Dear EMWA Members,

It is my very great pleasure to ‘speak’ to you from the pages of the very first issue of Medical Writing of 2016, with our new printer, Hastings. I am particularly excited that our feature articles are now open-access – a progressive and forward-thinking move for EMWA and its journal. Not only will authors benefit from an expanded audience, but EMWA will also increase its global reach and ability to influence the medical writing industry.

Our Munich spring conference is just around the corner and your Executive Committee (EC) and an army of volunteers have been working hard these past 10 months to put together another stimulating programme.

If we look back on the past 22 months, we see that our spring conference content has flourished from a sound offering of workshops with Symposium Day back in May 2014, into the complex multi-layered programme that we offer you in May 2016. We should all be proud of EMWA’s maturation.

As usual, foundation and advanced workshops, the Freelance Business Forum and the buzz of medical writers networking will underpin the conference. The 4th Symposium Day on ‘Scientific and Medical Communication Today’ will bring us together with cross industry speakers, panellists and regulators for lively debate on our ever-changing professional landscape. Experienced members will enjoy the 2nd Expert Seminar Series, covering topics as diverse as clinical trial disclosure; referencing software; running medical writing groups in India, China and Japan; artificial intelligence and adaptive study design.

Special Interest Groups (SIGs) will provide EMWA’s very own ‘talking shops’ on hot topics that are expected to develop and endure. The Pharma covigilance Special Interest Group (PV SIG) will delve into issues that impact the PV documents that we write, and with the direct involvement of regulators, you can ask the questions that matter to you. As EMWA and AMWA (American Medical Writers Association) publish the open-access resource CORE (Clarity and Openness in Reporting: E3-based) Reference in May 2016, we will launch the Regulatory Public Disclosure SIG (RPD SIG), a natural follow-up to CORE Reference. RPD SIG will focuson public disclosure of clinical regulatory documents, with the expectation that their content and structure will be impacted; that their range will increase; and that public disclosure will create the need for new documents, which the medical writer will support. The SIGs allow EMWA and its members to contribute to important conversations around topics that we know will impact our industry in the coming years.

We will also trial an internship forum, where potential internees new to medical writing and companies seeking interns can network. With something for everyone – from entry-level right through to experienced members – I invite you to join us in lively Munich from 10th to 14th May 2016 for another memorable conference.

Best Wishes
Sam Hamilton