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Contents: Brisbane: Venue for IAP Congress 2004 WHO Classification of Skin Tumours Consensus Conference
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THINGS TO DO AND SEE IN BRISBANE
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The Convention Centre is situated in an area of Brisbane called South Bank. This is on the opposite side of the river to the central business district where most of the hotels are situated. It is within easy walking distance of most of the hotels. South Bank was the site of the Brisbane Expo in 1988. The site has been
redeveloped as an up-market residential enclave with gardens, walkways
covered by flowering shrubs, entertainment, food outlets, speciality shops
and a swimming pool with a small artificial beach. The entertainment and
bar-b-que following the opening ceremony on the Monday evening will be
staged on this beach. Do we have a volunteer for a rescue demonstration
by the Life Savers?
Above and top: Walking paths in Southbank near Rydges Hotel and the Convention Centre
Jacaranda tree near the city hall in central Brisbane
The artificial beach and pool at Southbank
There are numerous outdoor cafes at Southbank This excursion will include a visit to the Australia Zoo, owned and operated by the famous crocodile hunter, Steve Irwin. The excursion to the Gold Coast, situated 100 km south of Brisbane, will include lunch in a restaurant right on the beach. There will be visits to observation points for viewing the beaches, and a short cruise through the up-market canal housing development at Surfers Paradise.
Above: A Jacaranda tree in central Brisbane. Jacarandas, native to South America, have been planted throughout Brisbane. During October and November, they come into bloom in their thousands and transform the suburban landscape. The tour in Brisbane itself will include an opportunity to see at close quarters some of Australia’s unique marsupials, koalas and kangaroos. There will also be a demonstration of sheep dogs moving small flocks of sheep through an obstacle course that simulates what happens during shearing time. |
| Two Brisbane Pathologists
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Two Brisbane Pathologists who have made discoveries of international significance:
Edward (Ted) Derrick: A Brisbane Pathologist who identified the disease Q-fever. Edward Derrick – One of the first
pathologists in Brisbane identified a previously unknown disease which
he named Q (for query) Fever. He described the clinical features of the
disease; identified that it was an occupational disease of abattoir workers
and farmers who raised cattle. He showed that it was caused by a living
agent that could be transmitted experimentally to guinea pigs and maintained
in a series of guinea pig passages. The causative Rickettsia was identified
by Frank McFarlane Burnet at the Hall Institute in Melbourne from specimens
sent to him by Derrick.
John Kerr: A Brisbane Pathologist who introduced the concept Apoptosis John Kerr – Described the process of
cell death which he named “apoptosis.” This important fundamental
concept has led to a vast amount of research that has produced widespread
advances in our understanding of disease processes. Innumerable researchers
around the world are now publishing papers on Apoptosis. |
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PATHOLOGY IN SLOVENIA
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Dusan Ferluga was the main organizer of the 19th European
Congress of Pathology. He was ably assisted by the other members of his
department. Professor Ferluga’s department is situated in the teaching hospital in Ljubljana. The department is responsible for the teaching of pathology to medical students and for providing service to the hospital and consultations for the pathologists in smaller cities throughout the country. The undergraduate medical course is a six year course. There are 150 students in each year.
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Vale: |
David Dahlin: Internationally famous bone pathologist from the Mayo Clinic, died in September 2003 |
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The Frankfurt Book Fair |
I heard about the Frankfurt Book Fair from Timothy Horne, a senior editor of the publishing firm Churchill Livingstone of Edinburgh in 1985. Tim was the publisher for a book entitled “A Colour Atlas of Anatomical Pathology” which I wrote with my photographer colleague Brian Stewart. After meeting us in Brisbane, Tim was going to the book fair in Frankfurt. He said it was the major international meeting of publishers at which they made contacts with other people in the business, and negotiated rights and licences for translations and distribution in various countries. This contact was the first I had had with publishers and book publications. In the years since, particularly in the past ten years, I have had an increasing exposure to this fascinating world. When our photographs and manuscripts for the Colour Atlas were ready, we posted them to Edinburgh. At this time the Royal Brisbane Hospital installed its very first fax machine. One machine for the whole complex was housed in the Medical Superintendent’s office, whose permission was needed to use it. It was operated by making a telephone call to an area exchange in the centre of Brisbane. The exchange operator made the connection, and the fax was sent by my pressing the start button. This new means of communication was quite revolutionary. Timothy Horne would fax some image adjustments from Edinburgh for Brian and I to check. I received these images in the morning, and in the afternoon I faxed them back to Edinburgh with our comments. Timothy would receive the faxes when he entered his office the morning after he had sent them. This means of communication was incomparably faster than sending messages by air mail. By the time we did our second edition in 1995, every department in the hospital had a fax machine, and many people had one at home as well.
Both Springer and Elsevier (below) had a very big displays. The books were displayed according to topics.
In December 2001, Timothy enquired whether we would like to do a third edition of our Colour Atlas. We agreed to this. We still had all the original photographs from our first edition; so these and new photographs which I added, were sent to Edinburgh, this time to be scanned with digital technology. The results are stunning and the third edition is now on sale.
