The Raine Study’s 13th Annual Scientific Meeting 2020 (ASM) took place on Friday 30 October 2020, and was held for the first time as a blended event combining in-person and virtual presentations via Zoom.
The event was a great showcase of the breadth and depth of the Raine Study research that is taking place across our partners. 16 early career researchers from around Australia and 1x international location presented at the event either on a range of topics including asthma and diet to vision and hormones.
More than 81 unique audience members logged into the ASM via Zoom. In addition, more than 40 attendees came to Raine House to participate in person on the day of the event, which presented visitors with excellent networking opportunities during the morning tea and lunch breaks, as well as after the event had closed.
Four of our partners (Curtin University, Murdoch University, Telethon Kids Institute, The University of Western Australia) were represented among the 6x session chairs. Board Chair Jan Stewart introduced founding Raine Study Investigator Professor John Newnham, who provided an entertaining and informative keynote address which shed new insights on the Raine Study’s 30-year history. Associate Professor Chris Abbiss (ECU) opened the afternoon session with an update on the research priorities of ECU’s School of Medical and Health Sciences, while outgoing director of the Raine Study Professor Peter Eastwood provided commentary throughout the day.
Dr Amanda Cleaver, Director of our longstanding partner the Raine Medical Research Foundation, presented the awards for the two Best Early Career Researcher presenters. The recipients were Dr Samantha Lee from Lions Eye Institute and Dr Chau Jillian Thien Tay from Monash University. Dr Lee presented research into the causes of choroidal (optic disc) thickness in young adults, while Dr Chau Tay spoke about updated diagnostic criteria for polycystic ovary syndrome based on Raine Study data.
Professor Eastwood closed the event with the formal introduction of the Raine Study’s new/current Director Professor Romola Bucks to our scientific community.
This was the first time a blended event combining virtual with in-person participation had ever been attempted by the Raine Study team. The success of the event under these circumstances was not a given and has provided many key learnings which will be applied to the planning of the 2021 Annual Scientific Meeting.
Link to Event Recording: https://youtu.be/72X4dFZiDS8
