The President's Column

I write to you from a city that was until recently in the middle of political chaos, Kathmandu, Nepal. But travelers continue to come despite the political troubles, recognizing that no place on earth can be considered absolutely safe and trouble-free anymore. Although people around the world are closer to each other than ever before thanks to instant global communications, the world we live in is becoming increasingly complicated. (Fortunately, the situation here in Nepal has improved now and life is slowly returning to normal.)

ISTM as a Society is moving on with speed. We have several new initiatives. To coincide with the Northern European Conference on Travel Medicine (NECTM) being held in Edinburgh this June, ISTM will be holding a European Summit meeting together with our friends in the European Societies to explore ways to further mutual understanding and collaboration.

Keeping in mind repeated requests from membership to hold a preparatory course for the Certificate of Travel Health (CTH) examination, such a course is being offered in North America and in Europe in early 2007. It is hoped that at some point in the future, the course can be offered in other parts of the world as well. Persons wishing to take the CTH examination may benefit from taking such a course. The ISTM CTH examination will be offered in Vancouver in 2007.

We are moving forward to collaborate with the World Health Organization in a productive way. ISTM has been asked to coordinate efforts to give suggestions for the WHO International Travel and Health (ITH) book and website update.

The Journal of Travel Medicine is reaching libraries across the world. I hope that you find the new cover refreshing and the content stimulating. Manuscript submission and review is now so much simpler thanks to Manuscript Central’s shorter turnaround time for manuscripts. This should encourage our members to publish more with JTM.

Preparations are underway for CISTM 10 to be held in May 2007 in Vancouver. The Scientific Program Committee met recently to chalk out the details of the program, taking into account suggestions from Society members. The scientific program for the conference is not one that you will want to miss. The local organizing committee too has many valuable ideas that will complement the excellent scientific program at the conference.

I look forward to seeing you all in Edinburgh this year and in Vancouver in 2007. If you have any ideas/suggestions to improve the Society, please send them along to me at: pandey@mos.com.np or istm@istm.org.

Thank you.

With best wishes,

Prativa