ESA News

ESA Newsletter: November 2003

From the ESA President

It's a great pleasure to write this report, having just enjoyed the scientific and social aspects of another successful Annual Scientific Meeting. As I have written before in these pages, the primary, and most important, function, of our Society is to promote the discipline of Endocrinology, and we principally achieve this via the ASM. The structure of this year's ASM followed that which we have been pursuing for several years now, and I believe that our continued involvement with the Society of Reproductive Biology, the Australian Diabetes Society and the Australian Diabetes Educators Association, ensures that we have a meeting with appropriate interactions and of a suitable critical mass to enable good scientific and clinical interactions, and a smooth and successful logistics operation. This year the Endocrine Nurses ' Society of Australia and the Australasian Paediatric Endocrine Group also joined us at the ASM. We will continue to encourage as many like-minded clinical and scientific societies to join with us at the ASM, as it enriches our meetings and provides all members with the opportunity to appreciate diversity of the discipline we are involved with.

Ben Canny with Past President Ken Ho at the Welcome Reception

If the ASM is the most important activity of the Society, then the role of the Program Organising Committee must constitute one of the most vital in our Society. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Leon Bach and his committee of Stephanie Edmonson, Christine Rodda, Peter Ebeling, Albert Frauman, Guck Ooi and Peter Stanton for the outstanding job they have done during their three-year tenure on this committee. The plenary speakers they the have chosen have been outstanding, the symposia have been appropriately topical, cutting edge and controversial, let alone all the work involved in organizing and collating the free communications, which give us all the opportunity to present our own work among our peers. I hear that Leon did an outstanding job of keeping all the committee on the task at hand, and he leaves a great example and legacy for Stephen Twigg to follow in his new and challenging role as chair of the POC. Stephen is gathering his team in Sydney, and I am confident that the scientific program of the Society remains in good hands.

It is also appropriate to thank Rob McLachlan and Duncan Topliss, and their respective helpers for jobs they have done as convenors of the Local Organising Committee for the ASM (Rob) and Clinical Weekend (Duncan). Their efforts, on behalf of the Society, are greatly appreciated and we can promise both (Duncan in particular) that we hope not to need to call on services again in the foreseeable future.

This year also sees the finish of the tenure of Trish Crock and her team of Roger Smith, Shaun McGrath, Bruce King, Martin Epstein and John Burgess in their role of organizing the Postgraduate Seminar Meetings. The series of three meetings that this group ran have been highly successful and represent the most dynamic and developing part of our profile of scientific endeavours .In recognition of the success of the Post graduate Seminar meeting, Council has decided to break with tradition and hold a meeting in 2004 (the year of an International Congress of Endocrinology). This meeting will be organized under the stewardship of Tony Russell; will be held in an attractive location at approximately the same time of year (around Easter), and further details will be provided as they become available.

I am pleased to announce that John Prins (Queensland) and Harvey Newnham (Victoria) have agreed to serve as ESA 's representatives on the Endocrinology Specialist Advisory Committee (SAC) of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians (RACP). This committee performs the vital role of guiding the training of advanced trainees in Endocrinology. The committee, in addition to its usual activities is undertaking a formulation and revision of the curriculum in Endocrinology, and it is essential that the ESA has an active input into this process. We anticipate that much of this will be achieved via John 's and Harvey 's efforts, and they will be liaising with council to coordinate this contribution. Council has identified that a firm grounding and/or training in Clinical or Basic Science research remains a highly desirable outcome for many of our trainees, and has communicated this desire to the SAC. Council and the Society will position itself to respond to drafts and suggestions that come from the SAC. We will undertake to ensure that t here is broad communication of the proposed curriculum such that all of the Society may have an opportunity to respond.

It is my considerable pleasure to announce an exciting new initiative involving ESA and Mayne-Pharma to develop the profile of Clinical Endocrinology at the Annual Scientific Meeting. Negotiations have been underway for several months, are still to be finalized, and will almost certainly comprise the sponsorship of one or more awards for Clinical Endocrinology, with associated dedicated sessions at the Annual Scientific Meeting. Finally, the ESA has received an invitation from the Japan Endocrine Society for us to consider adopting their journal – The Endocrine Journal (formerly Endocrinologica Japonica) as an organ for our Society. This would obviously be a very important decision for the Society, and negotiations with the Japan Endocrine Society continue. Council will seek the opinion the membership prior to any decisions being taken. On behalf of Council, I continue to invite your input on any of the matters before the Society.

Local Organising Chair, Rob McLachlan, at the Welcoming Reception of the ASM

Ben Canny, ESA President

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