What are the other ways one can attain knowledge in Travel and Tropical Medicine?
→ Travel & Tropical Medicine Societies & Conferences.

Travel Medicine
Travel Medicine has emerged as an entity in it’s own right in recent years; and the International Society for Travel Medicine (https://www.istm.org/) has really gone from strength to strength. The Journal of Travel Medicine these days has some extremely good articles.Their biennial conferences are always good, I have been to a couple of them (Lisbon & Boston.) There is also an examination available for a the Certificate of Travel Medicine https://www.istm.org/certificateofknowledge

The Asia Pacific Travel Health Society holds conferences in Southeast Asia/Australasia; usually the alternate year of the ISTM (https://www.apths.org/welcome-apthc) I have been to at least two, and the last one in Bangkok (2018) had good content; it’s always a short trip in the region to get to it.

The Australian College of Tropical Medicine (https://www.tropmed.org) ran a great conference in Sydney in September 2019 with an excellent list of speakers and topics.

For more concentration on Tropical Medicine you could attend a regional conference in Bangkok next year in September 2020 – the 20th International Congress for Tropical Medicine and Malaria (ICTMM2020) https://ictmm2020.org/) or the International Society for Infectious Diseases (ISID) https://www.isid.org/ in Kuala Lumpur in February 2020.

Tropical Medicine
Further afield you could consider the annual American Society for Tropical Medicine meeting https://www.astmh.org/ , or the UK https://10times.com/rstmh-annual-meeting or European European Congress on Tropical Medicine and International Health https://www.ectmih2019.org/ These conferences are more academic, but usually have some luminary plenary speakers. The clinical sessions on Tropical medicine would be very thorough. I have reviewed their conference programs (late 2019) and all look good. Maybe I should make the effort and go to one in the next year or two.

Infectious Diseases
I have been to a couple of meetings of the International Society for Infectious Diseases (ISID) https://www.isid.org/ meetings over the years (Singapore and Hyderabad) and they were both good value.

At most of these conferences the “Meet The Professor” early morning sessions I have attended have been really worthwhile, despite the pain of the early morning wake up.

For GPs new to the subject I would suggest the ISTM (biennial), the APTHS (alternate year of ISTM), or Australian College of Tropical Medicine annual conference. You will get exposed to a combination of Travel Medicine with some Tropical Medicine.

In 2020 there are three conferences in the region you could attend:-
- https://www.isid.org (Kuala Lumpur, 20-23rd February)
- https://www.apths.org/scientific-program (Auckland, 18-21st March)
- https://ictmm2020.org/ (Bangkok, 20-24th September)

If are planning on attending any let me know and we can meet up. You can see the details about our Dengue course here