Two books by Australian authors published by Elsevier. The changes in printing technology in these 20 years have been profound. The change in the organization of publishing companies has been equally profound. Churchill Livingstone has changed hands a number of times and it is now part of a very large publishing conglomerate called Elsevier. Instead of a large number of small medical publishers, there are now a number of giants like Elsevier, Springer, Blackwell. As has happened in many other areas of globalisation of business enterprises, with the rise of large conglomerates, there has been another round of establishment of smaller companies. With the introduction of CD Rom publishing in the early 1990’s, many of these newer companies have specialised in this form of publishing technology.
Big publishers like Time Warner Books would have paid upwards of half a million dollars for their space. Smaller publishers entertained customers at one of the many cafeterias situated throughout the pavilions. The caterers charged 1 euro for each cup, plate or utensil. Customers purchased blue tokens which were redeemed for 1 euro each when the borrowed items were returned. With my now extensive interest in publications and my contacts with publishing companies, I was excited to find that the Frankfurt Book Fair was to be held on the week-end following the IAP Congress in Amsterdam. I decided to take the opportunity to attend. Frankfurt is one of the large cities in Germany, situated on the river Main, a tributary of the Rhine. For centuries it has been an important centre, because at this point there was a shallow water crossing of the river. Armies and traders moving north and south in Europe made use of this crossing point. The name Frankfurt, comes from “ford of the Franks”. It is not surprising that as a result of this geographical feature, Frankfurt has become a world centre of commerce and banking. It is of interest that the Rothschild family opened its first bank there in 1798. Ever since the middle ages, international trade fairs have been held
in the city. Today the holding of large trade fairs in the vast convention
centre complex is still a major activity of the city. Johannes Gutenberg,
who lived in Mainz, invented the first printing press with moveable metal
letters in the mid 1400s. The city fathers of Frankfurt moved quickly
to capitalize on this invention in Mainz which was geographically quite
close to their city, and they started the first book fair. The Frankfurt
Book Fair was held annually right up to the mid 17th century, and during
this period it was the main centre for publishers to market their books.
For the next 200 years, Leipzig became the centre of the book trading
industry.
Big publishers had chairs and tables where customers could sit and read books or be interviewed. The convention centre is situated on a large area of land in Frankfurt. Many large pavilions are crowded with the displays of the booksellers. Each pavilion has a special theme - for example, medical publications, digital publishing, audiovisual publishing, special publications from individual countries, etc. The first display of digital publications was opened in 1992. The convention centre is virtually a city within a city. It has its own bank, underground railway station and bus stations, and visitors are transported from one pavilion to another by small mini buses. In the open spaces between the pavilions, numerous outdoor stalls sell a vast array of goods, including vintage and antique books and handicrafts of all descriptions.
Above: Bloomsbury Press stand with Harry Potter fans of all ages examining the latest editions The Book Fair is held during the second week in October and is open to the public on the last three days. The first days are closed, so that publishers and other professionals working in the industry have an opportunity to conduct their business without distraction. In 2002, there were 850 exhibitors from sixty countries with 18,000 titles in fifty-three languages, as well as 265,679 visitors to the fair. In 2003, there were even more publishers and many more visitors. Surveys of publishers indicate that the main reason for attending the fair is to make and extend contacts, and to trade in rights and licences. The surveys report success rates in these endeavours to be over 70%. In 2003, 11,325 journalists from ninety-four countries came to report on activities at the Book Fair. Exhibition space is at a premium and bigger companies like Elsevier, Time Warner etc. would pay about $500,000 for their space. Medical books take fifth place in the top ten specialist fields in the Frankfurt Rights Catalogue. Education is seventh and Children’s Books are ninth in this list. In whatever terms it is measured, this is a very big enterprise. The hotels, public transport, city tours and local tours are crowded with publishers and others visiting Frankfurt for the Book Fair. Hotels double their prices for the week of the fair. The pavilions themselves were a hive of activity and many of the displays were extremely colourful, particularly those dealing with publication of children’s books. Bloomsbury Press had a display of Harry Potter books, and children and adults were eagerly perusing some of them. One young fan was wearing Harry Potter type glasses. Springer had a very large display with books arranged by topics. There was also a special desk for negotiation of rights and licences. Blackwell had a big display. I noted a posthumous publication on Liver Disease by Sheila Sherlock. Her first edition was published in the late 1950s. I remember one of my undergraduate clinical teachers being excited by the copy he had just bought. Elsevier had a large stand where they were exhibiting their most recently published books. I photographed a small selection of Australian authors. Time Warner and
W.H.O. had big displays. Larger publishers had special areas for entertaining
customers. Smaller publishers utilised the take-away food outlets which
were strategically placed throughout the exhibition halls. The providers
of food charged one euro deposit for each cup, glass, plate or other utensil
that a customer used. They gave the customer a blue token which could
be cashed when the items were returned. This rather large deposit prevented
the items from disappearing too readily. |
MEETINGS |
Intercontinental Congress of Pathology at Iguaçu
Falls, June 9 – 13, 2004. XXV Congress of the International Academy of Pathology Australian Society of Cytology Inc. 34th Annual
Scientific and Business Meeting 20th European Congress of Pathology at Parlais
des Congres, Paris, France. |
WHO Classification of Skin Tumours Consensus Conference
Back row (L-R) Rein Willemze, Chris Meijer, Philip
LeBoit, Werner Kempf, |
