Highlights from the ISTM Executive Board Meetings
The ISTM Executive Board has held three major conferences in 2006. The first, a 90-minute teleconference on March 15; the second, a two-day "in-person" 16-hour marathon session in Scotland, immediately following the North European Conference on Travel Medicine. These two conferences are reported on here. A report on the third, a teleconference on September 17, will appear in the next issue.
Virtually all of the office holders and committee heads were in attendance.
Prativa Pandey, President
Frank von Sonnenburg, President-elect
Kevin Kain, Counselor & Chair CISTM 10 Scientific Committee
Eli Schwartz, Counselor
Ron Behrens, Counselor
Nancy Piper Jenks, Counselor
David Freedman, Secretary/Treasurer & GeoSentinel
Charles Ericsson, Chair, Publications Committee
Brian Gushulak, Chair, Migrant Health Committee
Louis Loutan, WHO Liaison
Assunta Marcolongo, Chair, Host Country Committee
Rebecca Acosta, MPH Chair Practice and Nursing Issues Committee
Robert Steffen, Editor, Journal of Travel Medicine
Karl Neumann, Editor, NewsShare
Hans Dieter Nothdurft, Web site Editor
Michele Barry, Chair, Professional Education Committee
Brad Connor, Past President, Chairman, Membership Committee
Lin Chen, Chair, Pre-exam course, USA
David Hill, Chair, Pre-exam course, UK
Brenda Bagwell, Administrative Director
Brooke Gouge, Administrative Assistant
Here are some of the highlights of these EB meetings:
Annual Report from the ISTM Secretary Treasurer
David Freedman, M.D.
I am pleased to report on our current financial status and on our budget plans for the coming year. A financial report for the 2006 fiscal year, July 1, 2005-June 30, 2006, prepared by our outside accountant, Heritage Accounting, is included with this mailing, but does not appear in this Newsletter.
On July 1, 2005 ISTM officially began this new fiscal year structure in order to allow robust budgeting and allocation in coordination with the annual Executive Board meeting which occurs each year in May or June. An additional complete review of our finances is being carried out by our tax preparation firm, Fulton, Kozak, LLP of Atlanta. They will shortly file our tax return with the United States Internal Revenue Service. As a non-profit organization we need not pay taxes, but must undergo careful, yearly scrutiny for any possible small anomalies that would jeopardize our tax-exempt status.
Our total assets stand at $1.37 million dollars, the most ever for ISTM. This represents the peak of our typical four year cycle: the receipt of revenue from our biennial meeting in Lisbon and prior to necessary up-front investment in the next biennial meeting in Vancouver. But note that North American meetings tend to earn less revenue for ISTM than ones elsewhere so we need to hold funds in reserve to last up to 4 years. During 2006 we operated in the black and added money to our reserves. Also due to the transition to the new publisher for JTM, we paid no subscription fees from July through December 2005 to our old publisher, and none until the end of the fiscal year, June 2006, to our new publisher. Therefore we are scheduled to pay $100,000 deferred payment to the new publisher this month.
The new publishing contract with Blackwell, which began January 1, 2006, gives ISTM much more favorable terms than our contract with our previous publisher, ending large subsidies to the journal that ISTM had been providing. The money saved will provide funding for future ISTM initiatives. Nevertheless the JTM remains a small net expense for ISTM. We hope that this will soon become a small net surplus as a result of continuing increases in advertising, reprints, and supplement revenues.
For the 2007 fiscal year, the Executive Board passed a balanced budget at its annual meeting in June. A formal budget application process for ISTM committees and initiatives requesting funding for the year worked well in 2006 and continued for the 2007 budget. The Executive Board remains as the final arbiter of which activities will receive priority for funding.
The 2007 budget included monies to be added to the long term reserves. Our investments continue very conservative but with guaranteed steady income. Our reserves are mandated to be such that we could survive the complete failure of a CISTM meeting and continue operating through to the next meeting. We are well in excess of this amount. Our investments were recently moved to RBC Dain Rauscher, the 10th largest investment firm in the US, a subsidiary of the Royal Bank of Canada, one of the world's largest financial firms. The ISTM Finance Committee has recently made the decision to hold up to 25% of our long-term reserves in conservative fixed-income Euro investments in order to represent the global nature of our membership and to safeguard against further deterioration in the US dollar. This may also help us in the future in terms of necessary advances for CISTMs in Europe which must be paid in Euros.
It is a privilege to serve as your Secretary-Treasurer. Please contact me at istm@istm.org if you have any concerns or questions.
