Call for Summit Speaker Proposals

NORD is seeking dynamic and expert speakers to create pragmatic and forward-thinking conversations on the following topics for the 2026 NORD® Rare Diseases and Orphan Products Breakthrough Summit®:

• Patient Voice: Engagement and Experience in the Rare Disease Space
• New Approaches to Patient-Centric Clinical Trials
• The Use of Data in Effective Patient-Focused Drug Development
• Health Equity in/for Rare Diseases
• The Use of AI in Rare Diagnosis, Treatment, and Care
• Innovation in Accelerating Diagnosis
• Closing the Gap Between Diagnosis and Clinical Care
• The Role of Advocacy in Driving Change
• Unique Programming by Patient Advocacy Organizations
• Fresh Models of Stakeholder Collaboration
• Medical Devices in Rare
• Proposed Solutions for Patient Access Issues: Drugs Pricing, Insurance, Healthcare, and More
• Other (not listed)

Speaker Proposal Guidelines

As you prepare your submission, please take note of the following:

• Proposals should be geared toward all members of the NORD Breakthrough Summit audience, which includes
  leaders from industry, government, academia, research, and patient advocacy organizations.
• Due to the diverse audience, academic disease-specific/scientific talks will not be accepted.
• NORD seeks proposals that are disease-agnostic or of which learnings could be applicable for more than
  one disease state.
• Inclusion of video/audio samples will be prioritized in speaker selection.
• Please note that NORD most often invites speakers to participate in a moderated panel discussion to allow for a conversational session with different perspectives included. If you are invited to speak, though NORD may select your topic or a closely related one, it may be used for a panel discussion rather than a podium presentation as submitted in this application.

All speaker submissions must be received through the NORD website no later than Friday, May 1, 2026 at 11:59 p.m. EST.

Speakers will begin to be notified of acceptance in June 2026.