ISAP Council Meeting and General Meeting

Retirement of Council members

The current Council was elected in 2016 and comprises:

• Roger Nation (President)
• Brian Tsuji (President Elect and Treasurer)
• Ursula Theuretzbacher (Immediate Past President)
• Lena Friberg and Sebastian Wicha (Joint Secretariat)
• Council members: Hartmut Derendorf, Justin Lenhard, Johan Mouton, Vincent Tam and Markus Zeitlinger
• Young Investigator Liaison: Justin Lenhard and Sebastian Wicha

In view of the healthy number of people who nominated for the next Council, Johan Mouton and Vincent Tam kindly offered to retire from Council to provide opportunity for others to serve ISAP.

An amazing feat is that Johan has been on Council for 20 years, with a substantial portion of that time serving as a member of the executive. Indeed, Johan was President Elect of ISAP from 2000 to 2002, President from 2002 to 2004 and Immediate Past President from 2004 to 2006. 

Vincent has served on Council for 10 years, with 8 of those years as Treasurer. Both Johan and Vincent have made an enormous contribution not only to ISAP Council but also to the activities of ISAP more generally (e.g. as key contributors to ISAP educational workshops and conference symposia) and to the discipline.

On behalf of all members of ISAP, Roger and other Council members would like to thank Johan and Vincent for their dedicated service and collegiality, and for their kind offer to provide ongoing support to the Councils of the future. Roger would like to take this opportunity to thank all members of ISAP Council for their wonderful support over the last two years. Of special note is Brian who has been an outstanding President Elect; he will be equally outstanding when he takes on the role of President. Brian would like to thank Roger for the work he has done as President. He has provided compelling leadership to ISAP which has expanded membership, organized key educational symposia, liaised strategic collaborations and allowed ISAP to reach new heights of excellence. Roger’s hard work, dedication and passion for ISAP is extremely inspiring to us all.  With most sincere gratitude from all of us to our fearless and amazing leader – Roger Nation!

Election of Council members for the next two years

There was an excellent response to the call for nominations for membership of the next ISAP Council and for the executive officer positions. The composition of the next Council is as follows:

• Brian Tsuji (President)
• Sebastian Wicha (President Elect)
• Roger Nation (Immediate Past President)
• Jian Li (Secretary)
• Zack Bulman (Treasurer)
• Council members: Hartmut Derendorf, Lena Friberg, Elizabeth Lakota, Justin Lenhard, Elisabet Nielsen, Ursula Theuretzbacher and Markus Zeitlinger

It is truly wonderful to have Jian, Zack, Elizabeth and Elisabet join ISAP Council. The membership of the new Council was ratified by the ISAP members who attended the General Meeting in Madrid. The new Council will commence its term in June 2018.

ISAP Honorary Life Membership Recipient: Professor Otto Cars

At the General Meeting in Madrid, Professor Otto Cars was announced as the recipient of Honorary Life Membership of ISAP. In accordance with ISAP Bylaws, appointment to Life Membership was made on the recommendation of Council. Below is a very brief summary of Otto’s outstanding career, including his key role in creating and nurturing ISAP and his contribution to optimizing the use of antimicrobials and preserving their usefulness for generations to come.

• Otto Cars was a founding member of ISAP
• Along with Dr William Craig, Otto organized a landmark meeting in Copenhagen in 1989 that led to ISAP being created in 1991 (see black and white photo)
• Otto was the second President  of ISAP (1994 - 1996) following the term of William Craig as the initial President (1991 - 1994)
• Otto became a specialist in infectious diseases in the early 1970s
• He was appointed Head of the Department of ID at Uppsala University Hospital 1991-1999
• In 2003, Otto became Professor of ID at Uppsala University
• Otto’s research over the years has focussed on PK and PD of antibiotics, optimal antibiotic dosing regimens, resistance epidemiology and antibiotic policies
• Otto has published extensively and is highly respected for the quality and the impact of his work
• He initiated and/or was a driving influence in numerous Swedish, European and international initiatives to preserve the usefulness of antibiotics (e.g. Member of the WHO Strategic and Technical Advisory Group on Antimicrobial Resistance (STAG-AMR); Founding Director of ReAct in 2005, and since 2013 he is now a senior strategic adviser; Expert member on the recently created UN / WHO  Interagency Coordination Group on Antimicrobial Resistance)
• Otto has been the recipient of numerous awards for his services to medicine and science (e.g. he was awarded the highly prestigious King’s Medal in 2015)

