RESUMEN
BACKGROUND: Every two years, German-speaking dermatologic specialist groups gather in Berlin to share the latest developments at Germanýs largest dermatologic conference, the Annual Meeting of the Germany Society of Dermatology (DDG). Because this conference has a lasting effect on dermatologic practice and research, understanding what is moving the specialist groups means understanding what is driving dermatology in Germany. METHODS: We used word network analysis to compile and visualize the information embedded in the contribution titles to the DDG Annual Meeting in 2019. We extracted words, contributing cities and inter-connections. The data was standardized, visualized using network graphs and analyzed using common network analysis parameters. RESULTS: A total of 5509 words were extracted from 1150 contribution titles. The most frequently used words were "therapy", "patients", and "psoriasis". The highest number of contributions came from Hamburg, Berlin and Munich. High diversity in research topics was found, as well as a well-connected research network. CONCLUSIONS: Focus of the well-connected German-speaking dermatology community meeting 2019 was patient and therapy centered and lies especially on the diseases psoriasis and melanoma. Network graph analysis can provide helpful insights and help planning future congresses. It can facilitate the choice which contributors to include as imbalances become apparent. Moreover, it can help distributing the topics more evenly across the whole dermatologic spectrum.
RESUMEN
BACKGROUND: The annual conference of the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology is one the largest dermatology conferences worldwide. OBJECTIVES: Network analysis can be used for in-depth insight into trending topics and underlying trends at the congress. MATERIALS & METHODS: Network analysis was employed to assess the entirety of the submitted abstracts to the congress in 2019. The data were processed, analysed, and visualised using easy-to-understand network graphs. Topics were then compared to their respective global burden (Disease Adjusted Life Years [DALYs]) and the number of respective publications on PubMed in the year 2018. RESULTS: Overall, 1,280 lecture titles and 1,941 poster titles were included in the final analysis. The most frequently used terms were "patients" (n = 473), "treatment" (n = 301), and "psoriasis" (n = 335). Relative to DALYs, "psoriasis" (+21.9%) among others, was rather over-represented, while "fungal skin diseases" (-7.6%) and "urticaria" (-6.4%) were under-represented. Compared to the relative number of PubMed publications in 2018, "psoriasis" (+20.3%), "acne" (+7.9%), and "alopecia" (+3.1%) were over-represented, while "melanoma" (-22.5%), "dermatitis" (-4.2%) and "pruritus" (-3.4%) were rather under-represented. CONCLUSION: The network analysis showed that the congress was a patient and therapy-centred event. An explanation for the particular focus on chronic inflammatory skin diseases and melanoma would be the introduction of new therapies at the congress. To delineate trends over time, a longitudinal network analysis including several congresses should be conducted and could be used to determine additional topics to be included in future events.