The Upcoming 57th Annual ASRM Meeting

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Roberta Speyer: “Hello, this is Roberta Speyer, and I’m reporting from the exhibit hall floor at the ESHRE meeting in Lausanne, Switzerland. It’s July 3rd and I’m here with Dr. Robert Rebar who is the Assistant Executive Director of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine. Have you been enjoying the Conference, Bob?”

Dr. Robert Rebar: “I think it’s been a very informative Conference in many ways.”

Roberta Speyer: “What were some of the highlights that you really appreciated?”

Dr. Robert Rebar: “To me the most exciting part has been the advances that are being made in our ability to use genetic testing to identify abnormalities in embryos. This is just the beginning of a tremendous new world.”

Roberta Speyer: “It’s remarkable, isn’t it?”

Dr. Robert Rebar: “Absolutely.”

Roberta Speyer: “It’s a remarkable thing. One of the things that I’d like to take the opportunity since we’re here in your booth is to talk about the 57th Annual meeting of ASRM that’s coming up in October. It’s the 20th-25th of this year, 2001, in Orlando. Tell us a little bit about how you’re going to build on the excitement that’s going on here at ESHRE and what you’ve got planned for your presentations.”

Dr. Robert Rebar: “I think our meeting will certainly have many of these same topics covered but in addition what is different between ESHRE and ASRM is that we cover a whole larger category of areas of reproductive medicine. We have sessions on menopause, contraception, puberty, and on reproductive surgery.”

Roberta Speyer: “So a much broader base.”

Dr. Robert Rebar: “It’s a much broader and a larger meeting.”

Roberta Speyer: “Now would it be true to say, at least to my knowledge, that the American Society is a bit of a misnomer in that you draw a very large international audience to this meeting? This meeting is not just for Americans is it?”

Dr. Robert Rebar: “Absolutely not, 40% of this year’s abstracts come from outside the United States.”

Roberta Speyer: “Remarkable.”

Dr. Robert Rebar: “We have almost 1,100 abstracts so it tells you that in excess of 400 of those abstracts have come from Europe, Australia, South America, the Middle East - all over the world, and the far East as well.”

Roberta Speyer: “So it promises to be a good meeting.”

Dr. Robert Rebar: “We think so.”

Roberta Speyer: “What about entertainment - what about fun? You’re going to get us all down there with Mickey Mouse so we’re going to have a good time?”

Dr. Robert Rebar: Absolutely.”

Roberta Speyer: “What do you have planned for the social?”

Dr. Robert Rebar: “We have many things planned for the social events beginning with the opening ceremony which always combines a little bit of entertainment and a little bit of education the very first night which is Sunday evening. Then there will be different events at various parts involving Disney and Universal Studies during the course of the meeting.”

Roberta Speyer: “It sounds great. These meetings are always very well attended, very exciting, very informative, and the people really seem to enjoy the events you plan. I think what I’ve noticed at the meetings that I’ve attended is that you always have for the spouses and the accompanying guests a very rich program designed for them.”

Dr. Robert Rebar: “I recently moved to Birmingham, Alabama and this is a society that began in the south and it really does have southern gentility and emphasis on families, spouses, and spouse entertainment. There are a number of activities planned for family members each day as well and they’re all listed in the preliminary program which is just going out in the mail now to every ob-gyn in the U.S.”

Roberta Speyer: “Wonderful, we’re going to have a place where you can write in. You click on watch this interview, and if you’d like to get more information about the meeting just put in your e-mail address and we’ll make sure you do. But you have another meeting that you’re handling this year, actually, it’s going to take place in 2002 but you’re planning it this year.”

Dr. Robert Rebar: “That is correct.”

Roberta Speyer: “This is a very important meeting and one that’s very near and dear to our hearts at OBGYN.net, it’s focused on endometriosis.”

Dr. Robert Rebar: “We’re hosting the 8th World Congress on Endometriosis, it has not been in the United States for twelve years and it’s going to be in San Diego, another nice venue, February 24th-27th. It’s going to be preceded by three post-graduate courses and then there’ll be three days of meetings.”

Roberta Speyer: “So who’s heading up the clinical program there?”

Dr. Robert Rebar: “The President of the World Endometriosis Society for this event is John Rock from Emery University which is why it’s in the United States, in San Antonio.”

Roberta Speyer: “Quite an outstanding man in endometriosis, as we all know. Thank you for taking the time to tell us about these exciting meetings, I certainly intend to be there. We’ll be reporting back to you after the meeting about some of the wonderful events but I really suggest that everyone comes down to Orlando and out to San Diego and joins us.”

Dr. Robert Rebar: “Absolutely, and I’d also point out that you can come to our website – http://www.asrm.org and get information about both of these.”

Roberta Speyer: “And find out all about it. Thank you very much.”