ICTMC 2024
Student-Led Report
We are absolutely delighted to share with you some of the highlights of this year’s International Clinical Trials Methodology Conference (ICTMC). Held from 30 Sept – 03 October 2024 in the beautiful historical city of Edinburgh, Scotland, this conference was our biggest and best yet!
We were excited to get back to enjoying some much-needed networking, knowledge exchange and sharing of ideas. The presentations and posters shared at the conference covered a wide range of aspects of clinical trials methodology – it was great to see such a breadth of topics!
Choosing some of the highlights from the conference to include in our student special newsletter has been no small task, but here are some of the best bits from ICTMC 2024 for you to enjoy!
We were treated to three excellent keynote speakers at ICTMC this year.
ICTMC was also a fantastic opportunity for our TMRP DTP students to be immersed into the world of trials methodology, to network with others in the field, and to present their research. Here’s what they had to say about their experience!
We also had some great feedback from people who attended the conference in their capacity as patient partner representatives. You can read some highlights from Amanda Roberts below:
The conference also included poster presentations across themes and topics across clinical trial methodology. There was also student exclusive time, where attendees had a chance to interact with all student presenters. This was a great opportunity for the students to showcase their wonderful ideas and obtain some interesting insights about their research. There were great memories to carry along with the posters from the conference.
This year, four categories of prizes were up for grabs, two of which were specifically for our students. Congratulations to our ICTMC 2024 Prize Winners!
ICTMC is always a brilliant opportunity for networking, collaboration and the contnued conversation about clinical trials methodology across disciplines and professions. It was great to chat with experts from a clinical background and allied healthcare professionals where we continued to think about ongoing connections between methodology, clinical trials and treatment for patients.
Many of our DTP students presented their research as oral presentations. ICTMC was a great opporunity for them to present some of their most up-to-date ideas, sharing their knowledge and making new connections.
This year at ICTMC, 12 wonderful workshops were held. These covered a wide range of topics, ranging from core outcome sets, inclusivity and diversity, to good statistical practice – to name a few! Here’s what Susannah Cowtan has to say about the “Making Clinical Trial Analysis More Open and FAIR: Discussion, Ideas Sharing and Recommendations” workshop:
In September 2024, two of our DTP students, Ella Howes and Georgiana Synesi launched the student-led podcast on trials methodology. The launch of the first series was announced at the conference. You can read more about the first series here.
This year the ICTMC conference party was held at the wonderful National Museum of Scotland in the heart of Edinburgh. We all had fun continuing our networking into the night, meeting with old and new acquaintances, making plans for collaboration, and of course, making friends!
All guests were received by a talented team playing traditional Scottish music with bagpipers. It was refreshing to play team games with specific rhythms as instructed by our hosts, truly it was a conference which gave importance to numbers. The ceilidh band was amazing and delivered some great numbers!
As this was in a museum, there were also interactive games to keep us entertained. The favourite with guests was the ‘test your reflexes’ wall, where participants had to tap the coloured button when it flashed. This brought out the competitiveness in most!
The conference ended on a bright note (literally – there was bright sunshine in Edinburgh that day!). We are all very much looking forward to the next conference, which will be held in Birmingham in September 2026!
