Austin City, No Limits

www.aaem.org/AAEM15

View from the Podium
Joseph Lex, MD MAAEM FAAEM 

I am excited about what’s happening as we plan our 21st Scientific Assembly, scheduled for February 28 through March 4, 2015 at the Hilton Austin in the Texas Capital. First and foremost, our invited keynote speaker has accepted our invitation to speak. Simon Carley, Professor of Emergency Medicine at Manchester Metropolitan University, Consultant in Emergency Medicine, and co-founder of the BestBets website (www.bestbets.org) and the St. Emlyn’s website (http://stemlynsblog.org) in mythical Virchester will visit with us in Texas. Dr. Carley has published more than 100 papers related to disaster medicine, diagnostics, evidence base medicine, and medical education. He is associate editor of the Emergency Medicine Journal and co-director of the Master of Science in Emergency Medicine program at Manchester Metropolitan University. He will give three talks, including our keynote session on “Evidence, Data, Belief, Denial and Cognitive Delusion: How Do We Really Practice Emergency Medicine.”

The second exciting bit of news is the development of a separate subcommittee to develop the immensely popular pecha kucha (PK) (chit-chat) sessions. The group chair is Joelle Borhart, MD FAAEM, of Georgetown. You may have heard Joelle speak at prior Scientific Assemblies. She is joined by Gentry Wilkerson, MD FAAEM, from the University of Maryland, and the husband-wife team of Zachary Repanshek, MD, and Jennifer Fisher-Repanshek, MD, from Temple University in Philadelphia. Zack was the 2012 AAEM Resident of the Year. The final member is Siavash Sarlati, MD, from LSU/Charity, who was a resident winner of the 2014 YPS Open Microphone Session in New York City.


This group is putting together a dynamic, unique program over the near ten hours of PK sessions scheduled for Monday, March 2, and Tuesday, March 3. It’s an opportunity for some of the next generation of emergency medicine educators to step forward and be heard. Expect some exciting revolutionary ideas to come from this group as the Scientific Assembly nears.

The full organizing committee has had several phone conferences and exchanged hundreds of emails as we try to create the best possible educational experience for you to impact your patients. As always, the goals are to give you information and tools that you can use immediately to improve patient outcomes.

We are expanding the number of preconference workshops and plan to have at least ten for you to choose from, including the popular Resuscitation for Emergency Physicians and Ultrasound for learners at all levels. But there will also be sessions on The Business of Emergency Medicine, Essentials of Personal Finance, and the ever-popular LLSA Preparation Course.

Of course we are retaining the plenary sessions of literature reviews: Best of the Best from Cardiology, Toxicology, Pediatrics, Infectious Disease, Critical Care, and Resuscitation. We’ll also do our best to bring you useful information in “When the Shift Hits the Fan” and “Stuff Our Consultants Want Us to Do.” We’ll spend time discussing the Choosing Wisely Campaign, deciding whether emergency medicine choses wisely. And expect a few more surprises.

And the speakers? You know by now to expect the best from AAEM. As I write this, the invitations have not been sent, but I promise that you will not be disappointed in either the topics or the presenters. After all, we have a reputation to uphold as the premier educational event in emergency medicine for the United States.

With Austin being one of the major music centers in the country, we are looking to arrange entertainment opportunities for attendees. Details will follow.

I will keep you updated as things change. By the time you see your next edition of Common Sense, I believe you will be able to peruse the entire program online. But trust me on this: you don’t want to miss it.