Yesterday, the World Symposium on Assisted Reproduction was held in Valencia, organized by IVIRMA in collaboration with the Swiss Embassy in Spain and Andorra. The meeting, held in the Santiago Grisolía Auditorium of the Valencia Science Museum, brought together some of the world’s leading experts in the sector. The scientific conference, which was directed by Dr. Ernesto Bosch, director of IVI Valencia, has revolved around issues such as public awareness of science, ethics and obstacles to access to Assisted Reproduction treatments. The Symposium was inaugurated by Professor Antonio Pellicer, CEO of IVIRMA, Ms. Amparo García Layunta, General Director of Health Assistance of the Generalitat Valenciana, and Dr. María Neira, Director of the Department of Public Health and Environment of the who, the latter by vieoconference. For his part, the closing ceremony was carried out by the Swiss Ambassador to Spain and Andorra, Hanspeter Mock.
“We wanted to take advantage of the return to a certain ‘normality’ to organize this Symposium, where we have brought together world-renowned experts to discuss and firmly commit to innovation as a driver of change, of evolution. We are immersed in a demographic winter that generates a context of concern and uncertainty. Today, with this meeting, doctors and scientists of great prestige meet to outline the present and future axes that will help us reverse this trend in the drop in birth rates and current maternity habits”commented Prof. Pellicer.
Assisted Reproduction and its relationship with COVID-19
We cannot talk about news and science without naming the Coronavirus. For two years we have been immersed in an exceptional health situation and, for this reason, we wanted to have Dr. María Neira, director of the WHO Department of Public Health and Environment, at this event. Her intervention, carried out by videoconference, analyzed the way in which COVID-19 has affected Reproductive Medicine. “Once again, if we want to recover from this pandemic situation that has created so much economic and social damage, we need to be a little more strategic than we have been before, and for that, we need to stand up for a world with zero pollution, we need to stop the destruction of our ecosystems, we need to stop all this intensive agriculture, this consumption and trade with wild animals, we need to make sure that we protect them to separate and take care of both animal and human health, to avoid or, at least, reduce our vulnerability, because there is the possibility of the appearance of a new virus or a new bacteria that could harm our immune system or our health as a society”commented Dr. Neira.
Science to improve people’s lives
One of the readings that we had the pleasure of enjoying at the Symposium on Assisted Reproduction, organized by IVIRMA, was the one carried out by Dr. Juan Antonio García Velasco, Scientific Director of IVI. “Today around 10% of babies are born thanks to Assisted Reproduction. Science has shown for years that it is a necessary tool to advance and improve people’s quality of life. And more specifically, applied to Reproductive Medicine, every step that science has allowed us to take brings us closer to better responding to the needs of women and couples who need our help to fulfill their reproductive desire. The world of Artificial Intelligence is going to help us in making decisions, increasingly in a simple and precise way. Being able to better understand how ovaries stop working that we can wake up and start up, how we can select the best embryo to achieve the best result in the shortest possible time. All this is supported by a technological development that will go hand in hand with the careful and personalized treatment of the patient, which will help us to do things better and better”explained Dr. García Velasco.
Artificial Intelligence applied to decision making
In relation to the above, as Dr. García Velasco pointed out, Artificial Intelligence is presented as an important part of the present and future of Reproductive Medicine. This is possible thanks to the process that the doctor mentioned, together with the constant evolution in research and science. It should be noted that, in relation to Artificial Intelligence, Dr. Mark Mesegueran embryologist and scientific supervisor at IVI, leads an innovative line of research in relation to embryo selection. “Artificial Intelligence is forming part of current Reproductive Medicine. More specifically, with the application of these tools to embryology, we are substituting some of the processes carried out by embryologists with the aim of improving embryo selection in this case, identifying those embryos with the greatest potential for clinical pregnancy, and all of this using techniques non-invasive diagnosis. This has a positive impact on other less well-known areas of the laboratory, such as, for example, quality controls, shortening reaction times and thereby maximizing service quality. Our goal, as always, is to improve results and provide our patients with the best pregnancy prospects”commented Dr. Meseguer.
Share on social networks
