#IAMSE21 Now Exclusively Virtual
The IAMSE Board of Directors, based on input from the IAMSE membership and our meeting partners, has decided to shift all events associated with the 2021 Annual Meeting, Global Perspectives on Health Sciences Education, to an online format. Although we may be able to gather in small groups by next June, the cascade consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, including ongoing safety concerns, restricted travel, budget allotments, and availability, have forced IAMSE to make this difficult but necessary decision.
I want to recognize and thank so many of our members for the work that they have put into the 2021 Annual Meeting over the past year. The IAMSE Board is especially grateful to Mark Hernandez, who is leading the meeting planning, and to the Annual Program Committee for their work. They have responded graciously to our announcement to transition the in-person meeting to an online format and are in full support of the decision. They are currently back at work to bring you an amazing online version of our Annual Meeting.
We recognize that many of you have been debating whether to present your work at the 2021 IAMSE Annual Meeting due to uncertainties and concerns regarding travel. Therefore, we are extending the abstract deadline for oral and poster presentations from December 1st to December 8th, 2020. Click here for more information!
Even though we will not be meeting in person this year, we have shifted our focus to create a virtual event that promises to be just as robust and educational as any IAMSE event you have attended or heard about in the past, with several exciting new opportunities to complement the virtual venue.
- Virtual Plenary Presentations – Each of our four plenary speakers will deliver their planned presentation with live Q&A. Each evening, our plenary speakers will join us once again for a rebroadcast of their presentation and a second live Q&A session for our colleagues around the globe who were not available to attend the original session.
- Workshops and Focus Sessions – We are excited to announce that we will be offering the same synchronous educational opportunities through pre-conference workshops and focus sessions as you would expect at an in-person meeting.
- Poster and Oral Presentations – We anticipate a record number of poster and oral presentations for our 2021 Meeting and we plan to provide participants both synchronous and asynchronous opportunities to interact with authors and their content. You will enjoy live and virtual poster presentations and live oral presentations just as you would at an in-person event.
- Abstracts – As with previous meetings, all accepted and presented poster and oral abstracts will be published in a special issue of Medical Science Educator, which is the journal of IAMSE.
- Exhibitors – There will be opportunities for participants to interact with exhibitors, both individually and as part of group presentations.
- Awards – The awards and grants normally associated with the Annual Meeting will still be conferred. Individuals will be recognized through online announcements and will be honored live at the virtual meeting.
- Business Meeting – Consistent with our bylaws, each June we hold our annual business meeting as a public event to inform members about the current state of IAMSE. We will still hold this meeting and will send along more information as it becomes available
For the past several months, IAMSE has been working closely with our partners at AMFEM (Mexican Association of Faculties and Schools of Medicine) to collaborate on combining our intended in-person meetings in Cancun in June. While we are no longer working toward that specific end, our partnership with this exceptional association will simply take a new direction. We look forward to the great work we can do together safely in the future. In this regard, I am pleased to inform you that we are planning to come to Cancun as the site for our Annual Meeting in 2023 and we hope to work with AMFEM to bring you the in-person meeting that we had planned to have in 2021.
I understand that attending the IAMSE Annual Meeting in a virtual manner may not have been your original intention, but it is my hope that you will join us as we continue a tradition of rich, engaging and worthwhile educational discourse at the 2021 IAMSE Annual Meeting.
Please be on the lookout for additional information regarding the meeting in the coming weeks.
Take care of yourself and your communities.
Sincerely yours,
Neil Osheroff, PhD
President, IAMSE