What started out as a live 16th Annual Meeting to be held in April 2020 evolved into plans for a virtual event held June 16-18, 2020, amidst changes in holding live conferences due to the COVID-19 global pandemic. With 379 attendees, the virtual 16th Annual Meeting exceeded ISMPP’s expectations for attendance. We celebrate that success!
Retaining the overall meeting theme, The Evolving Role of the Scientific Communications Professional in an Open World, the virtual meeting program focused on different topic areas each day: Day 1 – Open Science; Day 2 – Effective Communication; Day 3 – Evolving Role. The daily program generally followed a standard format: Opening Remarks, Keynote Address, Plenary Sessions (most held live), Exhibitor Engagement/Poster Viewing, Roundtable Sessions, and On-Demand Sessions.
Several options to explore the virtual 16th Annual Meeting program are available to attendees and to those who did not attend the meeting:
- Meeting attendees can still access recordings of all the live and on-demand sessions until August 31, 2020, from the Schedule of Events on the Annual Meeting website (https://webapp.usummitapp.com/welcome) and the uSummit mobile app. More information on the full conference availability to members and nonmembers will be forthcoming.
- The Publication Plan has posted informative summaries from Day 1, Day 2, and Day 3 of the virtual 16th Annual Meeting. These summaries are a great way for all to learn more about the meeting!
- The video – The Future of Medical Communications – A Visual Journey – was presented during the Day 1 Opening Remarks and can be viewed on YouTube. Thank you to Julie Stuart (Making Ideas Visible) and MedThink SciCom, Inc. for developing the video.
Keynotes, Sessions, and Roundtables in a New Virtual Format!
Three engaging keynote speakers presented on topics covering the focus areas of the day:
- 2020 and Beyond: How the “Open” Research Paradigm will Impact the Next Generation Research Dissemination
- Niamh O’Connor, Chief Publishing Officer, PLOS
- Applying the ABT Framework to the Communication of Medicine
- Dr. Randy Olson, Founder & Director, Story Circles Narrative Training
- How to Write a Scientific Masterpiece in 2020
- Corinne Williams, Senior Science Editor, Journal of Clinical Investigation (JCI) and JCI Insight
Plenary sessions were a mixture of speaker presentations and panel discussions. The sessions addressed using medical rhetoric to enhance scientific communication; an editor’s panel answering audience questions; a lively discussion about the creative Poster 2.0 format; a how-to discussion on patient involvement in medical communications; National Academy of Sciences (NAS) report on reproducibility and transparency standards; and a panel discussion on current hot topics in medical communications.
Roundtable sessions were extremely popular and provided the opportunity to interact virtually with peers. The meeting offered 15 Roundtable topics over three days, which included open science, ORCID, patient engagement, preprints, advisory boards, publication plain language summaries, digital and enhanced media options, and hybrid job positions, among others.
On-demand sessions became available each day, with time allotted after the roundtables for attendees to watch the sessions. Topics included scientific platforms, individualizing communications, health literacy, patient-driven publications, aligning with medical information and medical science liaisons, and gene therapy publication planning. The ISMPP Business Session and Oral Presentations from member research were also available via on-demand sessions.
For the first time, Continuing Pharmacy Education (CPE) credit from the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE) for participating in the virtual 16th Annual Meeting was jointly provided by the Postgraduate Institute for Medicine and ISMPP. Live credit was earned during the virtual meeting, while enduring credit is still available to attendees until August 31, 2020. ISMPP CMPPTM recertification credits were also available for meeting participation.
In honor of our esteemed faculty, ISMPP gave a charitable donation to the Center for Disaster Philanthropy (CDP) COVID-19 Response Fund.
Member Research – An Important Component!
Attendees had the opportunity to view the latest member research during and outside of the meeting program:
- 46 scientific posters were available for viewing on the Poster+ platform at https://ismpp.scienceposterplus.com/, generously sponsored by Takeda.
- A Poster Hour was held on June 17, offering time for attendees to look at the scientific posters as part of the meeting program.
- Two posters were selected for oral presentations and could be viewed as an on-demand session:
- Plain language summaries (PLS): how are we doing? Assessment of readability in peer-reviewed journals – presented by Judy Fallon
- Man or mouse: Are lay-media headlines and scientific-publication titles true to the study population? – presented by Jason Gardner
- The Poster Awards announcement occurred during the Day 2 Opening Remarks. Congratulations to the following poster winners!
Welcome to Our 2020-2021 Board of Trustees!
The 2020-2021 ISMPP Board of Trustees was installed at the ISMPP Business Meeting, available as an on-demand session. Congratulations to Todd Parker who assumed the role of ISMPP Chair! Catherine Skobe transitioned to the role of Immediate Past Chair. The following individuals were elected to their positions:
Valérie Philippon, Chair-Elect
Susan D. Pacconi, Secretary
Tom Drake, At-Large Trustee
Fiona Plunkett, European Trustee
Synnove Smeets, Nominating Committee (non-voting)
Thank you to Chris Winchester, Carolyn Hustad, Karen Mittleman, and Anna-Lisa Fisher for their service on the ISMPP Board of Trustees!
With Great Appreciation!
ISMPP extends a Special Thank You to the members of our Annual Meeting Program Committee! After months of planning for a live event, the Program Committee quickly altered its focus to plan a successful virtual event. Our heartfelt gratitude to Carolyn Hustad, Program Committee Chair, and Kirsten Parr, Program Committee Vice-Chair, plus Jennifer Ciafullo, ISMPP Senior Education Content Manager!
ISMPP expresses great appreciation to our exhibitors and sponsors for their valuable support of the virtual 16th Annual Meeting! Special mention to Envision Pharma Group for sponsoring the Effective Communication Day 2 roundtable sessions and to Takeda for sponsoring our virtual poster platform, Poster+. And thank you to uSummit, our technology provider, and The Publication Plan, our media partner for the 16th Annual Meeting.
In a new offering for ISMPP, we recognize our Champion Sponsors that registered 10 or more staff members from their company to attend the virtual 16th Annual Meeting. Thank you!
Upcoming ISMPP Conferences!
Mark your calendar! We invite you to join us for these upcoming ISMPP conferences:
- ISMPP West 2020: October 1-2, 2020, in Irvine, California, USA
- 2021 European Meeting of ISMPP: January 26-27, 2021, in London, UK
- 17th Annual Meeting of ISMPP: April 19-21, 2021, in Washington, DC
ISMPP will be monitoring the situation with the COVID-19 pandemic as we make determinations of whether to hold individual conferences in a live, virtual, or hybrid format.