ZEBRA + FEBRUARY = MONTH OF ZEBRUARY
The RQMO created the “Month of Zebruary” to highlight International Rare Disease Day throughout the month of February.
During this month, we organize activities to raise awareness about rare and orphan diseases, which symbol is the zebra.
Month of Zebrier 2026
RQMO 2026 International Rare Disease Day
On February 28, 2026, RQMO held its International Rare Disease Day 2026 at the Sandman Hotel in Longueuil.
Under the theme “The human beyond the rare disease”, we wanted to highlight an essential reality: a person is never defined solely by his or her illness. Behind every diagnosis lies a story, strengths, passions and a life that goes far beyond the disease.
The day was an opportunity to celebrate resilience, better understand the issues surrounding rare diseases, and honor the people who live with them.
Highlights of the day included raffles held with on-site participants, the presentation of the Gail Ouellette 2026 Award to Dr. Réal Le Gouëff, in recognition of his remarkable commitment to his patients, and the presentation of a touching video featuring short testimonials from people who don’t define themselves by their rare disease.
Our warmest thanks to everyone who attended, as well as to our speakers and valued sponsors, whose support made this event possible.
Month of Zebrier 2025
Month of Zebra 2024
Month of Zebrier 2023
Month of Zebrier 2022
Theme: Diagnosis-free
Month of Zebruary was launched on February 1, 2022 at Complexe Desjardins in Montreal.
Dr Nicolas Gauthier presents the “Screen4Rare” project which aims at detecting rare diseases as early as possible to avoid diagnostic delays.
Dr. Serge Rivest presents the “Research and Innovation Program on Rare Diseases” (PRISMES) which, in collaboration with the Canadian project “Care4rare”, aims to discover genetic variants explaining undiagnosed diseases.
Mr. Frank Béraud, President and CEO of Montréal InVivo, presents the action plan prepared with the members of the Montréal InVivo Rare Diseases Committee.
Medical students take part in our "Rare Geniuses" competition
The RQMO invited medical students to come and measure their knowledge about rare diseases during our educational competition, “Génies en rare” (Rare Geniuses), pitting teams of four players from different faculties of medicine in Quebec against each other.
To prepare, they studied the 152 questions on rare diseases with our online learning tool (flashcards).
Check out our “Rare Geniuses” learning tool on Brainscape.
For this first edition, eight teams competed for a $2,000 prize. The competitions were virtual and open to the general public. The teams came from the universities of Montreal, Sherbrooke and Laval.
The winners were the four students from RÉMUL (Regroupement des étudiants de médecine de l’Université de Laval).
Theme: Diagnosis-free
The president of the RQMO launches a series of “Zebinars” which will be presented during the Month of Zebruary.
The “Réseau ensemble” brings together experts from France and Quebec in clinical, health IT and artificial intelligence to set up a “learning” health system that fundamentally relies on the reuse of “real-life” data routinely produced in the context of health care or collected by patients, to improve and accelerate the diagnosis and treatment of patients with rare diseases.
Dr. Kristin Kernohan introduces us to the “Care4Rare” project which object is to identify new disease genes and develop new technologies for molecular diagnosis.
Ms. Sharon Terry is President and CEO of Genetic Alliance. She tells us about her organization’s initiatives: patient registries and a genomic initiative.
Our sponsors for Month of Zebruary 2022.
