Dr Robert Gabbay Discusses New ADA Role; Virtual Scientific Sessions

One advantage of conducting an online scientific conference is that more individuals will gain access to information presented at the meeting, said Robert Gabbay, MD, PhD, the newly appointed chief medical and scientific officer of the American Diabetes Association.

Transcript:

As the new chief scientific and medical officer at the American Diabetes Association (ADA), what are your goals for the organization?

It is the most comprehensive organization focused on improving the lives of people with diabetes and serving the professional community around diabetes. I look to continue to foster that wonderful work and really ensure that it has greater impact on all of our constituents.

This is the 80th Scientific Sessions hosted by the ADA, but the first one to be conducted virtually. What are you looking forward to?

I think it's an exciting time. Obviously, we've been challenged by coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) to have to pivot to do this virtually. But what we hope is one of the advantages of doing it virtually, is that we can have more people have access to the amazing information that occurs at this meeting. Some years people can't travel to whatever the location is. Now, we can all do this from the comfort of our office or home. I hope that we have even greater participation as a result. Because we are capturing all of the sessions on video, we have the opportunity then to have this as enduring material that can be distributed again, all over the world.