The Greater Chicago Area Chapter (GCAC) of the American Medical Writers Association (AMWA) will offer four workshops at its 2009 conference on Friday, July 31.

The workshops are open to both AMWA members and nonmembers. Courses offered will apply to certificates in science fundamentals, pharmaceutical, and editing/writing disciplines. An advanced course will also be offered.

In Basics of Epidemiology for Biomedical Communicators, participants will be provided with the ABCs of data interpretation according to basic epidemiological concepts. Measures of disease occurrence, research designs, and causality development will be discussed.

Statistics for Medical Writers and Editors is designed for participants who have little or no background in statistics. Emphasis will be placed on understanding statistical presentations and on reporting statistical information, not on calculations or mathematical explanations.

Improving Comprehension, Theories and Research Findings is for writers interested in exploring research into written communication. Participants will consider how readers make sense of a text, examine the factors that promote or inhibit this sense-making, and discuss how theories of composition, communication, and cognitive psychology and their associated research findings can improve the quality of written communications.

The advanced course, Understanding and Reporting the Performance Characteristics of Diagnostic Tests, will introduce participants to the most important characteristics of diagnostic tests — sensitivity, specificity, likelihood ratios, predictive values, receiver operating characteristics curves, and so on — as well as to other, related, concepts, such as the meaning of "normal," the treatment of equivocal results, and Bayesian statistics. Participants will learn how to interpret and report diagnostic tests in the biomedical literature and will practice applying a set of detailed guidelines for reporting various test characteristics.

The instructors are:

• Tom Lang, author of How to Report Statistics in Medicine: Annotated Guidelines for Authors, Editors, and Reviewers, is an international consultant and educator in medical writing and scientific publications. He teaches for the University of Chicago's Medical Writing Program and is adjunct professor of biomedical writing at the University of the Sciences in Philadelphia, as well as past president of the Council of Science Editors, a fellow of the American Medical Writers Association, and treasurer of the World Association of Medical Editors.
  
  
• Bart Harvey, MD, PhD, MEd, FACPM, FRCPC (Community Medicine) is an associate professor with the Department of Family & Community Medicine and the Graduate Department of Public Health Sciences at the University of Toronto. He has been the principal or co-author on dozens of papers published in peer-reviewed biomedical journals and has presented peer-reviewed and invited papers at national and international scientific conferences. Dr. Harvey also currently serves as one of 24 investigating coroners for the city of Toronto.

Workshop fees range from $95 to $120 for members and from $195 to $220 for nonmembers. Registration for the all-day event, which costs $55 for members and $95 for nonmembers, includes a continental breakfast and networking lunch. All attendees are invited to sign up to attend a social hour and dinner after the conference at Yan Hunan's Inn in Waukegan. The registration form and fees must be received by June 22 for the advanced class and by July 6 for the other course offerings.

To received credit toward a certificate, registrants must be enrolled in a curriculum program and submit completed homework by July 2 for the advanced workshop and by July 17 for the other workshops. The core curriculum enrollment fee, good for six years, is $150 for AMWA members and $275 for nonmembers. The advanced curriculum enrollment fee, good for eight years, is $175 for AMWA members and $290 for nonmembers.

Date: Friday, July 31, 2009

Time: 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

Location: Abbott Laboratories, 200 Abbott Park Road, North Chicago, Ill.

Registration is open now. Details are posted on the GCAC AMWA Web site: www.gcac-amwa.org.

In addition, the Board of Editors in the Life Sciences will administer its certification exam on Saturday, Aug. 1, also at Abbott Laboratories, beginning at 9:00 a.m. Interested applicants must contact the BELS registrar. Details about exam registration are available on the BELS Web site, www.bels.org.

To learn more about AMWA’s education program, call 301-294-5303 or visit www.amwa.org.

About the AMWA

The American Medical Writers Association (AMWA), based in Rockville, Md., was founded in 1940 to promote excellence in medical communication and provide resources to support that goal. Through an extensive educational program, various publications and unparalleled networking opportunities, AMWA enables members to extend their professional expertise.

