A group photo
Zhang Weixiang, a master’s student of medicinal administration from the Institute of Chinese Medical Sciences (ICMS), University of Macau (UM), has received full funding to present his paper at the 52nd annual meeting of the Drug Information Association (DIA) in the United States. This is the tenth consecutive year that a student from the ICMS has received full funding from the DIA’s annual meeting. The DIA serves as a global forum for those involved in healthcare product development and life cycle management to exchange knowledge and collaborate in a neutral setting. It has more than 20,000 members worldwide, including governmental health agencies, academic organisations, and pharmaceutical companies. Held in Philadelphia, USA, from 26 June to 30 June, the 52nd DIA annual meeting attracted 450 exhibitors and more than 7,000 attendees from around the world, including regulatory officials, academic elite, medical groups, and professionals from the pharmaceutical industry. This year’s event received over 3,000 student paper abstracts from more than 40 countries. Only 20 students were selected to receive full funding to present their findings in the Student Poster session of the meeting. UM student Zhang Weixiang not only received full funding from the meeting, but also won the Student Award for his paper titled ‘Three Decades Research Advances in Pharmaceutics and Drug Delivery: A Global View of Big Data’. His research combined qualitative and quantitative data analysis approaches with various network visualisation and mapping tools, to provide a global view of big data on research advances and changing research foci in the field of pharmaceutics and drug delivery over the past three decades. Zhang’s paper were supervised by Prof Wang Yitao and Dr Ouyang Defang. This is the tenth consecutive year since 2007, when Prof Bian Ying from the ICMS initiated the activities, that a student from the ICMS has received full funding from the DIA’s annual meeting. Other students who have received full funding from the DIA annual meeting include Hu Yuanjia (who is now an assistant professor in the ICMS), Liu Jingjing, Yin Shi, Ye Mao, Su Weiping, Bai Jishan, Shi Yunzhen, Yang Xueyan, Song Meng-Huan, and Zhang Weixiang.
