On August 23-27, 2020 the first online conference of the International Society for Clinical Biostatics (ISCB41), organised by the Jagiellonian University, took place. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the event, initially planned as a large meeting in Kraków, had to change its character. The conference featured over 700 researchers and experts in the field of public health, epidemiology and other biomedical disciplines from over 50 countries.
A special online platform was created for the purposes of the conference. It enabled the participants to listen to the lectures, hold discussions, ask questions, exchange experiences and ideas, and even take a virtual tour of the city they could not visit in person. A professional company was responsible for the live-streaming of the event.
The conference was a major undertaking in terms of logistics and technology. During the 5-day long event, 72 sessions were held, featuring over 400 speakers from all over the world. When creating the event schedule, the Scientific Programme Committee chaired by Prof. Michał Abramowicz had to take into account the different time zones of various participants.
The participants from all over the world were welcomed by the JU Vice-Rector for Medical College Prof. Tomasz Grodzicki, the Dean of the JU Faculty of Health Sciences Prof. Tomasz Brzostek, the Head of the JU Department of Epidemiology and Population Studies Prof. Andrzej Pająk, and the Chair of the Local Organising Committee Dr Krystyna Szafraniec. Like in previous years, the ISCB was the forum for the exchange of knowledge and experience in the field of biostatic methods and their application in medical research.
The large-scale online conference was organised by the team of Dr Katarzyna Szafraniec from the JU MC Department of Epidemiology and Population Studies in collaboration with the Conferences unit of the JU Centre for Communications and Marketing.
