Porto 2025: A hub for traveler medicine
Between 17 and 19 September 2025, Porto hosted three major gatherings focused on traveler health: the IX Scientific Meeting of the Portuguese Society of Travel Medicine (SPMV), the VII Workshop on Vaccines in Travellers, and the inaugural Atlantic-Mediterranean International Forum of travel medicine societies. These events united clinicians, researchers, and public health professionals to exchange evidence, translate science into practice, and strengthen regional collaborations aimed at improving health outcomes for travelers worldwide.
IHMT NOVA’s pioneering contributions
Researchers from IHMT NOVA presented a suite of innovative projects designed to enhance pre-travel care and post-travel follow-up. A centerpiece was a digital risk assessment framework for pre-travel consultations. By integrating destination-specific disease incidence, local epidemiology, climate patterns, and patient history, clinicians can generate personalized travel advice, vaccination schedules, and follow-up plans in minutes rather than hours. The framework was showcased alongside validation results from several travel clinics, illustrating how real-time data can inform risk communication and shared decision-making with travelers.
Another IHMT NOVA presentation introduced an adaptive vaccination planning tool for travelers. The tool helps clinicians determine optimal vaccine sequences and catch-up schedules, taking into account regional malaria prophylaxis guidelines, dengue vaccination status where applicable, and individual risk factors. When coupled with a reminder and record-keeping component, the system supports continuity of care for frequent travelers and expatriates alike.
Beyond vaccines and risk assessment, IHMT NOVA researchers shared early-stage work on antimicrobial stewardship in travel medicine. The team explored antibiotic prescribing patterns in pre-travel consultations and after return, highlighting opportunities to reduce inappropriate antibiotic use while maintaining effective protection against common travel-related infections.
ADMT’s regional leadership and collaborative efforts
ADMT contributed a suite of studies and programmatic initiatives aimed at harmonizing travel health practice across the Atlantic-Mediterranean region. Several presentations described the development of shared clinical guidelines for vaccines in travelers, including standardized recommendations for routine vaccines and destination-specific boosters. The emphasis was on interoperability—creating protocols that can be adopted across clinics and national health systems, reducing variability in counseling and vaccination status among travelers moving between countries.
ADMT researchers also reported on cross-border surveillance activities, integrating data from multiple jurisdictions to monitor the incidence of travel-associated infections. This regional surveillance approach enables earlier detection of emerging threats and supports timely updates to clinical guidelines, ensuring travelers receive the most current preventive advice.
Cross-cutting themes and impacts for practice
Several themes emerged across talks and workshops. The role of digital tools in enhancing traveler health decisions was prominent, with a common emphasis on user-friendly interfaces, data privacy, and integration with electronic health records. A focus on capacity building highlighted the need to train frontline clinicians in travel medicine, enabling more consistent counseling and safer travel across the Atlantic-Mediterranean corridor.
Public health perspectives remained central, including antimicrobial stewardship, vaccination equity, and the importance of evidence-informed policy. The meetings underscored that traveler medicine is not only about individual protection but also about strengthening health systems to respond to mobility-driven health challenges.
What this means for travelers and clinicians
For travelers, the Porto gatherings signal faster access to personalized risk assessment, smarter vaccine planning, and clearer post-travel health guidance. For clinicians, the innovations point to scalable tools and standardized guidelines that can be implemented in diverse settings—from busy urban clinics to remote outreach programs. Together, IHMT NOVA and ADMT’s work at Porto advances a more proactive, data-driven, and collaborative approach to traveler health.
Looking ahead
As the IX SPMV, VII Workshop on Vaccines in Travellers, and the I Atlantic-Mediterranean Forum continue to evolve, the momentum from Porto is likely to catalyze new partnerships, multicenter studies, and policy recommendations that will shape traveler medicine for years to come.