The Greater Chicago Area Chapter (GCAC) comprises more than 300 biomedical communicators who live and work in Illinois and southern Wisconsin, including over 100 self-employed and freelance members. The chapter’s diverse membership represents biomedical communicators who work for hospitals, health care associations, marketing and public relations agencies, pharmaceutical companies, medical publishing firms, Web publishing venues, and medical schools.

Labels: Conferences, Education

U.S. Congresswoman Jackie Speier, 12th Congressional District, California, will keynote the Women's Leadership Conference, produced by Women in Periodical Publishing's (WIPP), on Jan. 23 at The Westin in San Francisco.

Jackie Speier was sworn into Congress on April 10, to fill the unexpired term of the late Congressman Tom Lantos. In addition to including an impressive political career, Speier's story is a powerful one of survival.

After earning her Juris Doctor degree from UC's Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco, Speier joined Congressman Leo J. Ryan's staff as his legal advisor in Washington, D.C. In 1978, Speier accompanied the congressman to Jonestown, Guyana, to investigate claims that constituents were being held against their will at the People's Temple by the Rev. Jim Jones. While Speier and Ryan escorted defecting cult members to their plane, they were ambushed by gunmen.

Congressman Ryan and four others were killed, including an NBC reporter and cameraman, and a photographer for the San Francisco Examiner. Speier, then 28, was shot five times and left for dead.

For 22 hours, Speier lay bleeding on the Guyanese airstrip waiting for help to arrive. This was a defining moment in her young life, as she told the Washington Post: "I think the experience in Guyana just made me more fearless … Once you have looked death in the eye, you're just not nearly that afraid."

During her political career, including 18 years in the California State Assembly and Senate, Speier authored more than 300 bills that were signed into law by both Democratic and Republican governors. Her four-year crusade to protect consumers' financial privacy from the invasive practices of banking and insurance companies led to passage of the landmark California Financial Privacy Act, which was hailed by Consumers Union as "the strongest financial privacy legislation in the nation."

Upon her election to Congress, Jackie Speier was picked by Speaker Nancy Pelosi to serve on two influential committees: The House Committee on Financial Services, chaired by Congressman Barney Frank, and The Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, led by Representative Henry Waxman.

When asked for her philosophy of life, Speier often quotes Winston Churchill: "Success is never final, and failure is never fatal."

"Congresswoman Speier's life and career are an inspiration to women everywhere,” says Thea Selby, principal of Next Steps Marketing and co-chair of the Women's Leadership Conference. “We're fortunate to have her speak to us about leadership, what it means in good times and in more difficult times."

Speier will join up to 150 women coming together at the first-ever Women's Leadership Conference to be educated, inspired, and empowered. Other speakers at the conference include Michela O'Connor Abrams, president and publisher of Dwell magazine; Jan Bruce, publisher of Body & Soul; Barb Newton, president of Sunset Publications; and Madeleine Buckingham, COO of Mother Jones.

The one-day event ($199) includes breakfast, luncheon and Keynote address, and cocktail hour. Register at WIPP.net.

Women in Periodical Publishing (WIPP) was founded in 1999 by five women looking for an organization that met the needs of women in print and online periodical publishing. Out of this need, WIPP was formed to accomplish two goals: to educate, empower and support women in print and online publishing and to educate, empower and support women through the power of print and online publishing. In just a few short years, WIPP has built a strong and diverse community, consisting of nearly 100 individual and corporate members throughout the U.S. and internationally. Visit www.wipp.net for more information.

Labels: Conferences

by Martha Spizziri
ASBPE Web Editor

ASBPE has made a special arrangement for its members to attend the Publishing Business Conference & Expo at a discount of $100-$200. The conference, which will take place March 23-25 at the New York Marriott Marquis, will feature more than 100 speakers on topics such as audience development, e-media, editorial, design, business development, production and manufacturing, and the economy.

ASBPE members who register by Jan. 9 will pay only $675 — a $200 savings off the full registration fee of $875. Members who register after Jan. 9 will pay only $775 — a $100 savings.

Members: Learn how to get the discount.

Not an ASBPE member? Consider joining.

Labels: ASBPE Member Discounts, Conferences, Training