All Eyes on San Diego

The following program elements are only a few of the many highlights of “Hospital Medicine 2008”:

The Evidence-Based Rapid-Fire Track: This track was developed in response from last year’s attendees. It is designed to provide participants—new or old attendees, academic or community caregivers—with “rapid bursts” of content and to address specific questions framed by the committee, based on the highest level of medical evidence available.

Research, Innovations, and Clinical Vignettes (RIV) Competition: Building on a new feature from “Hospital Medicine 2007,” a nationally renowned professor will again tour the poster session and comment on the entries, meet with academic hospitalists, attend forums, and generally be a “visiting professor” for the duration of the meeting. Additionally, SHM’s RIV Committee, along with staff, are working on arrangements for junior faculty to interact with senior researchers during times that run concurrent with non-plenary sessions. Senior hospitalists with expertise in quality-improvement research will also provide individual feedback to authors at the poster sessions. Mini poster presentation sessions will provide a way for residents to highlight their work, and there will be new, separate receptions for the posters (April 3) and exhibits (April 4).

More networking: Networking provides a critical outlet to interact with senior hospitalists, find out what others are doing to advance their careers, and seek mentorship. In addition to the networking opportunities incorporated in the RIV Competition, other networking opportunities include the exhibits, President’s Luncheon and additional receptions, and two new special-interest forums on com-anagement and consultative medicine and international hospital medicine.

The Annual Meeting Committee sought improvements in developing and implementing this year’s program. Committee brainstorming sessions for this year’s meeting focused on:

• Balancing what works with innovation;
• Making the meeting more valuable to clinical educators and researchers, and more applicable to community hospitalists; and
• Showing national leaders the extraordinary talent behind and work of SHM.

A key innovation was a successful “call for speakers.” Submissions were sought for three breakout sessions to create additional opportunity for members to play an active role in “Hospital Medicine 2008.” Based on submissions, sessions were added on the following topics:

• “Prevention, Management, and Treatment of Acute Delirium”;
• “Designing Compensation and Bonus Plans to Drive Desired Behavior”; and
• “Acute Coronary Syndrome Trials and Tribulations.”

Changes for “Hospital Medicine 2008” reflect the volunteerism of many professionals and would not have been possible without the mentorship and expertise of seasoned veteran leaders in hospital medicine, as well as the feedback and participation of hospitalists providing daily inpatient care. As part of a continuous quality-improvement initiative, rules of engagement were developed so speakers would have useful information up front.

The success of the SHM Annual Meeting depends upon the participation and leadership of SHM members, staff, committees, and task forces, as well as the SHM Board. My thanks goes out to them all for their efforts in once again creating a top-flight program.

For more information on “Hospital Medicine 2008,” and to register, visit www.hospitalmedicine.org/hospitalmedicine2008.