Earlier this year, we announced that the NEC Society received an award from the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) to host the first national symposium on the prevention of necrotizing enterocolitis in fragile infants. Planning is now underway, and we are thrilled to partner with the UC Davis Department of Pediatrics and Division of Neonatology.

This national symposium will be transdisciplinary, bringing together experts and leaders who have dedicated their entire careers to reducing the incidence of NEC in fragile infants. Diverse clinicians, researchers and nonprofit organizations will ensure the symposium acts as a catalyst for change, influencing care practices, research, and even public policy. 

Clinicians, researchers, and nonprofit organizations, please save the date and consider joining us for this groundbreaking symposium:

April 6 and 7, 2017 at the UC Davis Conference Center in Northern California

Information regarding registration will be available by summer of 2016. If you would like to donate your time, skills or provide additional financial support, please email Jennifer@necsociety.org and stay tuned for more details!

The symposium aims to develop new collaborations, lines of research, and protocols to help diagnose, prevent, and treat this devastating disease. The patient-family voice, which is too often overlooked in conferences for health professionals, will be integrated throughout the symposium via featured speakers, panel presentations and the nonprofit exhibit hall.

“This project was selected for Engagement Award funding not only for its commitment to engaging patients and other stakeholders, but also for its potential to increase the usefulness and trustworthiness of the information we produce and facilitate its dissemination and uptake,” said Jean Slutsky, PCORI’s Chief Engagement and Dissemination Officer. “We look forward to following the project’s progress and working with the NEC Society to share the results.”

The NEC Society’s project and the other projects approved for funding by the PCORI Engagement Award Program were selected through a highly competitive review process in which applications were assessed for their ability to meet PCORI’s engagement goals and objectives, as well as program criteria. PCORI has awarded nearly $9.4 million to support 49 projects to date through this program. For more information about PCORI’s funding to support engagement efforts, visit http://www.pcori.org/content/eugene-washington-pcori-engagement-awards/.

The NEC Society is a collaboration among clinicians, researchers, families and others dedicated to reducing the incidence of necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) in fragile infants. NEC affects over 4,000 premature infants every year in the U.S. and 1/3 of the infants who develop NEC will die from the disease. The financial impact of NEC is significant, with an estimated annual cost of up to $1 billion per year. Despite focused research on NEC for over four decades, we do not fully understand why NEC occurs, when NEC occurs, how NEC occurs, or which neonates will develop the disease. This lack of progress has been especially vexing, as the incidence of NEC has been increasing over the last several decades.

PCORI is an independent, non-profit organization authorized by Congress in 2010 to fund comparative effectiveness research that will provide patients, their caregivers, and clinicians with the evidence needed to make better-informed health and healthcare decisions. PCORI is committed to seeking input from a broad range of stakeholders to guide its work.