David
Pre-exam Courses
Michel Barry, Lin Chen and David Hill reviewed the concept behind the pre-exam courses to prepare candidates to take the ISTM CTH® Review & Travel Medicine Update courses to be held in Dallas/Ft. Worth, Texas, USA and Liverpool, United Kingdom, February 9-11, 2007. Discussion points included publicizing possibilities such as various journals, websites and conferences, CME/CNE accreditation requirements, and the timeline of the course. The U.K. course is being jointly sponsored by National Travel Health Network and Centre. Nancy Jenks secured CME credits for the course in the U.S. The point was raised that the ISTM should not be competing with national travel medicine societies or with individual ISTM members in offering short training courses in travel medicine and that if the ISTM was to offer a CTH review course it should be promoted only as such and not as a general training course. There was agreement that this was a significant philosophical and policy decision for ISTM and that it would be discussed at a later time.
WHO Liaison Louis Loutan reported that the World Health Organization has requested that the ISTM contribute two new chapters, Sea Travel and Visiting Friends and Relatives, for the WHO "Green Book". Robert Steffen will produce Sea Travel and Louis Loutan, Visiting Friends and Relatives. There may be additional collaborative initiatives between ISTM and WHO in the future.
Publications Committee
There has been progress on the Evidence Base for Clinical Practice monograph. Vernon Ansdell will chair the first writing panel for evidence base. It was decided to change the task force policy so as to not require board approval for the chair of each writing panel, but allow the Publications Committee to elect the chair and inform the board of its decision.
The transition from the old publisher, Decker, to the current publisher, Blackwell, created fewer problems than anticipated and were overcome without any outstanding issues. There have been many positive comments about the new cover. Manuscript Central is working well. There have been 60 submissions to Manuscript Central with just a few problems. The average time lag from submission of manuscripts to acceptance has been reduced from 180 days to 124 days, and the goal is to bring this figure down even further. The publications committee makes every effort to see that reviewers of manuscripts submitted to the JTM have no conflicts of interest.
The Professional Education committee, JTM editor, and Blackwell are studying the feasibility of having an electronic cumulative travel medicine bibliography at an appropriate place on the ISTM web site. A report is expected in six months.
Sherri Frank from Blackwell Publishing agreed that JTM's new online manuscript submission site (http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/jtm) is running smoothly. Authors who need help submitting their manuscripts may use the system's "Get Help Now" feature, which includes a list of FAQs and an email address to request additional information. JTM is now sold as part of Blackwell's library consortia sales package, making the Journal available online at more than 3,082 consortia sites worldwide. This additional exposure should lead to more citations, and subsequently, a higher impact factor. There is a new home page for JTM on the Blackwell web site.
The online version of JTM is going well. Online usage has risen since the beginning of the year. At the end of May there were 14,504 total views and the number is likely to rise.
Print distribution is lagging a bit in Europe, due to each country's postal system. The entire JTM is available online approximately one week ahead of print release. Immediate release of articles on an article-by-article basis will be implemented later this year. Marketing efforts are being focused on increasing line readership, raising the profile of JTM, attracting new authors, establishing JTM as the expert resource in travel medicine, and increasing worldwide circulation. Types of promotions include conferences, electronic online branding of ISTM and JTM, advertisement in other journals, flyers, and postcards.
NewsShare
Currently there are six issues of NewsShare a year, published electronically, with the October/November issue also sent by regular mail. The feedback from members about the newsletter has been very positive. Many members have requested that a printed version of the newsletter should be available but, at present, the costs of production and mailing make such a venture prohibitively expensive. One possibility is to mail a printed edition only to those who request it. Some members have complained that it is difficult to download the electronic version.
Web Editor
The transition from Decker to Blackwell had a few problems, but these have been overcome. All committees now have their own web page. Expert Opinion will, for now, remain in the members' only section of the website rather than on the public website. A committee consisting of the President, Secretary/Treasurer, Administrative Director, Development Committee Chair, Publications Committee Chair, and the Web Editor will consider placing more information on the front page of the website, possibly putting major initiatives there on a rotating basis.
Exam Committee
Discussions are underway regarding the possibility of translating the examination into other languages.
Host Country
The committee is working on three projects:
- A statement concerning child sex tourism;
- The feasibility of funding travel medicine professionals in poor countries to attend ISTM conferences, how the program would be funded (offering travel grants, having members donate frequent flyer miles, for example), and how to select grantees; and
- The possibility of posting Responsible Traveler documents in various languages on the ISTM website.
Membership Committee
The committee is in contact with various travel medicine societies in Europe to explore avenues of communication and cooperation. Discussions included the practicalities of translating courses and exams from English into other languages.
