By Ian Amaranayake
That’s a wrap! PHUSE EU Connect 2023 has finally drawn to a close with over 230 presentations, posters and workshops delivered across 19 conference streams over a four-day period.
The event was held this year at Birmingham’s world-famous ICC venue and represented the coming together of industry professionals from across the world to discuss issues and challenges that we face in the area of clinical data science and in support of the development of new, novel treatments and vaccines, as well as opportunities to share innovations and best practices.
We also had a bit of fun – our pink themed mugs and bottles were a big hit (let us know if you didn’t manage to grab one on the day), as was our fun demonstration of analytics in action with many attendees taking the time to try out our Clinical Outrun racing game which streamed in-game telemetry to an R-Shiny dashboard so that our budding racing drivers could analyse their driving style. Congratulations as well to our two fastest lap winners who walked away with an Amazon echo (Vincent Bucheit and Valentin Legras).
So, what were my highlights? There are so many to pick from but if I had to choose it would be a combination of the great keynotes delivered by diversity and inclusivity expert Naomi Sesay, Welsh ex-Rugby player Gareth Thomas and inspirational pioneer Cathy O’Dowd and the many high-quality presentations that I had the pleasure of attending. Some other highlights to draw out are:
Alongside my co-chairs, I ran a packed agenda of presentations in the Leadership Through Innovation stream. Split over two days, the stream hosted a workshop on Design Thinking, as well as presentations on topics ranging from the evolving role of a statistical programmer through to the value of emotional intelligence as an important soft skill for effective leadership, the author of which Jessica Andersen winning the Best Connect Newcomer award.
What inspired you at the conference? We would be delighted to hear from you.