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Successful 2nd Annual Meeting of International Society for Medical Publication Professionals Attracts Over 280 BioPharma Industry Professionals and Distinguished Speakers

Posted on: Monday, 22 May 2006, 12:01 CDT

The International Society for Medical Publication Professionals (ISMPP) attracted over 280 BioPharma industry professionals to their second annual meeting in Philadelphia last month. "Setting the Course: Navigating Today's Publication Landscape" was the theme of the conference in Philadelphia.

ISMPP is the first, independent, non-profit organization solely dedicated to the best practices of the medical publication planning and publishing sector. The curriculum for their second annual conference brought together the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and device industries, scientific publications, publication planning and medical communication agencies, and others involved in medical publishing. The accomplished roster of speakers included:

-- John Hoey, M.D., the former editor of The Canadian Medical Association Journal;

-- John Kamp, J.D., Ph.D., Executive Director, Coalition for Healthcare Communication;

-- David Korn, M.D., Senior Vice President, Biomedical and Health Sciences Research, American Association of Medical Colleges;

-- Christine Laine, M.D., MPH, Senior Deputy Editor of Annals of Internal Medicine;

-- Faith McLellan, Ph.D., the North American Editor of The Lancet;

-- Martin J. Murphy, Jr., Ph.D., Executive Editor of The Oncologist;

-- And Thomas P. Stossel, M.D. the American Cancer Society Clinical Research Professor at Harvard Medical School and the Co-Director, Hematology Division of Brigham & Women's Hospital in Boston.

"The attendance and support for our second annual conference exceeded our expectations," said Robert Norris, President of the ISMPP Board of Trustees. "All three key constituencies - pharmaceutical companies, medical journals, and communications agencies - were well represented in the attendees and in the speakers. Both of our professional development workshops prior to the meeting sold out and the breadth of topics presented during the meeting were timely and practical.

"The issue of transparency in writing assistance for medical journals is an important issue currently facing the BioPharma industry," Norris said. "Having all key constituencies represented via the speaker roster, it became clear during the course of our meeting that the medical journal editors, marketing communications professionals and pharmaceutical companies are not as far apart on the issue of transparency as first thought.

"In terms of growth of our organization, we never anticipated we would have over 400 members within our first 14 months of existence. This is the right group at the right time for this industry," said Norris.

The second annual ISMPP meeting also received strong sponsorship and exhibitor support, with 18 companies represented, including: Amgen; AstraZeneca; Biocentric, Inc. Complete Healthcare Communications, Inc.; Complete Medical Communications; Creative Media Works; Current Medical Research & Opinion; Envision Pharma; Le Jacq; Medesta Publications; Meniscus Ltd.; Merck & Co.; Peerview; Peloton Advantage; Pfizer; PPSI; Thomas Scientific and Thomson Scientific Connexions.

All ISMPP members will have access to the presentations from the second annual meeting shortly, archived on the group's web site, http://www.ISMPP.org. Additional member benefits include: the organization's free monthly "lunch and learn" web casts, ISMPP U; networking opportunities; exclusive access to the membership directory, and other benefits currently in development, including a certification program.

The organization has already announced that the third annual meeting of ISMPP will be conducted in Philadelphia from Monday, April 23, 2007 through Wednesday, April 25, 2007.

About ISMPP:

The International Society for Medical Publication Professionals (ISMPP) was established to serve the educational needs of professionals involved in publication planning and related activities in the pharmaceutical and biotech industries. The independent, non-profit ISMPP's mission is to support publication professionals through education in fields associated with publication development and planning. The society strives to promote excellence in publishing effectiveness via open exchange and debate of relevant issues, as well as dissemination of practical information through high-quality conferences and training programs. Additional information is available at http://www.ISMPP.org.

Source: Business Wire

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