Hello to everyone,
Now that the 2022 SOBP Annual Meeting is behind us, it is a good time to reflect on the experience and to think about the future.
Following the cancellation of our 2020 meeting and the 2021 inaugural virtual meetings, SOBP made the decision to hold a hybrid meeting in 2022. This hybrid meeting allowed both virtual and in person attendance and participation. Despite the challenges of conducting a major meeting both virtually and in person, this year’s meeting was successful in providing an interactive platform for participants to present and learn about alternative and transformative frameworks for understanding psychiatric illnesses, newly emerging tools for measurement, and techniques and experimental designs that can enhance our understanding of psychiatric illness and elucidate underlying biological pathways and biomarkers through the 2022 annual meeting theme, Positivity and Happiness in a Worrisome World. This year’s meeting was attended by 1,166 people in person and 463 people virtually.
For those who attended, your evaluation of our virtual meeting is an opportunity to provide feedback on what we did right and what we can do better in the future. If you did not attend, please consider sending an email to SOBP telling us what kept you from attending.
Bias can be broadly defined as any tendency that prevents an unprejudiced consideration of an issue. Because financial incentives motivate people, they are an obvious source of bias in biomedical research, education, and clinical practice. As such, disclosing financial arrangements is now required in many settings. Bias, however, is not solely related to financial considerations. Indeed, the origins of bias arise from a variety of factors that include gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, religion, culture, family and educational backgrounds, personal life experiences, and particular areas of expertise. Engaging individuals with these diverse perspectives to participate in the clinical and basic sciences is critically important not only for addressing inequities and alleviating disparities but also because scientific progress will increasingly depend on such diversity.
One of the five goals of the SOBP New Strategic Plan is to increase diversity, equity, and inclusion of the membership, meeting attendance, and in the research presented and published through the society. The 2022 meeting took steps towards this goal with 76% of Symposia Presenters and 52% of Oral Presenters being females and/or underrepresented minority members. However, we must continue to work vigorously to achieve the critically important goal of improving diversity, equity, and inclusion, not only within the SOBP but also throughout the entire clinical, educational, and research landscape of psychiatry and the neurosciences.
Complex problems require multifaceted, creative, and innovative solutions. Pursuing solutions to complex problems are optimally addressed by diverse teams of people who bring a divergent set of perspectives to the table. Please continue your individual and collective efforts to support the mission of the SOBP by promoting excellence in research, by fostering the development of investigators in psychiatry, by educating clinicians and scientists about the biological roots of psychiatric disorders, and by disseminating our growing body of knowledge regarding the scientific basis of psychiatry.
As always, I hope each of you will reach out to your colleagues and encourage them to become members of the SOBP, with particular attention toward increasing the diversity of our membership.
Finally, it is not too soon to think about our 2023 annual meeting in San Diego. Symposia submissions will open August 16th, 2022. Submission deadlines for symposia, oral/poster presentations, and late breaking posters are listed in this newsletter.
Best wishes for a safe and enjoyable summer season,
Robert H. Howland, M.D.
Associate Professor of Psychiatry
University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine
UPMC Western Psychiatric Hospital
