American Committee on Clinical Tropical Medicine and Travelers' Health (ACCTMTH)

The American Committee on Clinical Tropical Medicine and Travelers' Health (ACCTMTH) is the clinicians' group within ASTMH, and includes civilian, military and governmental experts in travelers' health, tropical infection and tropical disease.


Intensive Update Course

September 30 - October 1, 2013
Marines' Memorial Club & Hotel
609 Sutter Street
San Francisco, CA 94102

This course provides a broad overview of the core topics in clinical tropical medicine and travelers' health. Presented in a two-day condensed format, it is an excellent review for health care professionals.

More information will be available in early spring.

CTropMed® - Certificate of Knowledge in Clinical Tropical Medicine and Travelers' Health

The Society fosters professional development in the fields of clinical tropical medicine and travelers' health. The Society has advocated and facilitated the development of new training programs in these fields and has established a mechanism for accrediting them. In addition, ASTMH has prepared an examination to assess and recognize individual excellence in training and knowledge. Passing this examination leads to a CTropMed®-Certificate of Knowledge in Clinical Tropical Medicine and Travelers' Health.

The next exam will be held November, 2014 in New Orleans. Click here for details.

ACCTMTH Member Benefits

Clinical Consultants Directory
Any ACCTMTH member in good standing can list in a standardized format details of their clinical practice in the directory, which is available to the public on the ASTMH web site.

View the directory.

To be listed, contact Buffy Finn, Member Services Administrator at bfinn@astmh.org or at 111 Deer Lake Road, Suite 100, Deerfield, IL 60015, or fax +1-847-480-9282.

Awards and Scholarships

Benjamin H. Kean Traveling Fellowship in Tropical Medicine
The American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene has established a fellowship in Dr. Kean's name, administered by the American Committee on Clinical Tropical Medicine and Traveler's Health (ACCTMTH), that will provide travel expenses for medical students who arrange clinical or research electives in tropical areas. Round-trip airfare (best-price ticketing) and up to $1,000 for living expenses will be provided. Kean Fellows will be required to prepare and present reports describing their activities. View the application guidelines.

Elsevier Clinical Research Award
Clinically oriented abstracts submitted by students (including residents and fellows) will be judged based on the quality and impact of the work. The three top abstracts will receive a book award provided by Elsevier at the annual meeting by the ASTMH Clinical Group (American Committee on Clinical Tropical Medicine and Travelers’ Health – ACCTMTH). This award recognizes excellence in clinically oriented research presented by a student at the annual meeting. All students and persons in training, including undergraduate, graduate (Masters and PhD) as well as medical students, residents and fellows are eligible. View the application guidelines. Submit your application online beginning April 3.

Elsevier Clinical Research Award Recipients
Else Bijker, 2012
Grace Chan, 2012
Jesica Christensen, 2012
Andrew Brent, 2011
Elizabeth Schlaudecker, 2011
Luther Bartelt, 2011
Paul Krezanoski, 2010
Kevin Esch, 2010
Jennifer Downs, 2010 

Marcolongo Lecture
A graduate of the medical school at the University of Rome, Italy, Vincenzo Marcolongo did his post-graduate training at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, and obtained his doctorate in tropical medicine back at the University of Rome. In his late 30s, while practicing in his native Rome, and with the advent of mass travel, he realized that an international effort of cooperation was needed to assist ill travelers all over the world. He realized that travelers needed to be educated about health risks and tropical diseases they would encounter on trips to ever more exotic destinations. Of particular interest to him was malaria, and the prevention of the unnecessary morbidity and mortality it causes among travelers. So in 1960 he founded the International Association for Medical Assistance to Travellers (IAMAT), a non-profit foundation, and organized physicians from all over the world into a network assisting travelers.

In his own words: “Distinguished physicians and respected medical institutions, with a sense of solidarity which makes them like one family, are now working in harmony to assist the traveler who may require medical assistance on his journey...The need for peace and understanding between the peoples of the world has never been as great as now. Peace can come only with understanding, and travel is an important means of acquiring it. It is, however, only through the full consciousness of ‘the essence of the human’ that we shall be able to open the difficult paths of international relationships. As a traveler you have an excellent opportunity to serve your country and the world in creating ties of friendship. To you, therefore, we bring this message, a message sparked with beauty all its own: ‘The search for the human’.”

Through his foundation and numerous publications he worked tirelessly to inform and educate the public. Every year tens of thousands of travelers rely on the advice and information provided by IAMAT. Vincenzo Marcolongo died at age 66 in February 1988. His foresight, compassion and generosity serve as inspiration for the continuation of his work through the Foundation.

