Annual Meeting 2020

Achieving Health Equity

Opportunities for Psychosomatic Science
The 78th Annual Scientific Meeting of the Society for Biopsychosocial Science and Medicine

In early March, 2020 at the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak in the United States and shortly after the Governor of California declared a public health emergency in the state, the SBSM Council made the decision to cancel the 2020 SBSM Annual Meeting in Long Beach, California.  The decision was a very difficult one since the SBSM Annual Meeting holds a special place in the hearts and minds of those who have ever attended – at the time there were 53 confirmed cases of the virus in California, and 3,000 deaths from the virus worldwide.  How the world has changed since then.

While circumstances have dictated that we re-imagine the Annual Meeting, we remain committed to providing an open scientific and clinical forum where investigators and clinicians from allied disciplines communicate, pool their knowledge, consider problems of conceptual relationships, and develop ideas to stimulate further research.  In the weeks following the cancellation of the 2020 Annual Meeting, the SBSM Council, in concert with the Program Committee, reviewed the evidence-based data available and made the decision to shift the timing of the Annual Meeting ahead 6 months -- from March to September -- to a time when the probability of conducting an in-person meeting was greater.

We are now arranging for the specifics of the 2021 Annual Meeting – the re-imagined 78th Annual Scientific Meeting of the Society for Biopsychosocial Science and Medicine and no one will be happier to announce the details of that meeting than Program Chair John Ruiz and the Program Committee who have worked so hard, and for so long -- to bring a meeting to you, and you to a meeting. Watch this space for details to come.

But that is not all.  The circumstances that caused the cancellation of the 2020 Annual Meeting -- the global COVID-19 pandemic -- and the efforts to stem its transmission have shined a light on the importance of psychosomatic science in contemporary health and healthcare.

To highlight the extensive work being done by SBSM members on COVID-19 and on complementary science in stress, disparities, and biobehavioral pathways, and to build collaborative bridges to non-SBSM researchers and stakeholders who share in the goal of health equity, SBSM has committed to providing two days of virtual programming, at low or no cost, on December 3 and 4, 2020. The SBSM 2020 Virtual Meeting “Pursuing Health Equity in the Context of COVID-19: The Essential Role of Psychosomatic Science” will feature submitted science and select invited speakers from the 2020 Annual Meeting. Abstract submissions are being accepted now and we hope you can join us.