CHAPTER 7

Conferences, Reviews, and Translations

BEATRIZ VARMAN

Conferences

Professional development activities such as conferences and seminars continue to serve as venues for health science professionals and researchers to increase their career connections and skills. The Internet has made it easier to disseminate logistical information—such as conference venues, dates, and sponsors—to a wider audience in a timely manner. Consequently, printed resources such as indexes listing annual health-related conferences have become less relevant for those seeking up-to-date information. Many websites from professional organizations are dedicated to providing only conference information to attendees. Some of these websites provide past and future conference information; others provide only future conference information.

With the advent of the Internet, an increasing number of conferences are available in the virtual world. Virtual conferences such as webinars or webcasts have grown increasingly popular, sometimes eliminating the need for professional travel. Social media websites like Facebook, Twitter, and blogs allow instant sharing of information where conference attendees can acquire knowledge without physically attending. Conference presentations and seminars can be viewed almost in real time. Though virtual meetings began in the business world and grew out of a need to reduce overall costs of conference travel, this business model—which takes advantage of technological advances in communication to lower travel expenses—has also been embraced by the medical and health science communities. A large number of health-related professional development opportunities are becoming increasingly available online. More conference organizers are publishing conference programs in virtual environments ranging from live satellite telecasts with two-way communication capabilities to downloadable files for Apple, Blackberry, and Android mobile products.

In the world of Internet websites, mobile resources, and social media, it has become easier for librarians to identify these virtual offerings and make them available to interested health professionals. Regardless of the system of delivery, the librarian’s role in identifying these offerings requires effective online search strategies and careful evaluation of retrieved content. Though the search may yield some unfamiliar sponsors, the results can be used to compile a working list of blogs, discussion lists, and special-interest forums, all of which are beneficial sources of conference information.

Despite the accessibility of virtual conferences, many critics question their value. Viewing webcasts or webinars from the privacy of one’s own computer is limiting, they say, and eliminates a core benefit of conference attendance: the opportunity to network with colleagues.

This section of the chapter intends to provide a brief introduction to some of the popular free online websites that include conference information. These sites are continuously updated so it is worthwhile to visit them to find relevant up-to-date conference information.

Calendars

In the past, calendars were available in print format and were a valuable resource for locating conferences. The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), for example, was a good point of reference for physicians and researchers seeking information about upcoming health science meetings. Other major health professional and research-oriented periodicals could also be consulted for listings of meetings and conferences in their specific interest areas. Print directories are now either obsolete or no longer in publication. Conference calendars are now available online, so the information is typically more comprehensive and up-to-date. It is common to obtain an entire program of events, abstracts of presentations, and even presenters’ bios online. Content is also easily updated and links to important peripheral information—such as lodging, maps, and conference center floor plans—are usually just a click away.

Medical Conferences’ Websites

The medical conferences’ websites listed below are just a few that have been identified by searching major medical associations, sponsoring organizations, and medical specialties websites. The list is intended to give an overview of where to find medical conferences and is by no means fully comprehensive.

JAMA Network Medical Meetings provides U.S. and international coverage with links to conference organizers, websites, and venues. The website displays only current and upcoming events, including conferences, seminars, workshops, and continuing education courses. The calendar of events is searchable by journal (JAMA, Archives of Internal Medicine, etc.), type of event (conference, course, meeting, symposium), topic, location, and date.

Content is submitted online to The JAMA Network and is regularly updated. Conference organizers can also submit events for website consideration. Updates are available from the JAMA Network Medical Meetings by subscribing to e-mail, RSS feeds, Atom feed, or iCalendar Feed, or by downloading an iCalendar file.

AllConferences.com is a commercial Beta test site that includes a global directory of international and domestic conferences and conference planned events. Medical and health events include those pertaining to various specific medical disciplines as well as other health-related specialties such as public health, nursing, and nutrition. Selecting the link to search on medical conferences retrieved more than 4,000 records that included links to more than forty different medical disciplines. Conference information is searchable by category, organizer, date, keywords, and venue. The website includes current and past conference information and even allows users to register for conferences online. To receive updated information via e-mail, one must complete the free registration.

Produced by RF (Medical) Limited, the website includes only medical conference information. Registration is required to access the complete listing of medical conferences and to receive e-mail conference alerts. Filling out the online registration form allows users to select their interest in medical specialties. Visitors can access ten conference links for information—such as conference website, title, venue, date, and location—before they are required to register.

