CanHepC Annual Meeting & 13th Symposium

CanHepC held its member’s Annual Meeting and 13^th Canadian Symposium on Hepatitis C Virus in Toronto on February 29^th and March 1^st, 2024.

CanHepC’s Annual Meeting is a one-day gathering that convenes all our member investigators, knowledge users, student trainees, collaborators, and guests as well as members of our International Advisory Board (Drs Frederick Altice & Megan Williams). This year in Toronto, 73 people attended the meeting. The program of the day was devoted to progress update presentations in each of the network’s research areas, themes and platforms including the Training, Education and Mentorship program. CanHepC’s direction and priorities for the year ahead were also discussed and network internal affairs relating to financial status and grant operations were reviewed in detail. A complete report of the day was made available to our members.

The 13^th Canadian Symposium on Hepatitis C Virus (CSHCV) part of the joint Canadian Digestive Diseases Week & Canadian Liver Meeting was chaired by Sahar Saeed and William Wong. Under the theme “Beyond sustained virological response: optimizing outcomes in hepatitis C virus care” the CSHCV featured presentations and plenaries on emerging hepatitis C virus research, programs and practices organised around four main pillars: biomedical research, population health research, clinical research and health services research. As in previous years, international speakers were invited to give keynote presentations in each pillar: Hamish Innes gave a keynote on liver cancer incidence and risk after cure, Rick Altice on evidence-based interventions to eliminate hepatitis C, Francesco Negro on extra-hepatic complications of hepatitis C after cure, and Barbara Rehermann on the neutralizing effect of hepatitis C cure at the cellular level. This year’s Symposium’s panel discussed how to improve access to hepatitis C testing, linkage to care and treatment in immigrant and newcomer populations. The program ended with the CanHepC student trainee poster & oral presentations awards, congratulations to the following recipients:

• Best Oral Presentation:
  
  • Elsa Guadalupe Gomez Escobar, Centre de Recherche du CHUM
• Best MSc student poster:
  
  • Trinity Tooley-Macarandang, Queen's University
• Best PhD student posters:
  
  • Michael Palmer, University of Saskatchewan
  • Jawairia Atif, University Health Network
  • Sasha Udhesister, Centre de Recherche du CHUM

The CSHCV concluded with a heartfelt leaving presentation for Norma Choucha who has been responsible for coordinating CanHepC’s Training, Education and Mentorship program and CSHCV for the past decade. Norma will be leaving for retirement during the course of 2024. The 13^th CSHCV abstract are available via the Canadian Liver Journal.

The next CanHepC Annual Meeting and 14^th CSHCV will take place on February 27-28^th, 2025 in Québec city. Save the date!