Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine to host 2019 IAMSE conference
The Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine will host the 23rd Annual Meeting for the International Association of Medical Science Educators (IAMSE).
The meeting, set for June 7-11, 2019, is expected to draw about 500 basic science and clinical educators from across the globe to Roanoke, Virginia.
“As the Virginia Tech Carilion partnership continues to thrive, we are growing our reputation as a destination for science and education professional development opportunities,” said Cynda Johnson, founding dean of the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine. “Thanks to all in the community who helped us put together a strong proposal to bring hundreds of medical educators to our small, but growing, city.”
IAMSE is a nonprofit professional development society for health professions education. The organization seeks to promote “excellence and innovation in teaching, student assessment, program evaluation, instructional technology, human simulation, and learner-centered education.”
IAMSE currently represents more than 1,000 medical scientist educators, both basic scientists and physicians, in almost 50 countries. The organization offers programming to advance health sciences education as well as an online peer-reviewed journal.
Richard Vari, senior dean for academic affairs at the VTC School of Medicine, is serving as president of the IAMSE in 2018 and 2019. The school put in a bid to host the conference in 2020, but IAMSE asked if the school could host a year earlier instead.
“The event organizers saw the school successfully hosted a large conference a few years ago, the 2015 Collaboration Across Borders conference, which attracted nearly 700 health-care professionals from across North America to Roanoke and felt confident we could accommodate this annual meeting,” Vari said. “I look forward to bringing my peers to the place I’ve called home for the last decade and give them greater exposure to the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine and our key partners.”
The medical school worked with the City of Roanoke, The Hotel Roanoke and Conference Center as the conference host site, other hotels for lodging, and the Roanoke-Blacksburg Regional Airport to put together the proposal.
The IAMSE’s 2018 Annual Meeting will be held in Las Vegas, Nevada, June 9-12.
