Society News

In the special election recently held by the International Society of Travel Medicine, Bradley A. Connor, MD of New York, USA, was chosen the 7th president of the Society, to serve in that role for the next two years. He replaces Louis Loutan, MD of Geneva, Switzerland.

"I am honored and very excited about being elected and will do my very best to further the goals of travel medicine," said Brad. "I have been an active member of the Society from the very beginning. I have watched it grow from a fledgling group of people with a common interest into a bona fide medical subspecialty. What gives our Society so much energy is that we attract people from various backgrounds. I became interested in travel medicine because as a gastroenterologist I saw travelers return from overseas with intestinal diseases, many of them preventable. I realized that there was more to travel medicine than "giving shots." I firmly believe that education is our strongest mission,

"To educate travelers, we first have to raise the awareness of the concept of travel medicine among the larger medical community, the travel industry, and the public, and at the same time provide the tools to help travel medicine practitioners to enhance their skills. My goal of ‘spreading the word’ about our specialty will be greatly aided by the fact that I am located in New York, the media capital of the world, and because our next meeting, CISTM8, will take place in New York. I have seen the abstracts of the presentations for our upcoming meeting. The material is truly remarkable, of the highest caliber, with excellent practical information for travelers, and cutting edge scientific data for practitioners. The material will surely draw the attention of the media.

"I intend to simplify the process for travel medicine practitioners to keep abreast of the latest happenings in our specialty by assisting regional and national groups and societies to hold timely and easily accessible continuing education sessions, perhaps assisting them to hold off-year meetings (i.e. in the year that ISTM does not meet) and weekend courses. I would also like to see innovative opportunities for learning on the Internet.

"And I want to encourage our members to take a more active role in running our Society. I am going to work for greater committee participation, and establish a mentor program for individuals who want to assume leadership roles in the Society.

"As a specialty, we now have sufficient prominence and experience to become more active and to assist governmental advisory panels. Here in the United States, for example, we have the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP). Numerous relevant medical groups have a seat on this Committee. Obviously, our members have expertise in vaccinating travelers and should be represented. Organizations similar to ACIP exist in most other countries."

While Brad is assuming the role of President on very short notice, not having had the opportunity to serve as president-elect, he is eminently qualified for the post. As already mentioned, he has been an active member of ISTM since its founding in 1991. He has served since 1994 as Chair of the Travel Industry and Public Education Committee. Under his leadership, this Committee has furthered the agenda of raising public awareness of travel medicine as well as forging links with the travel industry. His specific committee activities have included the North American Charter for Travel Health Consensus Conference, held in 1996, which laid the groundwork for minimum standards for the travel industry with respect to health advice. The Committee compiled and published the first worldwide directory of ISTM Travel Clinics in 1996. Under his direction, the Coalition for Healthy Travel, a not-for-profit ISTM initiative, was begun in 1997. With industry partners, the Coalition has embarked on a travel medicine awareness campaign through media outreach. Brad is also Chair of the 8th Conference of the ISTM (CISTM8) to be held in New York this May.

He is a gastroenterologist with clinical faculty appointments at the New York-Presbyterian Hospital and Rockefeller University and serves as Clinical Associate Professor of Medicine at the Weill Medical College of Cornell University. Founder and Medical Director of Travel Health Services, New York City’s first private Travel Medicine Clinic, he is also the Director of the New York Center for Travel and Tropical Medicine, a facility devoted to teaching and research in travel and tropical medicine.

Brad’s main research interests include chronic diarrhea in returned travelers, emerging gastrointestinal pathogens, viral hepatitis and enteric parasitic diseases. He was part of the Kathmandu, Nepal team that first described the clinical illness associated with Cyclospora and has investigated the pathogenesis, clinical illness, epidemiology, and treatment of Cyclospora infections. In 1997 he received the Clinical Research Award from the International Society of Travel Medicine for his work on travelers’ diarrhea in Vietnam.

Brad has authored numerous publications and has lectured widely in the field of travel medicine. He is a co-director of "Medicine for Adventure Travel" (a one-week travel medicine conference which has been held in Jackson Hole, Wyoming since 1993), serves on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Travel Medicine, and has been involved in the development of the Certificate of Knowledge in Travel Medicine. Since 1986 he has served as a consultant to the American Express Corporation Medical Department.

by Karl Neumann