Users can search for current and future domestic and international conferences by title, keywords, specialty, dates, and location by using basic and advanced search features. The navigation bar on the left of the page includes links to the registration page, current medical conferences, organizers directory, venue directory, and FAQs. One can also register a conference for website inclusion. The free iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch applications for this website are available from the Apple application store.

Frontiers is an expanding open-access collection of scientific and medical titles. Developed in 2007 by scientists from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, Frontiers is primarily an academic publishing website. However, the link titled Frontiers Events takes visitors to a calendar of academic events listing conference information such as speakers, organizers, and links to the conference website and Frontiers event blog.

The Frontiers website also features a keyword search for international conference and events, and the results can be displayed by most recent or most popular events. Users are required to register in order to participate fully and to contribute postings of any kind. However, visitors can log in to this website by using their Facebook, Twitter, Google, or LinkedIn usernames and passwords.

HON is a Swiss foundation portal offering medical information to worldwide medical meetings in English, French, and German. It’s also a portal to reliable sources of health-care information for patients and medical professionals. It was developed after experts from eleven countries met at the Use of the Internet and World-Wide Web for Telematics in Healthcare conference in Geneva in 1995. HON was created in 1996 to “promote the effective and reliable use of the new technologies for telemedicine in healthcare around the world.”1

The section on medical meetings lists conference titles, descriptions, dates, topics, venues and—if relevant—available CME credits. The most current events are displayed on the first page, but information on past conferences is also included. Users can search for conferences by year, theme, location, keywords, subject, and language. Users can also receive conference news via e-mail or RSS feeds. Visitors can submit a conference to be listed on the website as well.

VMC is an Australian website that delivers information on medical videos, drug supplements, diagnoses, disease treatment, and other medical news. VMC’s website has a listing of future conferences organized by event date as well as a section on conferences where users can search by medical specialty. At the bottom of the page, there are links to medical conferences in twenty-two medical specialties. By selecting the conference title link, one can find more complete information, such as dates, descriptions, locations, organizations, websites, and contact information.

To receive this information, one can register to receive VMC’s free electronic newsletter, subscribe to RSS feeds or join a discussion forum. VMC also allows users to share the conference information via LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Google, Blogger, and other such services.

Medical Education Resources, or MER, is a nonprofit company in Colorado. Accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Education, MER is considered one of the leaders in providing high-quality continuing medical education for physicians. Its website includes more than sixty CME-accredited programs in the United States, Caribbean, Mexico, and Canada. The website includes links to seminars and other specialty conferences under the tabs named “Conference by Title,” “Conference by Location,” and “Conference by Date.” These links display an overview of the conference, including location, registration prices, accommodations, and program information.

Canadian publishing company Parkhurst Publishing has developed this comprehensive website to complement the print version of their Doctor’s Review magazine. Updated weekly, Doctor’s Review includes information on more than 2,000 medical meetings and allows visitors to search for upcoming medical conferences by keyword, specialty, date, and travel destination. The website also offers links on tips for traveling, places to visit, and food choices during one’s travel. Organizations and other conference organizers can submit a conference to be listed on the website. The website also includes a link to submit corrections to a listing.

The New England Journal of Medicine has a brief section on medical meetings on their website, which lists more than twenty past and forthcoming domestic and international conferences that can be searched by specialty, location, and date. Listings include conference organizers, important information for authors, a link to the conference website, and contact information.

PTMG is a comprehensive database of domestic, international, and online CME information. It includes more than 2,000 future medical meetings that can be searched by specialty, location, date, and keyword. The website is updated daily with comprehensive information such as sponsoring organization as well as conference topic or title. The website also lists CME credits available, registration fee, recreational activities, and special events for attendees.

One can search conferences by date, city, country, medical specialty, and keyword. Physicians Travel and Meeting Guide also provides users with a variety of timely travel information, including travel news and city guides as well as dining and lodging options where medical meetings take place. Registration is required to access the full website and receive a free e-newsletter. One can also subscribe to the RSS feeds from forty-two different medical specialties to receive updates.

This website is produced by Cambridge Technologies. Developed by physicians, the website includes information on more than 3,000 past and present U.S. medical conferences, reviews of past conferences from physicians who attended, board review courses for every ABMS specialty and on-demand webinars to help users find online CME events. Users can search for conferences by state, specialty, specialty societies, location, presenter, organizer, and date. The website also includes a list of the top medical conferences and a link to CME requirements by state. Conference organizers can add a conference to the website.

