By Jeff Overley

Law360 (March 5, 2020, 10:06 PM EST ) A two-decade-old American Bar Association health conference and a massive health technology meeting with a highly touted keynote speech from President Donald Trump were canceled Thursday amid coronavirus concerns, sparking questions about other upcoming health industry gatherings.

Priscilla Totten, an ABA spokesperson, told Law360 in an email late Thursday that the association "made the difficult decision to cancel" its 21st annual Conference on Emerging Issues in Healthcare, which was set for March 11-14 in San Diego.

The move was "a result of California's declared state of emergency [on Wednesday] due to the coronavirus, as well as a large number of speakers and attendees who were compelled to cancel their participation due to travel restrictions," Totten wrote.

The conference's planning committee on Friday is expected to discuss whether some of the conference's panels and materials can be repurposed for registered guests, she added.

The ABA on Wednesday also canceled its National Institute on White Collar Crime for the first time in 34 years because of coronavirus worries. Global law firms have increasingly seen meetings and travel disrupted by the deadly outbreak; roughly 100,000 infections have been confirmed globally, and more than 100 cases have been confirmed in the U.S.

Separately Thursday, the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society — an 80,000-member health technology group known as HIMSS — canceled its annual conference in Orlando, Florida, citing reports from the World Health Organization and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention about the novel coronavirus, which causes a disease called COVID-19.

HIMSS, which last year had 42,500 registered attendees at its annual conference, recently got an extra boost of hype after securing a commitment from Trump to deliver a keynote speech Monday regarding digital health and electronic health records.

It was the first cancellation in the conference's 58-year history. Event organizers said in an announcement that it had become "impossible to accurately assess risk."

They also cited "concerns about disproportionate risk to the health care system given the unique medical profile of [conference] attendees and the consequences of potentially displacing health care workers during a critical time, as well as stressing the local health systems were there to be an adverse event."

Spring is a busy season for big conferences involving the health care and life sciences industries. Trade group America's Health Insurance Plans has its National Health Policy Conference penciled in for March 18-19 in Washington, D.C.; the American Hospital Association has its annual meeting on April 19-22 in Washington, D.C.; and the Food and Drug Law Institute has its annual conference scheduled for May 7-8, as well in the nation's capital. Representatives of the three groups could not immediately be reached for comment on Thursday.

Law360 also requested updates Thursday from the American Conference Institute and CBI, two private organizers of popular legal events involving health care, pharmaceuticals and medical devices. Representatives of the two groups did not immediately respond to those requests, but CBI had posted an online update regarding its Pharma Forum 2020 event, which is set for March 8-11 in New York City.

"Pharma Forum 2020 will be taking place with a range of extra precautionary measures that authorities and the World Health Organization have recommended, and we are doing everything we can to ensure a productive and safe event for all our attendees," the update said, echoing similar updates for other upcoming CBI events in other cities.

--Additional reporting by Jody Godoy and Jack Queen. Editing by Adam LoBelia.

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