Andrew Smith
Keywords
31st Annual Conference & Exhibition, Poster session, Previous posters
The Institute of Clinical Research is pleased to announce that its 31st Annual Conference and Exhibition, with an overall theme of “Science, Society and Economics: Shaping the Future of Clinical Research”, will once again include a poster session. In this brief introduction to the 2010 competition, we present some highlights from the 2009 competition and invite you to submit an abstract for a poster at this year’s event. The poster session provides an opportunity for researchers attending the conference to present their work (or work in progress), enabling them to discuss their evolving project with others in the field, gain feedback and expand publicity for their work.
2010 competition
Guidance on preparing your abstract and on presenting your finished poster, along with an online submission form for making your entry, are available from
www.icr-global.org/community/conferences/31st-annual-conference-exhibition/poster-abstract-submission.
Posters should be submitted in the most appropriate of the following categories:
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Innovation: This could be a new solution, which has solved a problem or introduced a new idea in the work environment to improve a situation or process.
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Research: If you have conducted research into an area as part of a degree or private study, or research in an area of your own work. This research could be of a scientific nature, eg, presenting the results of a clinical trial, or of a process, eg, patient recruitment in a particular culture.
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Operational: You may wish to report on a particular process already in existence that you have improved or could improve practice in a certain area.
Display & judging
If your abstract is approved, you will be able to display your poster at the conference. (Please note that you will still need to register as a delegate to attend the conference.) You will be required to stand by your poster during all breaks on the first day of the conference (April 19th). Posters will be assessed by a team of independent judges that afternoon. During the final coffee break, you will be required to informally present your poster to the judges for a maximum of 5 minutes. of. Prizes will be announced at the networking event later that day, in the poster area. All presenters are requested to attend.
2009 competition
Every poster shown at the 2009 conference can be downloaded in PDF format from the ICR website (
www.icr-global.org/community/conferences/30th-anniversary-conference-exhibition/poster-presentations-2009/)
Research
- “The current position of Ambulatory Blood Pressure Monitoring (ABPM) in hypertension clinical trials in Europe” (Andrea Vondraskova, Pharmanet)
- “Time, Place and Person Trends in the Clinical Epidemiology of Hospital Malnutrition in the UK” (Dr Sumantra Ray, University of Cambridge and UEA Norwich; Ben Thompson, University of Cambridge, Dr Minha Rajput-Ray, University of Manchester and Dr David Ogilvie, MRC Epidemiology Unit, Cambridge)
Innovation
- “Training Dutch Academic Investigators - Status Update and Future Plans” (Edgar Smeets, Smeets Independent Consulting – SIC)
- “Pharmaceutical Medicine and its Relevance to Clinical Research” (Barbara Hepworth-Jones, GSK Academy of Pharmaceutical Medicine)
- “Outsourcing Global Clinical Trials and Biomarker Scope of Work” (Shethah Morgan, AstraZeneca)
- “ICRs eLearing Module 'ICH GCP for Investigators' - a pilot study” (Edgar Smeets, Smeets Independent Consulting – SIC)
- “Issues and Pitfalls to Consider When Designing and Writing an Adaptive Trial” (Karen Chalk, Sue Gotham and Timothy Hardman, Niche Science and Technology Ltd)
Operational
- “Patient Retention Strategies - 'Tailored to Make the Right Fit'” (Andrea Vondraskova, Pharmanet)
- “Quality Systems in the Sheffield Clinical Research Facility (CRF)” (Theresa Ledger and Karen French, Sheffield Clinical Research Facility)
- “Is It Possible to Work Virtually in Medical Communications/Study Management?” (Sue Gotham, Karen Chalk and Timothy Hardman, Niche Science and Technology Ltd)
2009 winner
The winning poster at this year’s conference was entered by Dr Sumantra Ray et al, and discussed “
Time, Place and Person Trends in the Clinical Epidemiology of Hospital Malnutrition in the UK”. Despite the emerging importance of hospital malnutrition as both a clinical and public health problem in the UK, there is currently a paucity of comprehensive reviews bringing together primary data on the descriptive clinical epidemiology of this problem. The poster presented a scoping investigation of available studies over the past 15 years aims to describe the frequency and also to an extent the distribution of hospital malnutrition using available scientific studies to interpret, critically appraise and collate relevant findings.
The data presented demonstrates a significant increase in the prevalence of hospital malnutrition in a northward direction and hospital malnutrition is more prevalent in older age groups as well as in institutionalised individuals. With the knowledge of the effects of this disease, its natural history and indeed its burden to healthcare as well as the economy, this paper highlights the need for a systematic, nationally representative and sustainable approach to data collection, collation and analysis so as to generate dynamic, accurate and reliable statistics on both incidence and prevalence.
Selected other entries
In other posters displayed at this year’s conference:
- Shethah Morgan concluded that “[A] model of clinical trials and contract research between pharma and CROs with GCP biomarker analysis capabilities is helping novel therapies in development reach patient populations & investigator sites across the globe.”
- Andrea Vondraskova found that “Successful retention of patients throughout the duration of a clinical trial has scientific as well as budgetary implications. There are numerous patient retention methods and tools currently available. It is however vital to customize the patient retention methods for each individual clinical trial based on a number of key decisive factors like the study design, therapeutic area, patient population, geographical location and site characteristics. A customized patient retention plan should be prepared and integrated as a part of the overall trial recruitment strategy.”
- Barbara Hepworth-Jones concluded that “Establishing expertise in pharmaceutical medicine within clinical research as well as within the physician community will facilitate development of pharmaceutical medicine as an emerging specialty and, in turn, will enhance the public profile of the pharmaceutical industry and hence that of clinical research.”
- Edgar Smeets wrote that “GCP Training and certifying young Dutch academic researchers is well underway, with a uniform course offered in the majority of the eight University Medical Centres, and the online exam already done by over 500 participants. Further momentum is added to this initiative, with the UMCs and Dutch Ethics Committees starting to require certification in place, before the proposed research may be conducted in their clinics.”
Submit your entry now
You can submit your poster abstract for consideration using the online form at
www.icr-global.org/community/conferences/31st-annual-conference-exhibition/poster-abstract-submission/. The deadline for poster abstract submissions is Friday 5th February 2010. You will be notified in early March 2010 whether your abstract has been accepted for presentation.
A poster session is a complement to any conference programme, and we are expecting to see another vibrant collection of posters submitted for next year’s conference, in all areas of research, innovation and operations within the clinical research sector.
You have nearly 3 months before the deadline for entries, so please think about whether anything you’re currently working on would make a good poster, and visit the ICR website to enter the competition.
Andrew Smith (andrew.smith@icr-global.org) is Editor of Clinical Research focus and a member of the ICR Spring Meeting Working Party.
