Conference Report: International Conference on Health Sciences and Medical Technologies, Tlemcen, Algeria 27-29 September 2016 ICHSMT'16.

The International Conference on Health Sciences and Medical Technologies (ICHSMT'16) was held in Tlemcen, Algeria from 27-29 September 2016. The conference was organized by the University Of Tlemcen, in partnership with Electronic Physician Journal, Mehr Publishing, and Mehrafarin Scientific Publishing. There were participants from 14 nations who presented their research in poster or oral presentations. There were also some keynote speakers who gave talks on topics such as community health, ethics of publishing medical research, and scientific writing.

1. Introduction

It was an honor for the editors of Electronic physician, in its 8th anniversary, to organize the first edition of International Conference on Health Sciences and Medical Technologies ICHSMT’16. The conference was held in the University of Tlemcen. Many contributors, sponsors and organizers participated in the success of the events. The proposed motto of the events was:”Leveraging/synergizing on the strength of Technology” written by Professor Dr. Syed Tajuddin Syed Hassan (Associate Editor of Electronic Physician Journal, Universiti Putra Malaysia), which fully captured the essence of the whole conference which was focused on technology for serving the most crucial scientific domain - Medicine. It is with great pride that I can report that this conference had contributors representing fourteen different nations, namely: Algeria, Germany, Iran, Switzerland, Netherlands, Malaysia, Canada, France, Morocco, Spain, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Tunisia and United States of America. Author’s affiliations were from several departments such as medicine, biology, physics, chemistry, computer sciences, environment, pharmacy, electrical and electronic engineering and mechanical engineering.

2. Keynotes

An exceptional inaugural session, which contained three plenary speeches, commenced on the first day before the parallel sessions. The three speeches presented in this session were; (1), Presented by Professor Dr. Wolfgang Seger, and was an introduction to the importance of social health and clarification of the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF). (2), By Dr. Mehrdad Jalalian, and explained how to publish scientific articles in journals, with the highest standards, and the most common mistakes made by researchers. This presentation also covered the ethics of publishing medical research, and (3), by Professor Dr. Kaouel Meguenni, which highlighted cancer disease and the importance of the Algerian cancer registry in several studies.

3. Selected best papers and awards

There were 110 submissions. Each submission was reviewed by an average 1.5, program committee members. The committee made a decision to accept 89 papers. From the accepted articles, three editorials (1, 4) and five original articles (5–10) were selected as the best submissions to the conferences. As an award, a free advanced version of all selected papers are planned for publication in the journal “Electronic Physician”.

4. Parallel sessions

The conference presented an interesting model of international interdisciplinary research collaboration. The program committee redefined, after the reviewing step, ten sessions for international participants according to the contributed domains. Also special private sessions for international collaboration in medical education was randomly added.

5. Sponsors

The success of this international conference was due to several organizations funding and support. The platinum sponsor of the conference was the University of Tlemcen with Medicine Faculty and Sciences Faculty and research laboratories. The gold sponsors were Mehr Publishing Group, Mehrafarin Scientific Publishing, Electronic Physician Journal, and Acta HealthMedica Journal. The Bronze Sponsors were Research Center on Technic and Scientific Information CERIST.

6. Impact and Perspectives

Interdisciplinary education is very important for professional education and research. Several models, courses, communication/group process issues, and international perspectives are reviewed within it (11). Although there are some limits such as cultural bias, language difficulties and technical problems which can decrease the efficiency of these initiatives, international interdisciplinary education participates in the construction of the future of professionals and researchers, and adds to enrich innovation and scientific realizations. The conferences in general are excellent places to evaluate scientific findings and to prepare for future projects and much more (12). ICHSMT’16 was an exceptional model of international interdisciplinary education and research, in which several technological innovations and medical findings were presented reviewed and commented. Several constructive scientific debates were collected and moderated by scholar professors and professional experts. An exceptional deal in international medical education between Germany and Algeria began its first steps at the conference. The success of the conference was measured and inferred by the collected feedback forms, and a considerable amount of advice was collected from the contributors of these conferences. To ameliorate the quality of the next edition, we plan several additional improvements.

Table 1

ICHSMT’16 Sessions

Sessions	Number of presentations
Session 1: Infectious diseases and microbiology	12
Session 2: Medical Technologies	8
Session 3: Preclinical and Clinical Basic Sciences	13
Session 4: Public Health	12
Session 5: Cancer and Haematological Neoplasia Treatment	12
Session 6: Clinical specialties such as gastroenterology, urology, cardiology, dermatology except oncology_haematology	12
Session 7: Genetical Items	7
Session 8: Gynaecology	6
Session 9 : Publication Ethics	1
Session 10: Health Care Innovation and Research Cooperation Panel: Call for projects and internships	1
Session 11: Posters	12