We Asked and You Responded - And Then Some

www.aaem.org/AAEM15

View from the Podium
Joseph Lex, MD MAAEM FAAEM

When we asked via Twitter and email for your input on the 2015 AAEM Scientific Assembly in Austin, Texas (scheduled for February 28–March 4), nearly 40 people responded and gave us more than 75 possible topics and speakers. Now it’s up to the Scientific Assembly Subcommittee to make the hard decisions: what tracks, what topics, what speakers?

Although I was in charge putting together the Scientific Assembly from 2001 through 2006, as AAEM surged to the forefront of education in emergency medicine, a lot has changed since then. New young educators from the third generation of emergency physicians have burst onto the education stage, demonstrating new ways of teaching and learning. The Free Open Access Medical Education (FOAMed) movement has quickly assumed a major role in the day-to-day — and sometimes hour-to-hour — education of emergency practitioners. Shorter didactic session times have become the norm. Adult learning principles such as “Flipping the Classroom” are now common.

In 2014 we cautiously introduced the idea of very short sessions — 20 slides, 20 seconds each: total allotted time six minutes, 40 seconds. If you attended these pecha kucha (Japanese for chit chat) sessions, you know they were a huge hit — every chair full, with standing-room only along the walls and outside the doors. In 2015 we will expand on this idea aggressively, with at least twice as many sessions as in 2014.

We will continue other popular tracks like “When the Shift Hits the Fan” and “You Want Me to Do What?” We will bring you plenary sessions on literature updates, including best-of-the-best from cardiology, neurology, infectious disease, trauma, toxicology, and prehospital medicine. We’ll have a new track called “You’re Probably Doing That Wrong,” as we bust myths in the spirit of “dogmalysis.” You can see the program as it develops by following @AAEMinfo and the hashtag #AAEM15.

AAEM’s Executive Committee chooses the locations for our Scientific Assemblies several years in advance. When Austin was chosen as the 2015 site many years ago, the idea of using Twitter to share educational pearls in real time from medical meetings was novel, at best. Now it’s expected, and there is almost a competition among hyper-Tweeters to see who can have the biggest influence from a medical conference. The smaccGOLD meeting a few months ago in Brisbane, Australia generated more than 24,000 Tweets with more than 25,000,000 impressions.

I encourage you to Tweet from Austin, but you may have to do so on your own cellular network. While Wi-Fi access is free in the Hilton lobby and coffee shop, there is a sizable fee to make it available in the meeting rooms. (In case you wondered why we did not have Wi-Fi in New York this year: it would have cost $35,000). We are soliciting sponsors to support this service, but don’t rely on it being available. At a minimum, we will encourage attendees to bring their own “Hot Spot” and set up a Tweeters’ section where people can share the bandwidth. We now know that free Wi-Fi for attendees has to be part of any future Scientific Assembly.

Before or at the meeting, you can download an app that will allow you to easily set up your own schedule, keep personal notes, and evaluate the presentations in real time. In addition, each speaker’s Twitter handle will be included on the app and in the onsite brochure. This will allow you to follow the speaker immediately. Speakers will also be encouraged to use software that allows them to Tweet in real time, directly from their slide shows.

I chose the subcommittee members with many of these changes in mind. Many are up-and-coming leaders in medical education. They are not afraid to challenge tradition or dogma, and they have a passion for imparting information in order to improve patient care. I hope from this group will come the next leaders of AAEM education.

I will keep you updated on our progress as the program comes together over the next few months. For me, this will be a homecoming of sorts, as I went to medical school just a short distance down I-35, graduating in 1986 from the University of Texas Health Science Center — San Antonio. Austin was always a welcome respite from studies, and I fondly remember hearing up-and-coming acts like Stevie Ray Vaughan, Nanci Griffith, and Lyle Lovett as they played the local club scene. You will find Austin a phenomenal place for entertainment and cultural events, but we may be just a little too early for the bats. You’ll find plenty else to do.