Last month’s digital congress was a first for the Association. The organising committee did an extraordinary job putting together fourteen concurrent symposia and two excellent plenary sessions. After congresses I usually comment on unofficial prizes, such as the best dancer at the Gala dinner, or exceptional effort at karaoke (which, of course, does not necessarily mean greatest singer!). Unfortunately, these were not possible to determine by a digital format. Fortunately, there were notable instances of connection with the audience and our greater community that deserve special mention. Read on for the winners of these unofficial awards.

If you’re reading this far, it means that you are interested to see the results of the unofficial IATDMCT awards, so I won’t tease you any further. The prizes below reflect those presentations I saw and the efforts that picked up my attention. Apologies if there were great examples that I’ve missed from the other sessions. If you spotted other excellent examples, please get in touch and we can look at doing a Part 2 article if there are sufficient candidates. You can reach me here on Twitter.

This month we present a message from David and Penny of the Local Organizing Committee for this years' Banff Congress. Although we all share their disappointment that the event was ultimately cancelled, we are very excited to participate in the digital version of the congress, a first for our Association.

This month we hear from the Young Scientist Committee and Young Scientist friends about how the COVID-19 situation has affected our professional lives. The result is a lovely snapshot of experiences of our members across countries and continents. The photo for the post represents one of the most challenging aspects of the situation, which has been working from home and caring for children in the context of institutional closures. A heart felt thank you to everyone for their contributions, and to all our members contributing in so many ways to this situation that has affected all of us globally.

« Laure and Juliette, working from home

This month’s interview is one we did at the end of last year with Young Scientist Florian Lemaitre. Florian was awarded the best YS oral prize for his presentation concerning long-term follow up after monitoring of intracellular tacrolimus concentrations and pharmacodynamic biomarkers in liver transplant patients (see the December 2019 Compass). Florian had several excellent submissions at the congress and the YS committee actually had trouble deciding which piece of work to award! Keep an eye on this very promising member.

Given the current global scenario, we will take a break from the current blog format of member interviews. Future blog pieces will address how members are dealing with the impact of COVID-19 in their work.

Florian Lemaitre
Assistant Professor, School of Medicine
Clinical Pharmacologist
Rennes University Hospital, France