The Symposium on Childhood Rare Disease celebrates 40 years of the British Paediatric Surveillance Unit (BPSU) and the bicentenary of University College London. A packed educational programme gives us opportunity to see our progress to understand rare diseases in childhood, explore current challenges and consider what the future may hold.
Whether you are a healthcare professional, researcher, student, patient or family member with an interest in childhood rare diseases, we hope you will join us for this special event.
- Tuesday 22 September
- UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health
- Free to attend
See the full programme and reserve your spot
Four decades of surveillance and impact
The BPSU has played a unique role in advancing understanding of rare childhood diseases and conditions since 1986. Through our national surveillance system, thousands of clinicians across the UK and Ireland, researchers, patients and families have helped investigate conditions that would be difficult for individual centres to study alone.
This collaborative approach has generated evidence that helps improve clinical practice, service delivery, public health and research, and has built a clearer picture of rare and complex childhood conditions.
As we celebrate 40 years, we've hosted a BPSU plenary and other sessions at RCPCH Conference, exploring the future of paediatric surveillance in the era of genomics and big data, and published our first multi-year report.
Looking to the future of childhood rare disease research
The symposium on 22 September will look beyond these important anniversaries to ask how we can continue to improve research, diagnosis and care for children and young people with rare diseases. It will bring diverse perspectives from across the rare disease community to consider how to shape the next generation of childhood rare disease research.
And, it will be another opportunity to celebrate the people and partnerships that have made four decades of BPSU surveillance possible.