Ecraid's successful second ESCMID Global
We introduced Ecraid to hundreds of infectious disease professionals, caught up with our collaborators from across Europe, and laid the foundations for exciting new partnerships. Together with our colleagues, we also made meaningful contributions to the congress’s scientific programme.
Some 16.000 people attended the 34th congress of the European Society of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases (ESCMID) in Barcelona. Formerly known as ECCMID, ESCMID Global is the world’s biggest infectious diseases event.
Ecraid welcomed attendees at our own booth for the second year in a row. We engaged with hundreds of visitors to raise awareness about our mission and connected with many colleagues involved in the networks, projects, and studies under Ecraid and its predecessor COMBACTE. This was also a welcome opportunity to hold a number of strategic meetings with influential figures in our field, such as Dr Cameron Bess (BARDA) and Dr Dennis M. Dixon (NIH).
We also had the opportunity to meet with the newly elected Chair and Vice-Chair to the Ecraid Clinical Liaison (ECL) Council, Oana Sandulescu (Bucharest, Romania) and Pontus Naucler (Stockholm, Sweden). They stopped by to discuss their vision for setting up the basis of a strong ECL network in Europe.
But ESCMID Global is all about science, and there was plenty of Ecraid science on display. Here we report on the highlights, yet it is important to note that many more Ecraid-affiliated contributions were presented during the congress, including from LAB-Net, EPI-Net, and various projects we are involved in.
Reviving trials in infectious diseases
Together with the CMI Board of Editors, Ecraid organised a one-hour symposium on randomised clinical trials. Held in front of a full auditorium, the session was chaired by Lennie Derde (Utrecht, the Netherlands) and Luigia Scudeller (Bologna, Italy) and featured Prof. Guy Thwaites (Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam), a member of Ecraid’s Scientific Advisory Board, and Lauren Maxwell (Heidelberg, Germany) from the data team in ECRAID-Base.
Guy outlined the history of randomised clinical trials in infectious diseases, highlighting their recent revival. While large-scale trials tackling life-threatening diseases are still rare, he offered REMAP-CAP and RECOVERY as examples for "trials that really matter”. Guy also stressed the urgent need for more collaboration between academia and industry, pointing at Ecraid’s efforts toward bridging this gap.
Lauren Maxwell then discussed new trends in the world of data and technology that can have a meaningful impact on how we do clinical research. She touched upon hot concepts such as data interoperability, FAIR-by-design, eConsent, and harnessing the power of AI. Researchers often find it challenging to grasp novel tools like these. Lauren and her colleagues are therefore working on making them available and easy to implement.
Inspiring the next gen of scientists
Following two successful Young Investigator Workshops in 2022 and 2023, the team behind this series returned for a third edition. Jacopo Garlasco (Verona, Italy) joined Ana Hernandez (Limoges, France), Holly Jackson (Geneva, Switzerland), Marc Shamier (Rotterdam, the Netherlands), and Yrene Themistocleous (Oxford, UK). Jacopo opened the meeting with a defence of international collaboration in clinical research and referred to Ecraid as “a universe” because of its scope in terms of expertise and geography.
The team then addressed Europe's lacking response to the COVID-19 pandemic and discussed platform trials as an alternative to the traditional clinical research model. They highlighted the EU-funded ECRAID-Base project's perpetual observational studies (POSs) as the way forward in responding to emerging infectious disease threats. As in previous years, the participants contributed to an insightful discussion – one of the most valuable aspects of this format.
Did you miss the workshop? A recording will soon be available to everyone.
Unvieling first POS results
ESCMID Global attendees got to learn the first available outcomes from two of the five POS running under the ECRAID-Base project.
José Bravo-Ferrer (Sevilla, Spain) presented preliminary descriptive data characterising the first 1,000 patients enrolled in the POS on complicated urinary tract infections (cUTI). UTIs are the most common outpatient infections worldwide and José used the opportunity to reiterate that “global problems need global solutions”. He went on to praise Ecraid for its collaborative approach: “Ecraid is more than research. It's a teamwork philosophy.”
First results were also unveiled for the POS on ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP). Holly Jackson and Ana Hernandez presented a poster summarising the data obtained from the first 1,000 participants in the study.
Recognising Evelina Tacconelli
Ecraid’s Chief Scientific Officer Evelina Tacconelli (Verona, Italy) received the 2024 ESCMID Lifetime Achievements Award for her outstanding contributions in clinical microbiology and infectious diseases. The prestigious award was presented during the ESCMID Global 2024 opening ceremony. The next day, Evelina delivered a special lecture on the potential of using current rapid diagnostic tests for strengthening antibiotic stewardship.
We look forward to seeing you at ESCMID’s next congress which will be held from 11-15 April 2025 in Vienna, Austria.