This year’s ESCMID Global took place in Vienna, Austria from April 11–14, and what an illuminating event it was! The sun shone throughout the event, which seemed to spotlight the conference happenings.
From the minute I entered the building on Saturday morning, I was rushed off my feet with talks, sessions, and meetings galore! And from the get go, I noticed quite a few recurring themes across clinical microbiology and infectious disease. Some of which I’d like to share with you.
As expected, next-generation sequencing was on everyone’s lips, with sessions directly targeting metagenomics for infectious disease diagnostics. The Meet-the-Experts session on Saturday morning was packed with attendees – further showcasing the interest and importance of this application. I was grateful to speak with both Etienne Ruppe and Stefan Green, who hosted this talk, and will be sharing the article that followed their session in the upcoming weeks. But for now, here’s a teaser…
“It’s a little chaotic on the industry side, with companies battling for lower pricing and lower read, but this is what helps us improve. As scientists, we’re always striving to do better. And in the end, we all win – as researchers, as clinicians, and ultimately, it’s better for patients…”
Another popular discussion point at the conference was diagnostic challenges in low-resource countries, and what the future holds. These talks inspired a lot of questions – is point of care testing the future for diagnostics in low-resource settings; can CRP assist in battling anti-microbial resistance; what about “brain drain” and its effect on these areas? We’ll be putting these questions to the speakers behind these talks, in the coming weeks, to uncover the truths and opportunities to break open these diagnostic difficulties.
One of my highlights was the return of the Selective Pressure Quiz Show, in which teams battled it out to prove their knowledge of infectious disease was above the rest. With an audience participation quiz alongside the main team event, this session was thoroughly enjoyable (despite my poor attempt to identify antibiotics) and I expect it to come back even stronger next year in Munich, Germany!
What were your highlights of ESCMID Global 2025? Is there a particular topic or study you learned about that we should be covering? Let us know: edit@thepathologist.com
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