Oxford PharmaGenesis continued to demonstrate its leadership position in medical publications, as Chief Operating Officer, Dr Richard White served as Chairman for the second successive year at the 17th Annual Meeting of The International Publication Planning Association (TIPPA), held in San Diego, CA, USA on 5–6 February 2018. Also in attendance from Oxford PharmaGenesis were Project Manager Megan Weigel and Medical Writers Dr Ruvini Jayasinghe and Dr Marcel Kuttab.
The pharmaceutical industry, publishers, medical communications agencies and academia were all represented at the meeting, sharing insights from their various perspectives in open discussions. In addition to topics on the ethical issues of transparency in publications practice – including authorship criteria, the role of the medical writer and data sharing – new developments on the horizon for publication planning professionals were presented. Across these new developments, a common theme was advances in technology. Digital publishing, electronic journal metrics and social media are changing the way in which medical information is communicated and regulated which, in turn, changes how publication strategies are developed.
Because of the increase in digital publishing, clinical data have become accessible to wider audiences, including patients and the lay public. Correspondingly, the importance of the patient’s voice has been recognized, as shown by the increase in the use of patient-reported outcomes, right-to-try legislation, expanded access to investigational drugs and the requirement for patient lay summaries in the EU Clinical Trial Regulation. Irrespective of the potential unintended consequences and legal issues that may arise from these policies, publications practice will need to evolve in this rapidly changing environment. An exciting innovation in medical publishing is the Open Pharma initiative led by Oxford PharmaGenesis, which is driving the implementation of open access publishing.
“It was a privilege to be invited to chair the TIPPA conference again, and I was pleased to see multiple new pharma companies, publishers and agencies represented for the first time this year,” said Dr White. “In my experience TIPPA has always had a unique, collaborative atmosphere and I was delighted to hear delegates again praise the openness and depth of discussion at the meeting.”
Oxford PharmaGenesis would like to thank all of the presenters and delegates for their contributions to the success of this year’s TIPPA conference. We also thank Lance Lysinger, Samantha Rosky and the other members of the Healthcare Education Associates team for the organization and management of this highly successful event, and we look forward to the 2019 meeting.
