3rd International Lupus Patients Conference 1998 in Cancun/Mexico

During my attendance at the Annual Meeting of the LFA in July in Boston we had two meetings concerning the 3rd International Patients Conference 1998 in Cancun/Mexico.

Participants of these meetings were:

Marilyn Sousa Vice-President LFA

John Huber Executive Director LFA

PK O'Brien Office Coordinator LUPUS CANADA

Shelley Crawford LUPUS CANADA

Megan Coles LUPUS CANADA

Brian Hanner Chairman ELEF

Rudolf Hocks Vice-Chairman ELEF

The Conference will take place from 20th - 25th April 1998 in Cancun/Mexico. There are 200 rooms reserved at a **** Hotel at a price of 90.00 USD for single and double room without breakfast, which is quite a bargain.

All participants agreed to have the sessions from 09.00 am - 01.00 pm and have the afternoon off.

It was also agreed that the main topics of the sessions should be:

- Medical Talks

- Psychsocial Aspects of Lupus

- Presentation of the national Lupus Groups

- Open Discussion

The participants asked Brian Hanner and myself to take the opportunity to meet Prof. Alarcon-Segovia during his stay at the 3rd European Conference on SLE in Pisa/Italy. Brian and I met him on the 14th September at the conference and talked for about 30 minutes about the Cancun Conference.

The results of this talk are the following:

- The 3rd International Lupus Patients Conference is taking place

concurrently with the 5th International Conference on SLE from

the 20th - 25th April 1998.

- Both Confernces will be announced in the same brochure.

- The Social Events will be open for the paticipants of both

Conferences.

Now I am asking you to write to me and let me know your suggestions for the medical talks and the psychosocial aspects of lupus. I will collect them and send them to Mexico for consideration in the program of our Conference. Concerning the presentation of the national Lupus Groups we should think about a specific structure and time limit of the presentation.

I am thinking of 15 minutes at most for each organisation otherwise we will run out of time. Please let me know your ideas of a possible structure for the presentation.

In August 1997 there will be an announcements for both conferences including the booking forms.

Please do not forget to write to me and let me know the subjects you want to hear about at the medical talks and the psychosocial aspects of lupus and a possible structure for the presentation.

Thank You!

Rudolf Hocks