The Seventh International Conference on Undiagnosed Diseases: Wilhelm Foundation point of view

I would like to thank Ratna Puri, who did an amazing work to arrange the Seventh Conference in New Delhi. This Conference was something out of the ordinary with a registration disk, a fantastic wall behind the stage. The venue was luxurious and almost all Indian women worn Saris which were beautiful.

To arrange the conference together with Ratna and her colleagues was a pleasure for me, since everyone was very positive and easy to work with. One and a half day before the Undiagnosed Conference it was a Rare disease conference which Ratna and Dr. Harsha Karur Rajasimha arranged. First, I was overwhelmed since we were more than 200 attendees, but everything was smooth even the breaks with excellent food. I’m very impressed what they have accomplished but I have to say that I got little bit nervous because at 1 a.m. 7 hours before opening, it was a mess and it looked like a construction site. The drug companies built their booths and some even painted them. But when it was opening time everything was perfect and all the painted booths were dry!

When it was time for the Seventh International Conference on Undiagnosed Diseases to open, Ratna Puri asked Ishwar C Verma Advisor, Dr William A Gahl NIH, Dr S P Boytra Vice Chairman, Board of Management & Director Clinical Laboratory Servicers, Sir Ganga Ram Hospital and Sunita Bijarnia-Mahay to enter the stage. Then Ratna asked me to the stage to be a part of the inauguration, too. The opening started with an Indian tradition where we on stage were lightening one candle each. To be a part of this was an honor. I’m very thankful since this tradition touched my heart and it will be forever in my heart. I will always remember it with a special thought to all my new wonderful friends from India.

We are very impressed of everyone’s work, knowledge and that so many of you share your variants. It was very interesting to see which of you are sharing and how much but at the same way it’s little bit sad seeing that many hasn’t shared at all. I think it was a wakeup call for many of the attendees and hopefully at next conference this has changed. Sharing is the way to solve the Undiagnosed Diseases. Mikks and mine favorite part of the Agenda is Cases n=1.

Everyone was very impressed with the great agenda and all the speakers who gave very interesting talks.

At this Conference we also had a photo exhibition, which is new Photo project – the Undiagnosed. It’s a collaboration between Rick Guidotti Positive Exposure and Wilhelm Foundation. But I will tell you more about it in a separate article.

As usual the Conferences agenda included three Dinners. Ratna helped us chose the Restaurants and they were really great, and the food was delicious - thank you Ratna. We hope that all of you (80) had a great time together.

I think everyone felt the same as I did that this conference had an extra touch with a great mix of research and Indian culture. We even got to see traditional Indian dancers performing.

Everything was perfect except that some of the attendees weren’t there and they were missed!

Thank you Ratna Puri, your great team and Bill Gahl for all your work!

Mikk and I are very grateful to all of you, for doing fantastic work to solve the Undiagnosed Diseases! Thank you!