A Message from the ISPD President

Dear ISPD Members and colleagues,

I hope this finds you well as summer settles in across many of our regions. It's been a busy and rewarding few months for our Society, and I'm pleased to share some highlights with you.

In less than 10 days from now, our annual conference will bring together our community for another round of cutting-edge science and clinical discussion. With more than 300 participants already signed up from over 31 countries, I am particularly looking forward to Prof. Kypros Nicolaides’ Pioneer Award lecture, engaging debates and stimulating lightning presentations from peers. For those of you who are not registered yet, information can be found here.

Education and outreach remain central to our mission. We've continued to expand our online education program and the most recent Virtual Education Series event in June on skeletal dysplasia was clear evidence of that. We are now also actively engaging with societies in India and centres across Africa to ensure our education is relevant across the globe. These partnerships reflect our commitment to making high-quality training accessible to members everywhere, regardless of geography. You can find recordings and upcoming session details on the VES webpage.

To ensure wider distribution for our education, we are also sharing our specific expertise in prenatal diagnosis and fetal therapy with partner societies and are cosponsoring sessions at the ISUOG World Congress (London, September), the SMFM Global Congress (Utrecht, October), the Vietnam National Medical Genetics Conference in Hanoi, and at the Annual Conference of the Indian Academy of Medical Genetics. Each of these events is an opportunity to strengthen ties across our field and share knowledge across borders. I would like to use this opportunity to thank the Board members, SIG leaders, and Society members who volunteer their time to speaking at these events and would strongly encourage members attending those events to reach out to them. 

On the policy front, I'm glad to report that our position statement on "Global recommendations for the use of diagnostic genomic sequencing in the prenatal setting," in collaboration with the European Society for Human Genetics (ESHG) has now been formally approved, a milestone reflecting close collaboration between our societies on an issue of shared importance.  Separately, I would love for our members to engage in the active consultation currently underway regarding the use of race-based adjustments in prenatal aneuploidy and neural tube defect screening. This is an important and evolving conversation, and we welcome your input as this work continues. 

Thank you, as always, for your engagement and support. I look forward to seeing many of you at the virtual conference.

Warm regards,

Tim Van Mieghem, MD, PhD
President, International Society for Prenatal Diagnosis