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The annual ECCMID conference took place this year in Copenhagen from 15-18 April 2023. The HIS team ran an exhibition stand and this was a great opportunity for us to meet and engage with members of the Society attending the conference, including those awarded HIS funding to present their IPC research.
As an Affiliated Society of the European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ESCMID), HIS sends one ESCMID Young Scientist to the annual ECCMID conference.
This year Stephanie Hutchings, a Higher Specialist Scientist Training (HSST) Clinical Virologist from the UK Health Security Agency, was awarded this place. Stephanie presented a poster in the Diagnostic Microbiology Session entitled ‘A comparison evaluation of two commercial multiplex respiratory assays: nothing to be sneezed at’.
“It was an excellent experience to be at the conference in person and I was able to attend many of the great talks and inspiring research sessions. I presented my poster in one of the lunchtime sessions, which gained some thought-provoking discussions on my research.
“Some of the highlights from the conference included discussions on artificial intelligence in healthcare science, a keynote session on immunocompromised patients and the infamous clinical grad round on the last day.
“As well as attending talks, I joined the ECCMID Trainee Association day, which was a careers training session for young scientists. I thoroughly advise anyone considering this to go along and participate as I found the session to be very helpful and inspiring. This conference was useful for me to meet others in the field of IPC science in other microbiology departments worldwide. I was able to discuss and connect with others and this would not have been possible if I had not attended in person. I am very grateful for receiving this award and I recommend that others apply to these in the future!”
The Society offers travel grants to support members in an early career or trainee post to present their research at a scientific conference or meeting. The grant provides a contribution towards the costs of registration, travel, accommodation, subsistence and childcare, and is awarded for face-to-face, hybrid and online-only events.
Rohan Mehra is a Specialty Trainee Doctor in Microbiology and Infectious Diseases at the Health Education England Kent, Surrey and Sussex (HEE KSS) Deanery. He was awarded a HIS Travel Grant to attend and present his poster on a study that examined nosocomial COVID-19 rates before and after removing a healthcare worker mask mandate. This presentation took place in the Infection Prevention Control (IPC) Session.
“I applied for this grant to help me attend the ECCMID 2023 conference. I was selected to present two posters and the travel grant allowed me to realise this opportunity. One of my posters was related to healthcare-acquired infection and therefore fit perfectly into the HIS agenda of ensuring that recent research in IPC is presented. I joined HIS early on in my training and I have found it a great organisation that is incredibly supportive to trainees and always promotes IPC, which is a personal interest of mine.
“This year the conference was in the incredible Copenhagen and there was a large push on sustainability, which was great to see. I spent a lot of the conference in awe of the size and vastness of it, with roughly 10,000 attendees! It would be impossible to accurately summarise just how much there is on offer at ECCMID and it is impossible to attend even most of the sessions, let alone all of them. Luckily, they allow online access to all lectures for six months afterwards. It is an incredible mix of expert led panels, latest research talks, symposiums aimed directly at educating trainees, workshops, and a whole host of committee meetings, many of which you can sit in on. They even had an outbreak simulation this year that was directed at giving trainees experience in this area.
“The main goals of attending the conference were to present my posters as well as learn from experts in many varied fields. Our HIS-sponsored poster was well received as we discussed the impact of a staff mask-wearing mandate on nosocomial COVID-19 rates. I used the rest of the time to attend a multitude of different talks on varied topics."