Professional Education Committee
Slide set sales have already surpassed $16,000. More "issue"-specific sets are being developed. Viewing of the Expert Opinion on the ISTM web site has been lower than anticipated and the site may need more publicity. A monograph on "How to Start a Travel Clinic" is being prepared.
Migrant Health Committee
Brian Gushulak is stepping down as chair. Ron Behrens is replacing him. Migration health slide series are available on the committee's web page. A publication focused on VFR travel will soon be completed. A VFR section for the WHO "Green Book" is underway. Proposals on migrant health issues were submitted to CISTM10 (Vancouver, May 2007) for consideration. Ways to include migrant health within ISTM as well as the JTM were discussed.
GeoSentinel
The CDC has approved a five-year renewal for CDC, with an increase in the base line funding. Currently there are 32 sites. There is a need for a new site in Africa as the site director there has moved out of the country. A recent article in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM 2006;354:119-130) about Geo Sentinel has resulted in very positive publicity.
CISTM 11
With CISTM 10 set for Vancouver in May 2007, several cities in Eastern Europe have been visited and are under consideration for CISTM11 to be held in May of 2009. Budapest is presently a top choice.
Regional Meeting in Australia
Plans are well advanced _ but have not been finalized _ to hold an ISTM regional meeting in Australia, probably in Melbourne, in February 2008. Still to be studied are the financial oversight of the meeting by ISTM and appropriate ISTM representation on the organization and scientific committees.
NECTM
The recently concluded Northern Europe Conference on Travel Medicine was a huge success attracting more than 1000 attendees from more than 40 countries. As a consequence of this successful meeting, the societies involved are now planning to hold a joint conference (NECTM-2) in Helsinki at a date to be announced. Fiona Genasi, the conference coordinator, noted that the financial books should be closed soon and that each involved society will receive a small profit from the meeting. She also suggested that future meeting organizers should get a professional conference organizer on board early and have an organizing committee that works well together.
ISTM Logo
A major pharmaceutical company has approached ISTM for permission to use the ISTM logo for a joint travel medicine "educational" campaign. Though the proposed program was not product-specific, the ISTM publication committee felt ISTM should not be associated with such a program. The committee noted that the use of the ISTM logo should be guided by the following:
a) The logo can be used to promote the missions of the ISTM, including conferences and educational material;
b) The logo should not be used to promote a specific product or financial interests of ISTM members or commercial entities; and
c) The ISTM logo can be used in collaboration and identification with industry when the objective of the material (e.g., print, website and video) is educational and does not promote specific branded commercial product(s).
The material must be: 1) peer reviewed to guarantee authoritative educational content, and 2) presented in a way (e.g., when it is part of an advertising campaign or accompanied by other promotional material) that reflects well on the integrity of the ISTM and does not imply endorsement of product based on proximity to product-specific material.
Nominating Committee
Dr. Frank von Sonnenburg, President-elect of ISTM, is chair of the nominating committee. Members of the committee consist of the two outgoing counselors and five to seven additional members. Dr. von Sonnenburg proposes the following for membership on this temporary committee: Dr. Kevin Kain, Dr. Eli Schwartz, Dr. Santanu Chatterjee, Ms. Fiona Genasi, , Dr. Pal Voltersvik, Dr. Mary Wilson, and Dr. Eric Weiss. Nominating committee and nominations forms will be posted on the website.
Other ISTM News
Blackwell Publishing has completed the digitization of all issues of JTM back to Volume 1, Issue 1, 1994. Members can now access the full text of all thirteen volumes by logging onto Member Services and selecting "Journal of Travel Medicine Online" from the Member Resources section.
The ISTM "Body of Knowledge" has recently been updated and is now available on the web page under the "Travel Medicine Exam" tab. This updated version of the Body of Knowledge will be the basis for the 2007 Certificate of Knowledge Exam to be held immediately prior to CISTM10. This document can be downloaded to your computer.
The detailed topic and faculty list for the U.S. pre-exam course is now available by clicking on the pre-exam course poster in the middle of the home page and scrolling down to the section entitled "Details on the Dallas/Ft. Worth Course. Further details on the U.K. pre-exam course can be found by clicking on the poster and then choosing the registration page for the U.K. site. Early registration for this 2-day course is October 31.
Please contact the secretariat's office (istm@istm.org) if you need your username and/or password to access the Member Services section of the web page.
Please contact the ISTM Secretariat if you have questions.
