This year's BHIVA Autumn Conference was once again held at the QEII Centre in the heart of London. The conference was considered extremely successful and received very positive feedback from delegates. As customary, the Autumn Conference included Parallel Sessions with the Children's HIV Association.

Delegate feedback from the Autumn Conference reported that the programme contained many interesting and thought provoking presentations and that these were highly relevant to the professional and educational needs of the audience. 531 delegates attended the conference and this number included 10 BHIVA scholarship winners, and over 50 community/voluntary sector complimentary registration places.

'Very educational and keeping with change in our practices'

'Great conference – high quality presentations and very friendly atmosphere'

'First time coming to the conference and I have learnt so much'

Conference Programme

The conference programme covered a wide range of topics relevant to HIV including updated BHIVA Guidelines and Audit sessions. Other topics that were covered included late diagnoses, testing and treatment, PrEP, gene therapy and the effects of 'austerity' on the HIV population. The conference also contained lectures on best practice management, interactive clinical conundrums and Clinico-pathological and pregnancy and breastfeeding case presentations, which were presented during the very popular BHIVA lunchtime workshops. The BHIVA Foundation Lecture covered 'Visceral adiposity in the modern era'.

Our international speakers included Dr Jordan Lake from The University of Texas Health Science Centre at Houston.

Events

As usual, a drinks reception was held on the Thursday evening and this event was well attended and enjoyed by all.

Prizes and Awards

There were a number of awards presented at this year's Autumn Conference; the Janssen Exchange Scholarships in collaboration with BHIVA, Barts Health NHS Trust and the University of Zimbabwe, the Brian Gazzard Lectureship in HIV Medicine, the BHIVA Research Awards, the BHIVA Don Jeffries Research Award and the BHIVA Best Case Presentation Awards.

Janssen Exchange Scholarships 2016 in collaboration with BHIVA, Barts Health NHS Trust and University of Zimbabwe

Janssen, in collaboration with BHIVA, Barts Health NHS Trust and the University of Zimbabwe (UZ) recently supported an Exchange Scholarship for one UK-based training grade doctor, pharmacist or nurse (working in the field of HIV medicine and who is also a BHIVA member) and one Zimbabwean trainee/physician. The Exchange Scholarship enabled the winning UK scholar to travel to Zimbabwe to take part in a placement at a teaching hospital HIV unit for 4 weeks, providing a unique opportunity to increase understanding of the treatment and management of HIV in the poorly resourced world. The winning Zimbabwean scholar was presented with the opportunity to observe specialist HIV multidisciplinary in-patient care in the NHS at Barts Trust in London for a period of 4 weeks, to offer the Scholar the chance to work within a different health structure, noting challenges of the NHS.

Janssen representative Bernadette Morrin, Lord Norman Fowler and BHIVA Chair Dr David Asboe presented the Janssen Exchange Scholarship winners with a certificate in recognition of their scholarship.

The winners of this scholarship are:

• Dr Stern Chisiyiwa – University of Zimbabwe

• Dr Fionnuala Finnerty – Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust

Left to Right: Lord Norman Fowler, Mrs Bernadette Morrin, Dr Chloe Orkin, Dr Yvonne Gilleece (accepting on behalf of Dr Fionnuala Finnerty), Dr Stern Chisiyiwa and Dr David Asboe

Brian Gazzard Lectureship in HIV Medicine

The lectureship was set up by BHIVA in honour of its Founding Chair, Professor Brian Gazzard, and is now in its 12th year. The lecture is selected to be presented from a short list of proposed topics and eminent speakers put forward for consideration by the BHIVA Conferences Subcommittee.

This annual prize was awarded to Professor Sarah Fidler, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, for her presentation 'HIV remission: viral suppression in the absence of ART'.

Left to Right: Lord Norman Fowler and Dr David Asboe present Professor Sarah Fidler with a commemorative trophy bowl and engraved pen in recognition of his Lectureship Award

BHIVA Research Awards

Originally launched in 2006, the BHIVA Research Awards are open, through competitive application, to all BHIVA members for research projects that impact on the improvement of clinical care and management of people living with HIV in the UK. A minimum of £30,000 per annum is available, to be distributed amongst the successful applicants according to the quality of the submitted proposals, with a maximum of £10,000 award per application. The awards panel is chaired by an independent chair. Applications for grants or funding for research or other projects made directly to the Association are reviewed by the BHIVA Executive Committee at its meetings and considered based on merit and their relevance to the objectives of BHIVA.

BHIVA received eleven research award applications from its members in 2016, the standards of which were extremely high. BHIVA provided research awards to six UK-based applicant members.

Left to Right: Lord Norman Fowler, Dr Jasmini Alagaratnam, Dr Paul Scott, Dr Paul Collini, Dr Sengeziwe Sibeko, Mr Alistair Duncan and Dr David Asboe

The winners of this scholarship are noted below:

• Dr Jasmini Alagaratnam, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust

• Mr Alastair Duncan, Guy's & St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust

• Dr Paul Collini, Royal Hallamshire Hospital

• Dr Lisa Hamzah, King's College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust

• Dr Sengeziwe Sibeko, University of Oxford

• Dr Paul Scott, Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust

The BHIVA Don Jeffries Research Award

In 2012, as a memorial to Professor Donald Jeffries OBE, the BHIVA Education and Scientific Subcommittee instituted an award for the top-scoring project in the BHIVA Research Awards applications. This award has been set up in perpetuity, to honour Professor Jeffries' unerring support of the British HIV Association.

This annual prize was awarded to Dr Jasmini Alagaratnam, for her presentation 'Investigation of neuronal damage in HIV to Inform Future HIV - Cure Strategies'.

Left to Right: Lord Fowler and David Asboe presented Dr Jasmini Alagaratnam with a commemorative engraved trophy bowl in recognition of her Research Award

BHIVA Best Case Presentation Awards

Two awards available from presentations made during the case presentation lunchtime workshops held on Thursday and Friday. Overall the standard was extremely high and it was difficult to select one winner from each session.

Acknowledgements

During the conference a formal thank you was made by the Chair of the British HIV Association to the full BHIVA Conferences Subcommittee. In addition the following Committee Members were presented with gifts of appreciation:

• Dr Duncan Churchill - Retiring Guidelines Subcommittee Chair

• Dr Andrew Freedman - Retiring Audit and Standards Subcommittee Chair

• Dr Chloe Orkin, Retiring Conferences Subcommittee Chair

• Dr Adrian Palfreeman - Retiring Vice Chair

• Professor Caroline Sabin, Conference Local Host

Retiring BHIVA Chair, Dr David Asboe

Dr Adrian Palfreeman (Vice Chair, BHIVA) and Dr Duncan Churchill (Honorary Treasurer, BHIVA) congratulated the outstanding achievements of retiring Chair, Dr David Asboe. Faarid and Fatima Patel from Mediscript also said a few words of thanks to Dr Asboe and then presented Dr Asboe with a gift. Dr Asboe then said a few words and thanked the Executive Committee for all their support and commitment during his term as Chair.