As I started writing this article and going through my notes, minutes and overviews from ISPE meetings, I was so impressed by all that we accomplished in 2003.

Let me start by thanking you for your enthusiastic response to the Call for Abstract Reviewers for the 20th International Conference on Pharmacoepidemiology & Therapeutic Risk Management in Bordeaux, 20-25 August 2004. Over 200 ISPE members have volunteered to review abstracts submitted for oral or poster presentations. This responsiveness reflects your strong interest in supporting our largest event of the year, and will help to make the meeting in Bordeaux a high quality conference, which mirrors the interest areas of the membership. I am especially pleased with the societies that have signed on as joint sponsors — the Association pour la Recherché en Pharmacovigilance, the European Association for Clinical Pharmacology & Therapeutics, the European Drug Utilization Research Group, the International Society for Pharmacovigilance, and the SIG Pharmacoepidemiology & Pharmacoeconomics of the International Pharmaceutical Federation.

The Scientific Program Core Committee, chaired by Nicholas Moore, has made great progress in developing a superb meeting. We are very pleased to announce Bernard Begaud, long time ISPE member and President of Victor Segalen University in Bordeaux, is one of our Keynote Speakers. Other invited speakers include Lucien Abenhaim, also an ISPE founding member, who will talk of his four years as Director General of Health in France, Nicholas Wald of Polypill fame, and Sami Suissa from McGill University, Montreal. Information about the meeting is posted on the website, www.pharmacoepi.org; the site will be updated periodically.

Plans for the 2004 Mid-Year Meeting in Baltimore, April 19-20, are well in hand. Sue West, Chair, and the other members of the Mid-Year Planning Committee (Sheila Weiss, FISPE, Fadia Shaya, and Susana Perez, FISPE) have assembled a distinguished faculty to address an important Risk Management topic: Changing behaviors: How do we do it? How do we know when we've done it? on April 19. We are pleased to announce that Baruch Fischhoff will be our Keynote Speaker. Dr. Fischhoff is the Howard Heinz University Professor in the Department of Social and Decision Sciences and Department of Engineering and Public Policy at Carnegie Mellon University, and a Fellow of the Society for Risk Analysis. His research includes risk perception and communication, risk management, adolescent decision-making, medical informed consent, and environmental protection. He will address the theoretical basis of risk communication and behavioral change. Other speakers include Jerry Avorn, FISPE, Harvard Medical School & Division of Pharmacoepidemiology and Pharmacoeconomics at Brigham and Women's Hospital; Debra Roter, Department of Health Policy and Management, The Johns Hopkins University; Anne Trontell, Office of Drug Safety, Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, Food and Drug Administration; Ulf Bergman, Department of Clinical Pharmacology, Huddinge University Hospital: Sean Hennessy, FISPE, Center of Clinical Epidemiology & Biostatistics, University of Pennsylvania; and Frank May, School of Pharmacy, University of Queensland.

And for the first time, ISPE will be offering day courses — the Introduction to Pharmacoepidemiology and Advanced Topics in Pharmacoepidemiology — on April 20. More meeting and registration information is posted on the ISPE website, www.pharmacoepi.org. Make your plans today to join us in Baltimore!

I would like to thank Bram Hartzema for coordinating the ISPE response to the FDA's Draft Guidance for Industry Pharmacogenomics Data Submission. And thanks to all ISPE members who provided their comments to Bram. The ISPE response is posted in the Resources section of the website (Resources/ISPE Policies).

By now you probably have seen copies of the new ISPE membership brochures, which describe the benefits of joining the Society for both Individual Members and Organizational Members. Thanks to the hard work of Mark Epstein, Executive Secretary, and the Membership Committee & Development Committee chaired by Annette Stemhagen, FISPE, Nancy Dreyer, FISPE, Cees Schep, and Kuni Hayashi, we now have written materials to recruit new members! Many thanks to those of you who have contributed personal testimonials attesting to the benefits of ISPE membership. You are ISPE's best membership recruiter. If you know of potential new individual or organizational/institutional members, please provide their contact information to the ISPE Office so that the appropriate brochure can be mailed to them. Or better yet, ask the office to send you some brochures and give them to your colleagues who are not yet ISPE members.

The deadline for filing applications to be considered for the 2004 Class of Fellows of ISPE (FISPE) has passed. The Fellows Committee, chaired by Thomas MacDonald, FISPE, will review each candidate and submit its recommendation to the Board for action at the Board's April 2004 meeting. Applications to be considered for the Class of 2005 will be posted on the website this summer.

I am very pleased to announce that ISPE will be a co-sponsor of the 2006 North American Congress of Epidemiology. The meeting will be held on June 21-24, 2006 in Seattle. Susan Sacks has kindly volunteered to coordinate this effort. Each co-sponsoring society will plan a symposium for the Congress.

And finally, a small piece of ISPE historical trivia. In 2004, we will hold the 20^th Annual Meeting, however this meeting is not our 'official' 20^th anniversary.What is our official birth date as a Society? After an arduous effort, contacts with the Founding Fathers and others, the answer was found in our legal files. ISPE was incorporated in New Jersey on October 10, 1989. Our 20th Anniversary will be celebrated in 2009.

I look forward to seeing you at one of the upcoming ISPE meetings. Best wishes for 2004!

Return to table of contents