ISTM Research Committee Report, June 2006
Winner 2006 Grant Award Competition:
Comparison of Tuberculin Skin Testing and the gamma-interferon in Refugee Screening for Tuberculosis. Submitted by William Stauffer MD; Dean Tsukayama MD, Charles Cartwright PhD, David Boulware MD.
Research Grant Awards
The ISTM research committee fosters research in travel medicine, in keeping with the mission and goals of the society. The committee provides moderate grants (usually $5000- $10,000 maximum) through a peer-reviewed process. These grants are designed to stimulate travel medicine research by supporting comprehensive research projects or, for larger projects, providing support for pilot studies to enable researchers to collect data/test hypotheses so that they can then apply to other agencies for more substantive research grants. The next deadline for applications for funding will be 1 February 2007, with plans to announce successful applicants at the CISTM in Vancouver, May 2007.
Clinical Trials Network completes multi-center, multinational study.
Charlie Ericsson has successfully completed his survey on prevention of travelers' diarrhea, entitled Travelers' Preferences for the Management of Diarrhea. The study was designed to engage members of the Clinical Trials Network to participate in a multinational study. Results will be announced soon.
I would like to thank the members of the Research Committee and the Clinical Trials Network for their outstanding commitment to fostering research activities by ISTM members.
Clinical Trials Network: Charles Ericsson, USA, Tomas Jelinek, Germany, Anne McCarthy, Canada
Main Research Committee
Anne McCarthy, Canada, Chair
Irmgard Bauer, Australia, Co-Chair
Pat Schlagenhauf, Switzerland
Annelies Wilder-Smith, Singapore
Susan McLellan, USA
Pamela Rendi-Wagner, Austria
Christie Reed, USA
Lin Chen, USA
Elizabeth Talbot, USA
Christopher Sanford, USA (New Member)
Respectfully submitted by: Anne E McCarthy, MD, MSc, FRCPC, DTM&H, Chair, ISTM Research Committee
ISTM Health of Migrants and Refugees Committee
Report to the Executive Committee, June 2006, Overview and Summary of the Committee
The Health of Migrants and Refugees Committee, having recognized and accepted the limited area of interest within the ISTM as an whole, has attempted to focus on a small number of specific issues and activities.
Global attention to the health aspects of migrant travelers is steadily increasing. During the past year avian influenza and travel to visit friends and relatives (VFR Travel) have been prominent issues for both public health officials and health care workers. The volume of medical literature dealing with immigrants, refugees and other mobile populations continues to increase, as does the number of journals focusing on the topic.
In spite of the increasing importance and awareness of the issue, defining and strengthening the links between migration and refugee health and the ISTM continues to be a challenge for the Committee. Several experienced Committee members, subject to the professional demands of their positions, are often over-tasked by situations such as avian influenza. However, the academic and scientific productivity of Committee members remains high and this cadre continues to represent a large and significant component of the global "brain trust" of migration health.
Committee Activities during the Past Year
- Migration Health Slide Series. The on-line curriculum of instructional and support material for migration health, a series of PowerPoint presentations, is now located on the Committee's Web Page.
- State of the Art Meeting on VFR Travel. As previously reported, this meeting, which took place in January, was deemed by the Committee to have been very successful. The Committee is now working on a publication about this issue. Once again, the professional demands of Committee members take their toll on the amount of time available for this work.
- Preparation of a VFR Section for the World Health Organization publication International Travel and Health. This work is underway with an expected completion date of mid-summer.
- Proposals for CISTM 10 in Vancouver. The Committee submitted a robust list of workshop and plenary proposals dealing with health, travel and migration to the CISTM Organizing Committee.
Upcoming Activities
- A small ad hoc Committee meeting was held in Edinburgh. Four of the Committee members were able to attend this meeting.
- The next full Committee meeting will be held in Vancouver at CISTM 10.
Conclusions
- Defining the relevance of health and migration issues for the Society remains challenging, as does the marketing of the ISTM's role in the issue.
- Focusing on a defined number of issues, such as VFR Travel, has allowed for some the development momentum.
Committee Membership
Elizabeth Barnett _ USA
Ron Behrens - UK _ Co Chair
Francesco Castelli _ Italy
Martin Cetron - USA
Hassan I. Ghaznawi - Saudi Arabia
Tony Gherardin - Australia
Danielle Grondin - Switzerland
Brian Gushulak - Austria - Chair
Christophe Hatz - Switzerland
Alison Holmes - UK
Rogelio Lopez-Velez - Spain
Louis C. Loutan - Switzerland
Douglas MacPherson _ Canada
Ziad Memish - Saudi Arabia
