ESA News

ESA Newsletter: November 2001

From the ESA President

This year’s Annual Scientific Meeting was held concurrently with the Society for Reproductive Biology (SRB) and the Australian Society for the Study of Obesity at Conrad Jupiters on the Gold Coast. The joint meeting produced a vibrant program across three closely related disciplines and was a great success. There was an unprecedented number of plenary speakers which included Domenico Accili (Taft Lecturer), Ross Coppel, John Kanis, Barry Levin, Jack Martin (Harrison Lecturer), William Schrader and Greet van den Berghe, made possible in part through generous speaker sponsorships by Lilly and Merck, Shape & Dohme. These lectures were complemented by symposia on hormones and cancer, extracellular matrix and a pituitary tumour workshop.

I thank Leon Bach,Chair of the Program Organising Committee, and Judith Clements,Chair of the Local Organising Committee, for working tirelessly to ensure the success of the meeting. I also thank Stephanie Edmondson, Editor of the Proceedings, for doing an excellent job. David Torpy ran a very successful Clinical Weekend in conjunction with the Australian Paediatric Endocrine Group.

It is also a great pleasure to report the outstanding success of the International Congress of Endocrinology, which returned a surplus in excess of $260,000 to the Society. Special thanks to John Eisman and his Local Organising Committee for their outstanding work. The surplus has left the Society in an even healthier financial state. Council will undertake a review of its investment strategy and consider a number of options as to how the monies can be best used to support its membership. The feasibility of providing research fellowships and increasing the number of travel awards will be reviewed.

The ESA continues to strengthen its relationship with regional and international societies. Evan Simpson and I attended an Endocrine Summit Meeting organised by the Japan Endocrine Society to foster and increase interaction between Endocrine Societies within the Asian-Oceanic Region. The meeting was a great success and will be held annually during the US Endocrine Meeting as was the case this year.

It was announced that the 12th Asia-Oceania Congress of Endocrinology will be held in Taipei, September 20-24th 2002. The ESA has traditionally been a strong supporter of this regional meeting. Unfortunately the dates clash with our own ASM next year. I have already conveyed the ESA’s apologies to the Endocrine Society in Taiwan, the meeting host. The ESA continued to participate in the TransPacific Symposium which is now an annual event of the Endocrine Society. Karen Eidne has been nominated as our speaker for next year at the symposium which has "Postgenomic Research" as its theme.

Congratulations to John Funder who was elected to the Board of the US Endocrine Society and Paul Komesaroff to Chair of the Ethics Committee. The ESA has continued to participate with the Japan and the US Endocrine Societies.

The Society has continued to provide representation, assistance and advice to various government agencies including the Australian Drug Evaluation Committee, the APMA Code of Conduct Appeals committee, Medicare Services Advisory Committee and TGA concerning a range of health-related matters.

A joint Position Statement with the Australian Diabetes Society and the Australian Paediatric Endocrine Group on the use of metformin in polycystic ovarian syndrome has been published in the Medical Journal of Australia.

The Seminar Meeting for 2002 will be held in Hobart from 5-7th April and will be convened by John Burgess.

The Annual Scientific Meeting next year will be held in conjunction with the SRB at the Adelaide Convention Centre from 22-25th September with Ray Rodgers as convenor and again with the SRB in Melbourne 14-17th September, 2003.

The secretariat is updating its database and website to provide a better service to its members through electronic mailing. Based on the membership feedback, Council has endorsed a policy for electronic mail to be used only for matters related to the activities of the Society and will not be available for advertisements.

Ken Ho, ESA President

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