This month we welcome Loralie Langman as the IATDMCT president for 2015-2017. We asked Loralie and our past and future presidents what they consider the greatest benefit of being members of the association. This is an extension of the interviews conducted in the Compass December 2010 issue.
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Steven H. Wong, USAFounding President of IATDMCT, 1991-1993The greatest benefit of being a member is to contribute and to witness the global advances in TDM and Clinical Toxicology. This process has been a continuum launched by visionary colleagues such as Charles Pippenger and Irving Sunshine. As the Founding President of a young organization with limited resources in the early 90’s, it was challenging to ensure continuity from one congress to next in order to maintain the scientific momentum and members’ enthusiasm. In so doing, I was privileged to have worked with willing and able congress chairs and past presidents who stepped up to meet these challenges. In so doing, I have made life-long friends and colleagues. As I continue to contribute to TDM and Clinical toxicology through my focused research in pharmacogenomics, I have become an ardent student and an admiring witness of many budding scientists in the field. Indeed, IATDMCT has maintained its scientific and educational core values.
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Ian Watson, UKIATDMCT President 1993-1995The benefit of IATDMCT membership is the engagement with well-informed helpful colleagues who deliver quality science and practice in their health communities and lead developments internationally. This allows me and others to consider new ideas for our practice. In addition, the congenial atmosphere at conferences and other communications makes it a pleasure to exchange views and experiences.
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Phil Walson, USAIATDMCT President 1995-1997The greatest benefit of IATDMCT membership is the ability to associate professionally and personally with its members, young and not so young, from so many countries and diverse backgrounds, yet all involved in the use of TDM/CT and all dedicated to improving patient outcomes.
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Michael Oellerich, GermanyIATDMCT President 1997-1999As one of the founding members of IATDMCT I am delighted that IATDMCT celebrates its 20th anniversary this year. The greatest benefit of being a member of IATDMCT is the privilege to meet renowned experts on therapeutic drug monitoring and clinical toxicology from across the globe. The international and regional meetings and our journal Therapeutic Drug Monitoring greatly facilitate such interactions. IATDMCT as a multidisciplinary society has established valuable bridges between national and international societies and scientists around the world. It has successfully promoted education, research and practice in our field. Personally, I have always enjoyed the exchange of scientific information with our colleagues through this organisation, and many friendships have developed over the past two decades.
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Les Shaw, USAIATDMCT President 1999-2001For me the greatest benefit(s) to being a member of the IATDMCT include: bonding with colleagues in the TDM and Tox fields and making life-long friendships with colleagues from near and far places; developing scientific programs for regional and for international meetings together with colleagues that serve as life-long great memories and hopefully helped recruit new members, young and older, into the IATDMCT “family” of scientists. My sense is that when I meet up with IATDMCT members at any time or place there is almost a guarantee that spirited conversation will take place as you would expect when talking with a family member you had not seen in years. The fun of creating or helping to create scientific programs at the frontier or on “bread and butter” topics is a great memory for me and we all look forward to the future developments in our fields of interest with strong support provided by the IATDMCT.
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Albert D. Fraser, CanadaIATDMCT President 2001-2003The first ‘greatest benefit’ personally of IATDMCT membership is the professional friendships developed and on-going interaction with TDM and toxicology colleagues around the world. We often face similar practical challenges in our profession and benefit by seeing how our colleagues solve these matters elsewhere. The second ‘greatest benefit’ is our international high profile journal Therapeutic Drug Monitoring. Few associations the size of IATDMCT have a prestigious journal like TDM. The third ‘greatest benefit’ was the opportunity to serve IATDMCT as a councillor and president. Secondary benefits include visiting other countries and communities around the globe.
