Karen Moor received NRS Travel Grant
My name is Karen Moor and I am a PhD candidate at the respiratory department of the Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam. My research is aimed improving clinical outcome measures and quality of life in interstitial lung diseases, especially in pulmonary fibrosis.
The NRS travel grant allowed me to attend the 20th International Colloquium on Lung and Airway Fibrosis (ICLAF) in Pacific Grove, California. This is a small conference with 300 attendees, specifically focused on pulmonary fibrosis. All scientific and state-of-the-art sessions enabled me to expand my knowledge about pulmonary fibrosis, not only about clinical research but also basic and translational science. During this conference I presented a poster about a new patient-reported outcome measure which has been developed to evaluate patient experiences and satisfaction with medication in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF). Poster presentation sessions were divided in small thematic groups. This enabled researchers with the same research interests to meet each other and discuss their research projects. In the end, we not only discussed our posters, but also our other current research projects and possibilities to collaborate between centers and countries.
To stimulate junior investigators to participate in meetings like this, a junior investigator scientific session and an early career development session were held. Both sessions were really useful, not only to get advices and career tips from experienced researchers and pulmonologists, but also to meet other junior investigators from around the world and share experiences with them. Besides, there were break-out sessions in small groups where we tried to reach a consensus about the research priorities in pulmonary fibrosis for the next few years. These discussions involved clinical researchers, basic scientists and also patients, which made it really interesting and very educational.
I thank you for the opportunity to attend ICLAF. Not only did I learn a lot more about pulmonary fibrosis, but I also established new contacts around the world which will be very valuable during the rest of my PhD.
Karen Moor
Department of Respiratory Medicine
Erasmus Medical Center, Rotterdam