The Medscape website includes information on drugs, diseases, and medical procedures as well as daily medical news and highlights from recent conferences. The website includes information from upcoming national and international conferences as well. Past conferences have provided video commentaries and reviews from expert scientists in the subject field. The site also includes links to conference organizations, dates, locations, and specialty. Users can share this information with colleagues via e-mail, Facebook, or Twitter. To access this information, one must complete a free registration. Once registered, one can subscribe to breaking conference news. Medscape is accessible via iPad, iPhone, Android, Blackberry, and Kindle Fire.

Mobile Applications

The proliferation of medical mobile applications has provided an array of conference information that can be downloaded to a mobile device to keep one up-to-date on where conferences are scheduled in a particular medical specialty. Most of these applications are from individual medical societies or conference organizers promoting their specific conference venue rather than from a full website where one can find all available medical conferences. Conferencewebsite.com and Medscape are the only full websites that have an application for mobile Apple devices at the time of publication.

Papers Presented at Meetings—Conference Proceedings and Meeting Abstracts

Locating papers presented at meetings, conferences, symposia, or workshops often poses a challenge for the health sciences librarian. It is becoming popular for presented papers to be self-published on the Web or exist in a digital commons at an associated academic institution. Traditionally, papers presented at meetings are published as conference proceedings. These proceedings can be published as books or individual papers and are sometimes submitted to journals as a separate publication. Conferences sometimes publish abstracts of papers to be presented at an upcoming conference or distribute proceedings on site in CD-ROM or USB flash memory format.

Following are different methods for how proceedings of meetings can be identified:

Papers presented at conferences usually represent the current trends and hot topics in the field, and are thus often sought after by health professionals and researchers. Presentations at conferences may be cited in later literature even if there is no corresponding publication.

Some papers will be included by indexing and abstracting services that index journals. Revised papers published under a different title are also somewhat difficult to track. Expert database searches using controlled vocabulary, authors’ names, and unique keywords such as convention, colloquia, congress, forum, etc., can help in the location of these resources.

When looking for conference publications, one needs to make the distinction between conference papers and meeting abstracts. A final full-text version of a research paper (i.e., a journal article) is a conference paper; they are usually included in the conference proceedings. Meeting abstracts are usually short summaries of an ongoing research project that are frequently published in advance of a conference; conference papers are made available after the conference as part of a proceedings volume. The following is a short list of databases, websites, and search engines that index conference materials and are helpful in locating conference proceedings, posters, and meeting abstracts presented at conferences.

Conference Papers Index (CPI) provides citations to papers and poster sessions and papers presented at major scientific meetings around the world. This source includes scientific meetings in its list of citations, and is prepared from final programs or abstract publications, published proceedings, and questionnaire responses from conferences.

Though CPI has been published since 1973, its emphasis on the life sciences, environmental sciences, and aquatic sciences began in 1995. The database contains more than 3 million records and includes citations from 1982 to the present. Records include title and author information needed to track specific papers presented at the conference, as well as complete ordering information to obtain preprints, abstracts, proceedings, and other publications derived from the conference.

PapersFirst, an OCLC product, indexes papers presented at conferences worldwide. PapersFirst contains more than 6.9 million records in a wide variety of subjects and is updated semimonthly. Each of the papers contained in the database from 1993 forward are available through the British Library Document Supply Centre.

Coverage includes every published congress, symposium, conference, exposition, workshop, and meeting received by the British Library Document Supply Centre. Searchable fields are by keyword, author, conference location, conference name, dates, and subject.

ProceedingsFirst, also an OCLC product, indexes every published congress, symposium, conference, exposition, workshop, and meeting received by the British Library Document Supply Centre. It differs from PapersFirst in that a list of the authors and papers presented at each conference is included in each record. Available from 1993–present, it includes more than 192,000 records and is updated twice a week.

F1000 Posters is an open-access repository of conference posters and oral presentation slides in the field of biology and medicine. This website provides access to posters and slides after the work has been presented at a conference, giving the possibility to access the information without delays to a wider array of scientists. F1000 Posters includes 4,000 posters and slides.

Users can browse by poster, slide, biology and medicine disciplines, conference, institution, society, and faculty or perform a keyword search in the search box. Information on upcoming meetings and how to deposit one’s posters or slides is also available. Registration is required to download one’s poster or slides. This repository is available by individual or institutional subscription.

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