The recently held 3-day virtual conference (8/19–8/21) of the International Association for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (IACFS/ME) resembled our in-person meetings in that we offered the full range of meeting events including new research talks, poster sessions, professional workshops (shortened), clinical symposia, and patient/public talks. We also were honored to have a timely keynote speaker, NIH physician-scientist, Dr. Avi Nath, who addressed ME/CFS and Long COVID.
Clearly, the virtual medium has many advantages, particularly convenience and cost, although technical limitations preclude much of the meet-and-greet and networking that are standard at our in-person conferences. We expect our 2022 conference at Stony Brook University to be in-person. Our NIH conference grant will be used to cover the travel costs of new, early stage and/or under-represented investigators in the ME/CFS field. More information on applying for the 2022 travel award will be posted in the fall.
Our final participation figures (378 attendees) were comparable to our in-person conferences. Attendees included 223 Professionals (60%) and 155 Patient/ Public (67% attended all 3 days). Forty-five percent rated the conference as “Excellent” and 81% Excellent or Very Good. About 55% said there was nothing in particular that they disliked. The online format was liked by 71%, and the availability of conference recordings was liked by 77%. Eighty-six percent were interested in future virtual meetings. Most suggestions were scattered among different items like wanting more breaks, longer talks, a list of attendees, improved sound, etc. For some of these suggestions, there are good reasons not to implement them. For example, attendees like their confidentiality and 60% preferred the shorter day with breaks that could be taken anytime with viewing later. An additional 100+ individuals did not attend live and are interested in the conference recording which we expect will be available in early to mid-September. Our membership has now increased to 221.
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Source: (2021) Report on the 2021 IACFS/ME research and clinical conference, Fatigue: Biomedicine, Health & Behavior, DOI: 10.1080/21641846.2021.1976560