Kwart represents LRG at this year's NORD conference

Life Raft Group board member, Dr. Arnold Kwart represented the Life Raft Group at this year’s National Office of Rare Diseases (NORD) Conference. Kwart attended a few lectures including, “Creating and Maintaining a Patient Registry” and “Special Challenges for Rare Disease Research”. Kwart felt that theRegistry lectureemphasized the “importance, influence and effectiveness [the LRG has] on patients withGIST.

The lecture relating to special challenges and research highlighted the lengthy process developing a successful research program for studying disease. “Getting permission of investigational new drugs and getting institutional review board approval is increasingly difficult.” This is a topic very important to GIST patients and one that has been covered many times in our newsletter (See November 2007 issue for example).

Kwart learned a good deal of information from the lectures that has expanded his knowledge of GIST as a doctor and as a patient.