Highlights of 2020 Virtual Symposium
Just like our in-person Symposium, we offered valuable educational sessions for our 2020 Symposium. Each opportunity was a chance to connect, celebrate, reminisce, engage and be inspired. Here is a highlight of what happened in 2020:
Keynote Speaker
Hemophilia Federation of America welcomed inspirational speaker, Lindsay Vos, of Brownstown, Michigan, as our keynote speaker for 2020 Symposium. Vos’s story began when she spent most of her life suffering from migraines and eventually experiencing left-sided weakness and slurred speech. But doctors dismissed her symptoms as anxiety whenever she sought treatment or a proper diagnosis. After her mother shared a family history of arteriovenous malformation, Lindsay was finally properly diagnosed and in 2017 underwent surgery to correct AVM. Her medical history didn’t end there.
Watch Lindsay’s Keynote Address
Annual Awards Ceremony
Each year HFA honors the service of special individuals who have gone above and beyond in support of the bleeding disorders community. We recognized many important individuals and a Member Organization, and then revealed a fun photographic project created to announce the location of our 2021 Symposium in San Antonio!
See the 2020 Award Recipients       Watch the 2020 Awards Ceremony
Stay Active—Live or On-Demand
One of the best-loved activities during our live Symposium is the Rise and Shine physical activities and our virtual Symposium provided the same physical activities, including yoga, Zumba and other joint-healthy.
Journey to Healthier Joints LIVE
Are you interested in increasing your activity level, and in turn, improving your joint health? A panel of Blood Brothers will share their experience participating in HFA’s 2019 Best of You: Journey to Healthier Joints men’s activity challenge. The Bleeders of the Great Northwest are committed to increase your knowledge and awareness of safe physical activities for people with bleeding disorders and how to build a team, using competition to improve joint and overall health.
* Your Journey to Healthier Joints Activity Challenge is supported by Cooperative Agreement Number NU27 DD001151-05, funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
We welcomed BelieveLIMITED to 2020 Symposium to provide The Science Fair — an educational experience for the whole family, examining the science of bleeding disorders in an easy-to-understand adventure. Attendees gained a better understanding of Factor 8, hemophilia B, von Willebrand disease, rare factor deficiencies, joint health and more, in a reimagined virtual science fair experience. The fair was originally presented at the Bleeding Disorders Conference in California in 2019, built with guidance from leading clinicians and experts who helped translate the most important scientific concepts into learning opportunities for young people and families.
The Science Fair is created and produced by BelieveLIMITED. Sponsored by Spark Therapeutic