- she works tirelessly throughout the week, and on weekends and late at night to ensure the smooth running of the Society. She is a fierce advocate for social justice, and her contributions to the society are just too numerous to recount.
And thank YOU all for bearing with my sometimes (!) rather long newsletters, and to those who have responded with your thoughts and feedback. I will leave you with the words of Mahatma Gandhi: ‘It’s the action, not the fruit of the action, that’s important. You have to do the right thing. It may not be in your power, may not be in your time, that there’ll be any fruit. But that doesn’t mean you stop doing the right thing. You may never know what results come from your action. But if you do nothing, there will be no result’
See you soon at the annual meeting.
My best,
Madhu
(Madhusmita Misra, MD, MPH)
Access to the Virtual Meeting platform is coming soon! If you have not yet registered, it is not too late! Join record numbers of peers at the first PES Virtual Meeting.
To register for the conference, please click HERE
More Virtual online education offerings:
PES State of the Art Education Series Offered by our Differences of Sex Development Special Interest Group (DSD SIG)
Friday, April 23, 2021
4:00pm-5:00pm Eastern Time
Event Title: DSD: A Historical and Personal Odyssey
Speaker: Professor Ieuan Hughes, FMedSci FRCP FRCPCH FLSWFMedSci FRCPC, Emeritus Professor of Paediatrics, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom
Register in advance for this meeting:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZEpc-iupj8iH9HGPp4RZkPicvu__I9634rt
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.
Medscape Industry Sponsored Symposia sponsored by Zealand
Thursday, May 13, 2021
6:30-7:30 Eastern Time
Event Title: A Virtual Look at Improving Prevention and Management of Severe Hypoglycemia in Your Patients with T1D
Description: This virtual, highly interactive symposium will allow expert faculty in the field to guide learners through the problem of severe hypoglycemia, recognizing the most effective strategies for management, and helping engage patients/caregivers in their type 1 diabetes (T1D) journey. Learners will leave with an immediate plan of action for improving their practice and management of patients with T1D.
Supported by an independent educational grant from Zealand Pharma A/S
Registration Link: www.medscape.org/symposium/severe-hypo-t1d
A New Resource from the PES PCOS Special Interest Group! A PCOS Toolkit
Click here to download.
Member recognition: We will be recognizing many of our members at the Business Meeting (which will start off the Annual Meeting) on April 30, 2021, for their extraordinary contributions to the Pediatric Endocrine Society and to the field of pediatric endocrinology. Please see below for some newly honored members. We are very proud of your accomplishments!!
Congratulations to our New 2021 Laureate Award Recipients
2021 Educator Award: Lynne L. Levitsky, MD, Mass General Hospital for Children and Harvard Medical School
2021 Senior Researcher Award: Michael A. Levine, MD, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia
2021 Young Investigator Award: Shanlee M. Davis, MD, Children’s Hospital of Colorado
Congratulations to our first Mentor of the Year Award recipient: Morey Haymond, MD, Texas Children’s Hospital
Excerpts from nomination letters from mentees:
- Haymond is an outstanding mentor – we had regularly scheduled meetings during which he reviewed my grant, provided constructive feedback, and helped me clarify the outcomes, and discussed where to submit the proposal.
- Haymond mentored me through some of my very early career as I was applying for my training award, K23. His valuable feedback on my proposals led to eventual success. While most of the mentoring was over emails, we still would meet up at national meetings to discuss my career development and progress. He is always willing to listen and offer sound advice. In every conversation, I leave knowing that I have his full support to succeed knowing he truly is looking out for my best interest. The best is the warm friendly greeting, “How’s it going kiddo?”
- At first I was very intimidated given his expertise and leadership in our field but from the moment I started emailing him and talking with him I was so excited for the opportunity to receive his advice. His early advice really was very helpful for me for setting up my lab, negotiating and preparing for the promotion/tenure process. His mentorship and guidance have helped me make some critical career decisions. The unique thing about Morey is he does this with humor, stories and connecting with his mentees. I really think he would be so deserving of this award and really his active mentoring of PES members has made such an impact.
Congratulations to our winners of the Karger Prize recipients for 2020
Best novel insights paper from North America published in HRP in 2020: Melanie R. Shapiro “A Novel Mutation in Insulin-Like Growth Factor 1 Receptor (c.641-2A>G) is Associated with Impaired Growth, Hypoglycemia, and Modified Immune Phenotypes”
Best original research article from North America published in HRP in 2020: Brittany K. Wise-Oringer “The Unique Role of 11-Oxygenated C19 Steroids in Both Premature Adrenarche and Premature Pubarche
History Tidbit
Donald S. Fredrickson, MD (August 8, 1924-June 7, 2002)
Alan D. Rogol, MD, Ph.D
https://pedsendo.org/historical-tidbits/donald-s-fredrickson-md-august-8-1924-june-7-2002/