IMED 2018, a leading meeting on Emerging Diseases organized by ISID, took place in Vienna, Austria on November 9-12th. The conference hosted nearly 600 registered attendees from academic research, governmental, non-profit, private and hospital sectors, and from top executives to entry-level and student researchers from 90 different countries. IMED welcomed learners with more than 25% of attendees attending as Early Career Investigators, highlighting the mentoring and continuing education credit opportunities that IMED affords. Over 800 scientific abstracts were submitted with 62 chosen for oral presentations and nearly 350 chosen for poster presentations.

Key themes covered at the meeting included: The 100th Anniversary of the 1918 In Influenza Pandemic—Preventing and Stopping Epidemics in 2018, Detection and Response to Infectious Disease Threats, Antimicrobial Resistance in the One Health Context, Epidemic Forecasting Across Borders, the Future of Endemic and Emerging Diseases, Biodiversity Loss and Emerging Infectious Diseases, Open Source Imagery and Machine Learning Tools, Epidemic Preparedness, and Neglected Emerging Diseases to name a few. IMED 2018 also featured a traveling exhibition associated with the ongoing Smithsonian Institute exhibit entitled “Outbreak: Epidemics in a Connected World.”

ISID is grateful to collaborating organizations including: Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), Connecting Organizations for Regional Disease Surveillance (CORDS), Chatham House, EcoHealth Alliance, FAO, HealthMap, University of Geneva, One Health Platform, Planetary Health Alliance, Radiant Earth Foundation, Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, TEPHINET, and Veterinary University of Vienna.

Thank you to all who attended and presented at IMED 2018.