An Overview of the Young Investigator Education Day at the Virtual Congress 2020



 Hello, my name is Gemma. I am Chair of the Young Investigator (YI) board and co-Chair of the YI Education Day committee for the 2020 Congress. This week on the blog, I am delighted to give you all an overview of the programme for our 6th SIOP YI Education day, which will be held on Wednesday 14th October 2020 starting at 8:15am (1:15pm BST /2:15pm CEST/15:15pm AST)

 

The Congress is going to be quite a bit different this year, as due to COVID-19, it is taking place entirely virtually as a mix of live and pre-recorded talks. Despite these changes, we think it’s going to be a great event and we are very proud of our programme, which includes world –renowned Experts from a wide range of specialities within Paediatric oncology.

 

Our first session of the day is a joint session with the PODC and focuses on building your career in paediatric oncology and getting your work published. Our first speaker is Dr Eric Bouffet who is doing our careers talk this year: “How I built a successful research career-learning from my failures.” Professor Bouffet is the SIOP Advocacy Chair and Previous President, and we are extremely grateful that he is taking time out of his busy schedule to support YI. Professor Bouffet will be followed by our second speakers Professor Peter Newburger and Dr Thomas Gross, the Editor and Deputy Editor of Pediatric Blood and Cancer who will take part in a Q&A about “Getting published”. Please come prepared with your burning questions. 

After the (virtual) coffee break, we have a joint YI, Nurse and PPO joint session on “Breaking Bad News: Team Based Patient and Family Centered Communication”. In this interactive session, we have a multi-disciplinary panel comprised of clinicians, nurses, a child-life specialist, a psychologist and a parent representative. This panel will be led by Dr Justin Baker, together with Dr Jennifer Mack, Dr Maru Barrera, Dr Malin Lovgren, Dr Sarah Cohen Gogo, Ms Wendy Avery and Ms Joanna Lyman.

 

The joint session will be followed once again by our extremely popular YI Expert ‘Lunch’, which this year will take place as small group Zoom calls. We have some outstanding Experts attending the event this year. Look out for my next blog which will contain more information about this event and how to book your place.

 

After lunch, the theme of our first afternoon session is “Expanding Research Methods and Opportunities”. In this session, Dr Meredith Irwin, Professor Sue Cohn and Professor Andy Pearson will first speak about, “How to Get Involved in International Big Database Research, INRG and Beyond.” They will be followed by Professor Faith Gibson, who will share her experiences of working with adolescents and young adults in research during the Brightlight study. Professor Gibson’s talk is entitled: “How to Conduct Mixed Methods Research: Lessons Learned from the BrightLight Study

 The theme for the final session of the day is “Mentorship, Wellness, and Immunotherapy.” Our first speaker in this session is Professor Carlos Rodriguez-Galindo, who will be doing our mentorship talk this year, which is entitled: “Building Bridges: Seeking Mentorship over a Distance”. 

Professor Rodriguez-Galindo will be followed by Professor Margaretha Stenmarker who will be talking about “Work Life Balance: The Importance of Wellness while Working in Pediatric Oncology” a very important topic for all YIs. Our last speaker of the day is Dr Karin Straathof, Dr Straathof will speak about “Immunology Back to Basics: An Introduction to Immunotherapy”.

 

All talks will also be available on the SIOP congress platform for 3 months after the Congress, so you can catch-up on things you might have missed, or even watch a session again.

Many of the suggestions for topics for this year’s talks came from YIs who attended our event in Lyon and completed our YI Education day feedback form. Look out for our emails after the event and let us know your thoughts about the 2020 Education Day and suggestions for future talks. Who knows you might be the lucky winner of a free registration for the 2021 Hawaii Congress in exchange for your feedback!

The YI Education day is free to attend for delegates registered to attend the wider congress. Early bird registration is only 50 for the entire Congress (25 for attendees from Lower and Middle Income Countries). Early Bird Registration closes on 1st September 2020. Register here: https://siop-congress.org/register/

 

 

 

 

 

  

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