Interactions with other organizations

On behalf of ISAP, Ursula Theuretzbacher and Sebastian Wicha delivered a 1-hour interactive workshop to ca. 300 participants at the 18th International Congress on Infectious Diseases held in Buenos Aires in March. After an introduction into PK/PD concepts and targets, participants were actively involved in an interactive session. On their mobile devices or laptops, they used the TDMx web application as an example of a precision dosing tool to work on several tasks around dose individualization of β-lactam antibiotics. The session was a great success and the diverse audience (mainly physicians, pediatricians, pharmacists, microbiologists) from all parts of the world seemed to be able to follow the instructions and to experience how PK and PD variables influence dosing decisions.
At the ASM Microbe conference in Atlanta USA in June, ISAP is delivering a pre-conference workshop entitled ‘Introduction to Pharmacokinetics-Pharmacodynamics: A Basic Primer’. The workshop is being delivered by Brian Tsuji, Hartmut Derendorf, Elizabeth Lakota, Vincent Tam and Roger Nation. A Young Investigator night out for ISAP in collaboration with ISoP is being planned by Elizabeth Lakota on Friday June 8 in the late evening. More details will be posted on the ISAP website as the date approaches.
Following the ECCMID meeting in Madrid this year, ISAP worked with EPASG to deliver an oral presentation session within the scientific program of the 3rd International Conference on Polymyxins. ISAP is actively engaged in planning a joint initiative with EPASG and EUCAST to hold an educational / scientific meeting as a satellite to the ECCMID meeting to be held in Amsterdam in April 2019. ISAP and EPASG have held highly successful joint meetings in the past, including the day prior to the ECCMID meeting in Vienna last year.
ISAP Council is very eager to join with other organizations in submitting proposals for symposia and educational workshops at major conferences in various parts of the world. A number of possibilities are under active consideration.

Endorsement of Polymyxin Dosing Guidelines

A unique opportunity for ISAP presented itself to endorse the Polymyxin Guidelines which will be published in Pharmacotherapy and will appear as executive summaries in other journals. ISAP will be endorsing the guidelines along with 6 other international organizations. The guidelines have been accepted by Pharmacotherapy and will be published soon.

ISAP finances and membership

The financial situation of ISAP is healthy and the membership is growing. However, it is very important for members to respond to the call for payment of the annual membership fee. ISAP is not a large organization and it is a time-consuming challenge to send reminder emails to members to prompt them to pay their annual membership subscription. In this regard, the cooperation of all members would be greatly appreciated. It would also be helpful if you would assist in recruiting new members from within your institutions and networks of scientific and clinical colleagues.

Scientific Meeting of ISAP

Immediately following the General Meeting in Madrid, a Scientific Meeting was held in association with EPASG. As per the ISAP tradition, the meeting focused on the presentation of the research of Young Investigators. With 13 presentations from Young Investigators, a diverse group of studies in antimicrobial PKPD was discussed by the knowledgeable speakers. Congratulations to Iain Abbott, Astrid Brӧker, and Nicholas Smith for receiving Young Investigator Awards for their excellent presentations.


All participants of the 2018 ISAP Meeting


Justin Lenhard (chair of the Young Investigator session), Roger Nation (President of ISAP), Iain Abbott, Astrid Bröker and Nicholas Smith (Young Investigator Awardees) and Sebastian Wicha (chair of the Young Investigator session).

Social Reception

The meetings above were followed by a social gathering held in collaboration with the 3rd International Conference on Polymyxins, EPASG and the Spanish Infectious Diseases Society. Approximately 100 people attended this function which provided the opportunity for ISAP members to socialize with their colleagues, meet potential new collaborators and enjoy light appetizers and liquid refreshments.


 

Young Scientist Night Out in Madrid

The night prior to the General Meeting young scientists who participate in ISAP were invited to an informal gathering to network and enjoy the nightlife of Madrid. Over 10 attendees met at the Del Diego Cocktail Bar to mingle and make new connections with peers in the field. Considering the success of the event, ISAP will likely host similar functions in conjunction with future meetings.