It's both a physical meeting and one that you can attend online. The NIH is in Bethesda, MD, a fact stupidly missing from the page about the meeting. I assume it's taking place there.
I'm a Brit and have never been to one of these things so can't tell you about accommodations.
@
jspotila, are you able to answer these questions better than I can?
You did perfectly fine! As did @
Denise.
This is a physical meeting on the NIH campus in Bethesda. It will also be webcast. The logistics page is definitely worth taking a look at, as it includes nearby hotel information, parking/security info, etc.
I've been getting some questions on FB and my blog about public participation in the meeting, so I thought I would add that here:
The only scheduled "patient perspective" is 20 minutes at the beginning of the first day. The speaker(s) for that slot will be chosen by NIH. My sources suggest the selection has not been made yet, but no one really seems to know. There were four names on the draft agenda from the beginning of 2014, and my name was on the list. Chances of them asking me to speak? Who knows!
There is a great deal of open discussion time scheduled throughout both days of the meeting. We don't have confirmation for how this will work. I'll be watching the Opioid meeting at the end of the month to see what we can glean from that. But I expect the discussion sessions to be moderated, and I expect that it will not be a free for all. I expect that we may be able to submit questions, but our opportunities to get to the microphone and speak will be limited. The emphasis will be on the Panel members' interests and questions, and discussion with the presenters.
This is not a public meeting like CFSAC or even the FDA meeting. There are no public comment slots. There is no opportunity for submitted written comments to the Panel. There is no information on whether people watching online can submit questions, although to be perfectly honest that would not be hard to do using Twitter.
The main opportunity for public comment will be on the P2P Panel Report. The report will be issued about a day after the meeting and is usually open for public comment for 15 days. We've heard that the response time will be extended in our case, but we have no confirmation on how much extra time we will have.
Hit me with any questions!