International Conference on Genetic Medicine

International Conference on Genetic Medicine and Promoting Healthcare 
for Rare Disorders 2005 Taipei   

In order to promote healthcare and genetic medicine issue on management on rare disorders, Bureau of Health Promotion and TFRD co-hosted the international conference, and have invited several outstanding scholars and professionals of rare disease organizations as guest speakers to share with us their experience and work on management of rare diseases.  

This conference covered topics such as Newbron Screening Programs in the U.S., Australia and Taiwan, management of rare diseases and birth defects, empowering patient groups, and orphan drug approval procedure.   

Guest speakers include Lisa Wise, Vice president of Genetic Alliance, Dr. Christopher Paul Howson, Vice President for Global Programs, March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation, Ms. Mary Dunkle, Vice President for Communications, National Organization for Rare Disorders (NORD), Mr. Terkel Andersen, President of EURORDIS, Prof. Michael S.Watson, Executive Director of American college of Medical Genetics, and Prof. Bridget Wilcken of the Children's Hospital at Westmead, NSW, Australia.   

In Taiwan, the NBS program has been carried out for many years and the screening rate is almost 100%, which is also a very impressive achivement.  In the future, we hope to have more opportunities to share and exchange our experience with organizations in other countries and also provide better service to rare disease patients.