UPDATED: The 53rd Australasian College of Dermatology ASM scheduled for Adelaide has been postponed until next year.

The ACD has announced (Friday 13th March) that the College  has decided to postpone the 2020 ASM from 16-19 May at the Adelaide Convention Centre. The new dates for the meeting are 9-13 April 2021 at the Adelaide Convention Centre.

The American Academy of Dermatology (AAD) Annual Meeting has also cancelled its annual meeting later this month.

AAD said in a statement it had been closely monitoring CDC and WHO advice along with travel restrictions issues by companies and medical institutions. 

“Over the last several days, the AAD has received notices from faculty nationwide who have been put on a travel ban from their institutions. Due to the limited number of academic faculty able to present at our meeting and other related factors, we are no longer able to host the high-caliber meeting that our attendees and exhibitors have come to expect.”

They said they were also cognisant of “physicians’ need to be available to and healthy for their own patients, communities, and countries”. 

“After carefully weighing the emerging facts, as well as our duties to the Academy, our members, other meeting attendees, and the local communities we as dermatologists serve, the AAD has made the difficult, but necessary decision to cancel the AAD 2020 Annual Meeting in Denver.”

Locally, the Sun Exposure Summit scheduled for Brisbane next week has been postponed after host institute QIMR Berghofer escalated their COVID-19 mitigation strategies.

“It wasn’t a decision taken lightly, but the institute has a number of irreplaceable assets that may be impossible to salvage if operations were to be affected by an outbreak among staff, necessitating a very cautious approach,” a statement on the Summit website said.

It’s also too early for significant updates on the 29th EADV Congress scheduled for Vienna in October.

The EADV said in a March 4 statement that they were closely monitoring the current outbreak of COVID-19 and taking advice from authorities including the WHO, the European CDC and national health departments. 

“As the situation is evolving rapidly, the EADV will continue to work closely with the local authorities to ensure safe events and will follow any instructions given to safeguard the health of the delegates.”

The European Hair Research Society biennial meeting scheduled for Sheffield, UK in June is currently still on but the situation is being monitored.