Amyloidosis Support Groups and Blood Diseases

www.mayoclinic.org/blood-patient-workshop


The second Living with a Blood Disease Symposium:
A Comprehensive Workshop for Patients, Family and Friends

Mayo Clinic
Rochester, Minnesota
May 8-9, 2010

Symposium Overview
Living with a Blood Disease: A Comprehensive Workshop for Patients, Family and Friends is for patients and family members that have been cured or who are currently fighting a disease of the blood. An internationally renowned group of speakers have been organized to accomplish two main goals. The first goal is to provide comprehensive, state of the art specific breakout sessions regarding:

• Myeloma & protein disorders • Disease of bleeding & clotting
• Myeloproliferative disease (MPD) • PNH (Paroxysmal Nocturnal Hemoglobinuria)
• Myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) • Aplastic Anemia
• Acute leukemia • Chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL)
• Anemia • Lymphoma
• Low Platelet Diseases (ITP) • Hodgkin’s disease

In addition, this symposium will provide attendees information on many shared issues between patients and family members with a blood disease, and will address many unmet needs that are rarely discussed in the exam room. This information is crucial for people who are suffering from these diseases or have been cured.

• Overcoming fatigue • Financial & legal challenges• Nutrition • Alternative Medicine
• Advocacy • Relaxation Techniques
• Dealing with Medicare & Insurance • Intimacy Issues


The symposium is extremely fortunate to have a variety of well respected speakers regarding survivorship, overcoming your illness, physical activity, complementary and alternative therapies, and dealing with the stress of these diseases. This broad based symposium will provide a unique opportunity for beneficial dialog between patients, their family members, and a range of thought leaders across the nation.

The Mayo Clinic Division of Hematology has participated and organized a variety of single disease patient symposia. Specifically the symposium director, Dr. Mesa, has been the co-director of a MPD patient symposium held at Mayo Clinic Arizona on an every other year basis. This has been successfully held three times with participation between 200-300 patients and their loved ones. The feedback and involvement of patients during the course has been overwhelming and positive. This course met a significant unmet need for adequate communication between physicians and patients regarding the pathogenesis, diagnosis, and optimal management of their disorders. In parallel with Dr. Mesa’s efforts, the Division of Hematology has been instrumental in orchestrating similar single disease interactive symposia for lymphoma and for multiple myeloma. Currently, there is no patient-centered large scale patient symposia held within the United States.

Based upon our individual disease symposia, we feel a broad based symposia would meet a very significant unmet need, provide a valuable service to patients across the United States for medical information and beneficial and supportive interactions between patients across many disease types and stages of therapy. Please reference the course website www.mayoclinic.org/blood-disease-workshop for a full listing of the faculty as well as the complete program schedule.

We feel this symposium will provide a very unique and beneficial dialog between patients, their family members, and a range of thought leaders across the spectrum of hematologic malignancies. In addition to providing valuable objective information regarding the state of the art care for their particular disease, we hope the interactive sessions dealing with topics which apply across the spectrum of hematologic diseases will be of particular interest



Muriel Finkel
AMYLOIDOSIS SUPPORT GROUPS
ASG www.amyloidosissupport.com
Toll Free 866-404-7539
National Organization Member of NORD
www.rarediseases.org
www.amyloidosisonline.com - Over 680 have joined

"Don't Take Your Organs To Heaven, Heaven Knows We Need Them Here"