Conference: 12th World Molecular Imaging Congress (WMIC), September 4–7, 2019, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
Conference Highlight: This year’s program focused on the dynamics of life and how to integrate molecular imaging to ultimately lead to improved patient care.
Conference Summary: Each year, molecular imaging researchers from around the world meet at WMIC, which provides a unique platform for scientists and clinicians with diverse backgrounds to interact, present and follow cutting-edge advances in molecular imaging. A major goal of the society is to develop clinical translation, which was emphasized in this year’s program; presentations focused on the integration of molecular imaging into science and health care to develop innovative and complementary approaches to understand biology and advance diagnostic and therapeutic approaches.
In addition to scientific and poster sessions, the conference provided attendees with a wide array of educational sessions and panel discussions led by WMIS Interest Groups, which bring together professionals to set standards and move their areas of expertise forward. New this year was the launch of the Canadian Molecular Imaging Chapter (WMIScan). Daily plenary lectures by national and international leaders of the field covered topics such as nanomedicine (Dr. Maria Kavallaris), artificial intelligence in healthcare (Dr. Mark Michalski), personalized medicine (Dr. Molly Shoichet) and hybrid imaging (Dr. Bertrand Tavitian). A very interesting talk was given by The New York Times health and science journalist Pam Belluck, who shared her compelling stories and humorous observations related to covering scientific topics.
An important aspect of WMIC is to bring individuals from various scientific backgrounds together to advance molecular imaging. As such, many networking opportunities were created throughout the conference, ranging from mixers and pub crawls to speed dating-style scientific discussions with senior scientists and competitions between trainees. Between these social interactions and scientific discussions, attendees from academia and industry explored all facets of state-of-the-art molecular imaging.