In the past couple of months, I have been in awe at the way in which our organization has responded during this unprecedented pandemic that has and will continue to change how we do what we do – personally and professionally. The Endocrine Society is adapting and will continue to rise to the challenges of our time, engaging deeply — and increasingly online — with all of you. I would like to share some of the steps our organization has taken in response to COVID-19.
ENDO Online 2020
I am very pleased to announce the launch ENDO Online 2020, which will take place from June 8 through the 22 with a mix of both on-demand and live programming. This is our first foray into a virtual meeting, and we hope that this will open doors to future opportunities in this emerging virtual meeting arena. We owe a huge debt of gratitude to Immediate Past President Dale Able, MD, PhD, overall chair of ENDO 2020 Carolyn Smith, PhD, and her 2020 Annual Meeting Steering Committee (AMSC) team working with staff leaders to put together this amazing program.
We have received enthusiastic feedback from many of our endocrine investigators, clinicians, and trainees who have indicated a strong desire to continue to advance clinical knowledge and exposure to emerging science. ENDO Online 2020 will feature on-demand sessions focused on clinical topics, live sessions dedicated to basic science oral presentations, continuing medical education sessions, programming for early career professionals, and a digital exhibit hall. We are also working with the Trainee & Career Developing Core Committee to include leadership and professional development sessions during the virtual meeting. This will represent the largest virtual meeting to-date ever held for endocrine researchers and clinicians. Moreover, we are offering this program free to the world community with over 5,000 registrants to date and more signing up daily.
Advocacy Response
I am proud of what Endocrine Society advocacy has been able to accomplish in response to COVID-19. Our advocacy team has been very quick to join other organizations in the medical and research communities and to act alone to advocate for provisions that will support researchers, clinicians, patients, medical practices, and 501c3 charitable organizations. Our advocacy has yielded some important accomplishments that will greatly benefit our members:
- We successfully advocated to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to expand coverage for telehealth, waive the requirement for a three-month, in-person visit for patients using an insulin pump, and to allow practice of telehealth across state lines.
- We successfully advocated to the Congress to fund the Special Diabetes Program and include financial protections for physician practices and 501c3 organizations in the CARES Act.
- We successfully advocated the White House to follow the advice of medical experts and not relax social distancing recommendations until experts call for that.
The Endocrine Society is adapting and will continue to rise to the challenges of our time, engaging deeply — and increasingly online — with all of you. I would like to share some of the steps our organization has taken in response to COVID-19.
We conducted a “Virtual Hill Day” April 14, so that key congressional offices would hear from us as they are developing a fourth stimulus package. Our asks are to: alleviate the shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE), increase payments for telephone-only telehealth visits, support additional funding for the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), provide people with diabetes access to a 90-day supply of test strips, and to eliminate patient cost sharing for insulin during the health emergency.
COVID-19 Member Community
We have created online resources of curated links to support our members during this unique time: www.endocrine.org/covid19.
We reached out to endocrine division chiefs and program directors to learn more about their needs and how we can help. This section of our website will continue to be updated as we obtain more input from our members.
While nothing is close to “business as usual,” we will continue to be nimble and adapt to the needs of our members, our patients, and the world as we move forward. I firmly believe that our courage and resilience will get us through this difficult time, and we will come out stronger.
A new members-only online discussion group has been launched for exchange of information. If you would like to join, go to https://community.endocrine.org/
Working with the European Society of Endocrinology (ESE), we will coordinate a session on COVID-19 Emergency Response during ENDO Online 2020. We are also exploring ways to work with the ESE, the Society for Endocrinology, and the Brazilian Society of Endocrinology and Metabolism on how we can support the global trainee community during this time of disruption.
Our Journals
Submissions to our journals about COVID-19 are fast-tracked through the reviewing and publication process, and accepted articles are made free to view and placed in a special OUP repository of related content (a JCEM Editorial by Ursula Kaiser, Raghavendra Mirmira, and Paul Stewart is available here: www.endocring.org/jcemcovid19). In addition, associate editors and Editorial Board members have been offered support in the event their availability for handling manuscripts is restricted because of the crisis (as well as the opportunity to handle extra manuscripts if they have extra time). Associate editors have been asked to bear in mind that additional experiments are now often not possible, and so to limit requests for extra work to cases where this is unavoidable. Past Editorial Board members have been contacted and asked if they can back up current ones who are pulled away.
Our advocacy team has been very quick to join other organizations in the medical and research communities and to act alone to advocate for provisions that will support researchers, clinicians, patients, medical practices, and 501c3 charitable organizations.
While nothing is close to “business as usual,” we will continue to be nimble and adapt to the needs of our members, our patients, and the world as we move forward. I firmly believe that our courage and resilience will get us through this difficult time, and we will come out stronger. I wish you all well and please stay safe. If you have any questions or comments, please contact me at [email protected]
Gary D. Hammer, MD, PhD
President, Endocrine Society
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