Over 200 ISMPP members in the Asia Pacific region recently enjoyed two exciting educational events for medical publication and scientific communication professionals:
- The third Asia Pacific Meeting of ISMPP, held September 6, 2019, in Tokyo, Japan
- The first-ever ISMPP China Outreach Program, held August 23, 2019, in Shanghai, China
The need for medical publications and scientific communications has been growing in the Asia Pacific region over the past several years, along with an essential need to ensure good publication practices and global standards are being followed.
“The sessions and faculty for both the 2019 Asia Pacific Meeting of ISMPP and the new ISMPP China Outreach Program spotlighted what medical publication and scientific communication professionals need to know to meet the expectations set for their professions and for their day-to-day work,” said Robert J. Matheis, ISMPP President and CEO.
This article spotlights the 2019 Asia Pacific Meeting of ISMPP, while a companion article in The MAP shares information about the first academic salon of the new ISMPP China Outreach Program.
2019 Asia Pacific Meeting Achieves Record Attendance
The 2019 Asia Pacific Meeting, held every two years, reached a record attendance with 140 participants from 12 countries ‒ a 12% increase from the 2017 meeting. This one-day meeting focused on the theme Bridging Global Standards and Regional Practices and featured relevant meeting sessions that included interactive learning exercises, an informative keynote address, and roundtable discussions.
- The keynote address, “Open Science: What Does it Mean and Why Is it Important for the Future?” was presented by Kazuhiro Hayashi, Senior Research Fellow of Science and Technology Foresight Centre at National Institute of Science and Technology Policy. A lively panel discussion followed the keynote presentation.
- “Applying the Good Publication Practice 3 Guidelines in the Asia-Pacific Region: A Practical Guide” shared information on how to apply GPP3 in the context of cultural expectations in the Asia Pacific region, and presented information from a pre-print of an upcoming, accepted publication in the journal Research Integrity and Peer Review.
- “The Expanding and Changing Role of the Publication Professional” explored the changing medical publications landscape and its potential impact on the responsibilities, skills, and careers of publication professionals through interactive roundtable workshops.
- “Technology in Publishing: What are the Opportunities? What are the Risks?” explained the drivers for innovation in publishing, the short- and longer-term opportunities for publication planning and publishing, as well as the limitations and challenges.
- “Nothing about Me Without Me: Patient Involvement in Medical Communications” talked about applying best practice tools for patient involvement in Asia Pacific, including the first toolkit for plain language summaries of publications, and incorporated interactive roundtable discussions. This session also featured an international rare disease patient/patient advocate, who shared a personal viewpoint around increasing patient engagement.
The program concluded with an ISMPP Presidential Address by Robert Matheis, the Society’s new President and CEO. Afterwards, attendees enjoyed a Networking Reception, sponsored by Takeda, and had time to visit with their peers. In honor of the esteemed faculty, ISMPP made a charitable donation to Hereditary Angioedema (HAE) International.
The 2019 Asia Pacific Meeting Archive of session presentations, which are available for personal, non-commercial use, is posted in the Member Center on the ISMPP website.
ISMPP would like to extend a special thank you to the exhibitors, sponsors, and media partners of the 2019 Asia Pacific Meeting for their generous support of the Society, and to the Asia Pacific Programme Committee for its dedicated efforts to a successful meeting in the region!