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David Holt, UKIATDMCT President 2005-2007My Presidency spanned a little more than the usual two years, as I started in April 2005 after the Louisville meeting and finished in September 2007 after the Nice meeting. During the six year commitment that encompasses the presidency a striking factor for me was the realisation that a large amount of work went on behind the scenes during the period between our congresses. There are many national and international groups with whom we liaise and there are a range of issues to consider, such as the organisation of our regional meetings, formulating our educational policies and liaising with our colleagues in the diagnostics industry. I enjoyed the time tremendously and, as always, learnt much from those around me, including our back office staff. When I came to the office we were in the process of negotiating a new relationship with the publishers of our journal, which resulted in us having more responsibility for the content of Therapeutic Drug Monitoring in exchange for an income stream which now enables us to expand our educational aims in TDM. For me IATDMCT has been about fellowship with those who have similar interests in this highly specialist group of subjects. The congress I had the honour to preside over, organised by Pierre Marquet, was the crowning glory of my office, being a brilliant showcase of our work, held in one of my favourite locations. Many thanks for allowing me to play a central role in the development of this organisation.
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Hans Maurer, GermanyIATDMCT President 2007-2009In 1990, I was invited to the TDM meeting in Barcelona where IATDMCT was founded. Two years later during the Philadelphia meeting, I was convinced that this association is worth to become member and to become committed for because of the high scientific level and the focus also on clinical toxicology. The greatest benefits have been to meeting colleagues involved in similar scientific and/ or practical aspects of CT, to bring our field forward on an international level, to fire young scientists with enthusiasm for CT, and to bring our knowledge on drug analysis and their interpretation also to the developing and emerging countries.
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Alexander A. Vinks, USAIATDMCT President 2009-2011The greatest benefit of IATDMCT membership for me is (and has been) the personal connection and easy access to world leaders and experts in all areas of TDM and CT. This has resulted in many opportunities for collaboration and invaluable exchanges of ideas. My examples of such beneficial interactions are:
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Pierre Marquet, FranceIATDMCT President 2011-2013My first IATDMCT meeting was in Vancouver, Canada, in 1997. The greatest benefits of being a member of the IATDMCT for me so far have been:
My hope is that IATDMCT will carry on promulgating consensual recommendations and standards of practice to help TDM and/or CT laboratories to justify their activities towards physicians and regulatory authorities.
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Pierre Wallemacq, BelgiumIATDMCT President 2013-2015Being a member of the IATDMCT represents a wonderful opportunity to learn more from international experts in the growing fields of personalized therapeutics and toxicology. From a global view, there is a clear trend to improve the use of current or even older drugs, to face the relative shortage of new emerging molecules. IATDMCT plays a pivotal role in this strategy. To promote this activity IATDMCT has an international Journal Therapeutic Drug Monitoring, modern tools of communication, and even more importantly international and regional congresses. I have never been disappointed attending such meetings (from Barcelona in 1990 up to the Rotterdam in 2015, to celebrate its 25th anniversary). I am happy and proud to observe the progress of this association through the years, getting more mature and more strongly represented in more countries. Last but not least, IATDMCT represents also a good way to develop friendships all around the globe. I can certainly say, I don’t have a single day without a contact with one or another IATDMCT friend.
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Loralie Langman, USACurrent President 2015-2017I feel the greatest benefit(s) to being a member of the IATDMCT are both professional and personal. Professionally, IATDMCT membership is made of many different people and cultures, and we all share a common goal: To improve patient care and the practice of medicine worldwide. In achieving that goal, we have the opportunity to understand different ways our discipline is practiced around the world, learn from each other and share best practices. Personally, I very much enjoy meeting old and new colleagues and forming life-long friendships that span the globe.
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Teun van Gelder, The NetherlandsPresident Elect 2017-2019The membership of IATDMCT has brought me in contact with so many investigators and scientists that I knew only from their papers before. The IATDMCT meetings are still relatively small scale and informal. The personal contact with the famous experts during our meetings has been very stimulating for me. Just as an example: Les Shaw was one of those hero-investigators that i got to know personally through IATDMCT. Furthermore, as a clinically active medical doctor I have found great support from and collaboration with pharmacists and clinical chemists. We truly have complementary views and together we are stronger. Personalized medicine is something we have been working on for the last 25 years, and we clearly see the benefits of TDM in patient care.
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