The Northland Regional Chapter of SOT (NLSOT) held its spring meeting on Thursday, April 12 at Medtronic World Headquarters in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The meeting was titled “The Emerging Practice of Medical Device Toxicology,” and was cosponsored by 3M Toxicology and Compliance Assurance and the Medtronic Technical Forum. The meeting was extremely successful with approximately 100 participants attending in person and over 30 viewing the meeting online.
Speakers on the topic of medical devices included Charles Swanson, Program Director of Regulatory Affairs and Services at St. Cloud State University; Jon Cammack, President and CEO of The Science Cooperative; Molly Ghosh from the US FDA; and John Gorski, President and CEO of NAMSA. 
The Spring Meeting started with a brief welcome and meeting agenda overview conducted by NLSOT President Nathan Pechacek and Medtronic Technical Forum President Brian Bechard. The first speaker of the morning was Dr. Swanson, who gave an overview on medical device regulations, followed by Dr. Cammack’s presentation on the challenges in assessing the toxicity of medical devices. After these presentations, the morning session adjoined for lunch during which attendees had a chance to network. A new meeting feature during the break was a “Lunch with an Expert” program, an opportunity for graduate and postdoctoral students attending the meeting to engage toxicology professionals in an informal setting. This new program was modeled on the SOT “Chat with an Expert” program provided in recent years at the SOT Annual Meeting. Initial feedback on this new NLSOT meeting feature was very positive.
The afternoon session commenced with Nathan Pechacek leading the NLSOT business meeting where topics included the current status of the organization, announcement of the 2012–2013 NLSOT executive board, highlights from the past 12 months, and potential future NLSOT initiatives.
Dr. Ghosh led off the technical component of the afternoon session with a presentation on the assessment of innovative medical devices and Mr. Gorski finished the meeting with a presentation on the value of CROs in evaluating product safety and efficacy. Meeting attendees also had the opportunity to view posters related to medical device toxicology presented at the meeting, as well as tour some of the laboratories at Medtronic, a leader in medical technologies.
NLSOT serves toxicologists in Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Montana. For more information about this chapter, please contact President Nathan Pechacek or go to Northland Regional Chapter website.