Today, the ECTS webinar series include 12 webinars per year, with international speakers and regular attendance above 100 participants. When Covid-19 hit and physical scientific meetings were put on hold, our webinars – and the new addition of the ‘ECTS coffee shops’ – have been instrumental for ECTS members to share knowledge and facilitate vibrant discussions. Thanks to the high scientific and educational content, the webinar series have now been CME accredited, and all participants will be given one CME credit for their attendance in the live session. It proves that our webinars address real-world challenges that we face day to day and will allow us to stay up to date with the latest developments in our field.
ECTS aims to engage members across borders, fields of research and career levels. The ECTS e-learning and webinar action group started in 2017. So new members were invited into the action group during the fall of 2020 to ensure a smooth transition of the action group and keep the momentum going on curating exciting webinars for the coming years.
The new members come from other action groups under the ECTS umbrella and from the ECTS Academy. Katharina Jähn-Rickert, PhD is a PI at the Heisenberg Research Group at the Department of Osteology and Biomechanics of the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf in Hamburg, Germany. Her research is focused on the functional role of osteocytes in bone health and disease taking an interdisciplinary approach and high-resolution imaging techniques. Maria-Bernadette Madel received her PhD from the University Côte d’Azur in Nice, France, where she focused on osteoclast heterogeneity and inflammatory bone loss. Maria recently joined the Department of Orthopedic Surgery at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, USA, where she investigates the role of autonomic nerves in bone remodeling and aging. Maria has received several international awards, including Young Investigator Awards from ASBMR and ECTS. Jessica Pepe, MD, PhD works at “Sapienza” University of Rome. Her main research focus is on primary hyperparathyroidism, osteoporosis and vitamin D metabolism. The new co-chair of the action group is Lars Folkestad, who is an associate professor at the Department of Endocrinology, Odense University Hospital, Denmark. He is a clinician working at the osteoporosis unit focused on metabolic -bone and -calcium diseases. His main research focus is on osteogenesis imperfecta and skeletal manifestations in other rare diseases.
The action group has started working on the 2022 program, and is looking forward to sharing the program with the ECTS members.