Meghan O’Rourke, author of “The Invisible Kingdom: Reimagining Chronic Illness,” will speak at the National Academies’ workshop on long-haul diseases in Washington DC June 29-30.

O’Rourke’s book, a finalist for the 2022 National Book Award, draws on her personal experience with chronic illnesses—including Lyme disease—as well as interviews with doctors, patients, researchers, and public health experts.

She’ll speak as part of the “stakeholders” panel on June 29, 8:45 to 10 am Eastern Time. (Those not attending in person can view the proceedings via webcast.)

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine are private, nonprofit institutions that provide expert advice on a variety of challenges facing the nation and the world.

The upcoming event, “Toward a Common Research Agenda in Infection-Associated Chronic Illnesses: A Workshop to Examine Common, Overlapping Clinical and Biological Factors,” has been organized to specifically look at long COVID, persistent Lyme disease, myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue disease, and multiple sclerosis.

The goal is to bring together researchers from these different long-haul diseases so they can collaborate. By figuring out what these conditions have in common and sharing what they’ve learned, participants hope to speed up the development of new treatments to restore these chronically ill people to health.

For more information, including how to register to attend in person or via webcast, click here.