The Midwest Reproductive Symposium (MRS) 2010 was another meeting of excellence, marking the 6th year of this 2-day educational event.

Developed in 2005 to meet the educational needs of health professionals and researchers in the field of reproductive medicine who are based in the Midwest US, the meeting is now attended by physicians, nurses, embryologists, other allied health professionals and researchers from around the world. The focus, however, remains on serving the needs of those practicing in the midwest.

Over 240 attendees joined us for the 2010 MRS – a mix of physicians, nurses, embryologists and laboratory professionals, and allied health professionals working in the field of reproductive medicine.

The 2010 program utilized the successful format of the past 3 years, namely a 2-day program with a mix of lectures, workshops, and panels. This format is the result of attendee and faculty feedback from previous years. We take feedback very seriously, and the comments received this year are now being reviewed by the Organizing Committee planning the 2011 meeting.

New in 2010 was the MRS Nurse Practicum – an added day of sessions developed by nurses for nurses. The Nurse Practicum was highly successful and will remain a continuing session for future meetings.

Nurse Attendee Comment: “Looking back on the entire program, I must say that I appreciate the Thursday Nurse Session with its nurse-oriented approach to the material. It challenged me to a deeper level of understanding infertility and also provided the opportunity to network with other nurses. …..I definitely recommend the Nurse Practicum to other nurses working in this field.”

The bottom-line is that this is a unique meeting that provides attendees with intimate access to and dialogue with colleagues and experts alike. In the end, the goal is to help health care professionals help patients to have healthy babies. Comments* like the following suggest that the meeting does just that.

After this year’s MRS, I plan on: • Giving my patients better information to help them understand the fertility process and their specific situation. • Using new stimulation protocols and other techniques learned in the hands-on workshops. • Increasing our patient counseling for fertility preservation. • Reviewing our clinic’s IVF statistics to better determine how to best disclose the most realistic outcomes. • Reviewing our informed consent 3rd party documents to ensure that they meet the ethical and legal challenges being set by using new technologies. • Evaluating and, if needed, modifying our clinic’s approach to RPL. • Using medications for male infertility in a more knowledgeable way.

                 *Comments from post-meeting evaluations.

Please stop back to this site for more information to be posted, including some of the handouts from the 2010 meeting and program information for 2011 for attendees, sponsors, and exhibitors.

Angeline Beltsos, MD, MRS Chairpersoon
William Kearns, PhD, MRS Co-Chair
Barry Behr, PhD, MRS Co-Chair

The Midwest Reproductive Symposium is hosted by Fertility Centers of Illinois. The 2010 program was funded, in part, by unrestricted educational grants from Ferring Pharmaceuticals and EMD Serono. The Organizing Committee includes Angeline Beltsos, MD (Chairperson); Barry Behr, PhD; Laurence Jacobs, MD; Brian Kaplan, MD; William Kearns, PhD; and Mieke Uhler, MD.