The Marcolongo Lecture was instituted in 1990; the list of speakers follows.

2012 Gallbladder Carriage of Salmonella: From Chile to Nepal Buddha Basnyat
2011 Prevention of Mother To Child Transmission of HIV Infection and HIV Free Survival: Perspectives From Resource Limited Settings Frederick Sawe

2010

Neonatal Infections- A Global Perspective 

Anita K.M. Zaidi
2009 Paradigm Shifts in Tuberculosis Drug Susceptibility Testing: New Dos and Don'ts

David Moore
2008 Understanding Neurocysticercosis: Advances in the Last 50 Years

Raul Isturiz
2007 Human African Trypanosomiasis: A Neglected Diseasse with Low Prevalence but High Impact

Christian Burri
2006 Severe Malaria: a Moving Target?

Kevin Marsh
2005 Cystic Echinococcosis: to Treat or not to Treat?

Enrico Brunetti
2004 Human African Trypanosomiasis: The Past Explains the Present and is the Key to the Future

Jacques Pepin
2003 Japanese Encephalitis: West Nile's Ugly Sister

Tom Solomon
2002 Melioidosis: The Peril in the Paddy Fields

David Dance
2001 Leishmaniasis in the Sudan

Edward Zijlstra
2000 Leptospirosis, the Hide and Seek Disease

Solly Faine
1999 Malaria Prophylaxis: A New Approach

Eli Schwartz
1998 Puerto Rico Meeting Canceled (Hurricane)

 
1997 Clinical Features & Epidemiology of Tick-Borne Encephalitis in Central and Eastern Europe

M. Roggendorg
1996 An Infectious Disease Specialist in Hait: AIDS, Typhoid Fever and Civil Unrest

Jean Pape
1995 Tuberculosis: Developments in Epidemiology, Diagnosis, Treatment and Prevention

JJ Ellner
1994 Management of Severe and Complicated Malaria

Nick White
1993 Human Rabies: Clinical Features, Pathogenesis and Potential Treatment

Thiravat Hemauchuda
1992 HIV and Opportunistic Infections in Northeastern Brazil

Anastacio de Queiroz Sousa
1991 Tropical Dermatology

Anthony Bryceson
1990 Radiological Aspects of Tropical and Parasitic Disease

Michael Reeder

Clinical Sessions at ASTMH Annual Meeting

Three or four half-day sessions, which are purely clinical in nature, are organized by ACCTMTH as well as an annual pre-meeting course. For the 2010 Annual Meeting, efforts were made to group the clinical content into the first two days of the conference (which follows the Clinical Pre-Meeting Course). The annual business meeting is preceded by the Marcolongo Lecture, an invited speaker of international stature, and a travelers' health and malaria update by CDC.

Clinical and Educational Resources

Only open access, non-profit, quality sites will be posted here. If you are aware of sites that would be useful to the members of the clinical group please contact the Clinical Group President with a request to have posted.

Images in Tropical Medicine Quiz: http://www.astmh.org//Content/NavigationMenu/Education/ClinicalImagesQuiz/CIQ_2.htm

Creepy Dreadful Wonderful Parasites: http://parasitewonders.blogspot.com/

Gorgas Clinical Cases: http://gorgas.dom.uab.edu/2010cases/100809.html

ASTMH-accredited Courses: www.astmh.org/Approved_Diploma_Courses/2543.htm

CDC Travelers Heath:  www.cdc.gov/travel

Zaiman Tropical Medicine Slides: www.astmh.org/Zaiman_Slides.htm

Global Health Open Access Library:  www.globalhealth.umn.edu/lecturelibrary/home.html

CDC:  DPDx (Laboratory identification of Parasites of Public Health Concern):  http://www.dpd.cdc.gov/dpdx/Default.htm
 

Join ACCTMTH


To join ACCTMTH (you must also join the parent society, ASTMH) contact:

Buffy Finn
Member Services Administrator
American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene
111 Deer Lake Road, Suite 100
Deerfield, IL 60015
Phone: +1-847-480-9592
Fax: +1-847-480-9282
E-mail: bfinn@astmh.org


ACCTMTH Executive Council Members

Position Member Term Expires
President Patricia Joyce  2014
President Elect  Richard Oberhelman  2015
Past President  David Hamer  2013
Secretary/Treasurer Beth Kirkpatrick  2015
Councilor Chandy John 2013
Councilor Michael Libman  2014
Councilor Brett Hendel-Paterson  2015