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New tracks, interactive programs highlight HM19
As course director for the Society of Hospital Medicine’s 2019 annual conference – Hospital Medicine 2019 (HM19) – to be held March 24-27 in National Harbor, Md., Dustin T. Smith, MD, SFHM, hospitalist and associate professor of medicine at Emory University, Atlanta, tried his best to apply democratic processes to the work of the annual conference committee.
“We created numerous email surveys to go out to the 20 committee members for their vote. So many great topics were proposed for HM19, with so many great faculty, that we had to make hard choices – although we see that as a good problem. It was my job to make sure that we had a process that works,” Dr. Smith explained. “We have planned what we believe will be another well-attended and well-received hospital medicine conference. Every year it’s been great, but every year we try something to make it a little better.”
The SHM annual conference committee meets in person at the conference to kick off planning for the following year’s conference, then holds weekly conference calls for the next 4-5 months, Dr. Smith said. “These are all highly creative leaders in hospital medicine, with voices to be heard and taken under consideration.”
Committee members wear badges at the annual meeting to encourage attendees to offer them feedback and suggestions. “We have our ears to the ground. We look at the session ratings from prior years, speaker ratings, and all of the feedback we have received, and we take all of that into account to come up with new ideas for educational tracks,” Dr. Smith said. New for 2019 are “Between the Guidelines” and “Clinical Mastery”. “We went around the table at our meeting and asked everybody for their ideas for new tracks, and then we voted in the most popular ones.”
One change for 2019 was to “completely open” the call for submission of proposals – and for nominations of content to be covered and who should present it – for all sessions at HM19, not just for the workshop tracks. Dr. Smith said all submissions were peer reviewed by committee members and scored with objective ratings.
“For example, there was a lot of interest in emergency and disaster preparedness for hospitalists in a number of the submissions. Whether we’re talking about wildfires or mass shootings, it affects hospitals, and we are among the frontline practitioners for whatever happens in those hospitals. So we may need to be able to respond to large-scale emergencies,” he said. “But most of us haven’t been trained for that.”
A love of teaching
Dr. Smith’s preparation for being the HM19 course director includes his work teaching medical students, residents, and physicians at Emory University where he also attended medical school. He chairs the Emory division of hospital medicine’s education council, directs hospital medicine grand rounds at Emory, and serves as associate program director for the J. Willis Hurst Internal Medicine Residency Program at Emory as well as a section chief for education in medical specialty at the Atlanta Veterans Affairs Medical Center. Dr. Smith has also codirected, since 2012, the annual Southern Hospital Medicine regional conference.
“I have long had an interest in medical education for medical students, trainees, and faculty and I wanted to do more of it – with a number of mentors encouraging me along the way,” he said. “I have planned and coordinated teaching sessions needed for maintenance of board certification, which is similar to what we will present at HM19. Based on that experience, I applied to be on SHM’s annual conference committee, starting in 2012 for the planning of Hospital Medicine 2013. I believe I have been preparing myself all along to take on this role.”
A well-rounded program
The HM19 educational program will be well rounded, Dr. Smith said, offering clinical updates on topics such as sepsis, heart failure, and new clinical practice guidelines.
“You will see a big focus on wellness and how to avoid burnout, as well as other sessions on how to develop and sustain a career in hospital medicine,” he said. Another important HM19 theme will be the delivery of new models of population health and accountable care and their impact on both patients and hospital operations.
The 2019 agenda emphasizes other interactive formats, such as the “Great Debates,” where experts in the field are paired to debate clinical conundrums in hospital medicine. The number of Great Debates has grown from one on perioperative medicine at the 2017 annual conference, to three in 2018, and now to seven planned for 2019. “This format is very popular. We’re also planning ‘Medical Jeopardy,’ with three brilliant master clinicians in a quiz show format, and two ‘Stump the Professor’ sessions with expert diagnosticians,” Dr. Smith said.
It’s important to make every session at the conference interactive to engage attendees in learning from, and talking to, experts in the field, he said. “But it’s also important for some of them to be more entertaining in approach as a way to encourage learning. We know that this actually increases retention of information.”
The annual conference course director typically is selected several years in advance, in order to plan for the time commitment that will be required, and spends the year before this term as assistant course director. “It is a big honor to serve as course director. It’s fun and exciting to work with such a talented and diverse committee, but it’s also a lot of work,” Dr. Smith acknowledged. “I reviewed all 450 session proposals from this year’s open call for course content. The volume of emails is pretty outstanding, and I was extremely busy with conference planning for a season.”
Dr. Smith has continued to pursue his full-time commitments at Emory, without getting dedicated time off for planning the SHM conference. “But as a parent of three young children, I already feel busy all the time,” he said. “I put in a lot of late nights, but I found a way to make it work.”
New tracks, interactive programs highlight HM19
New tracks, interactive programs highlight HM19
As course director for the Society of Hospital Medicine’s 2019 annual conference – Hospital Medicine 2019 (HM19) – to be held March 24-27 in National Harbor, Md., Dustin T. Smith, MD, SFHM, hospitalist and associate professor of medicine at Emory University, Atlanta, tried his best to apply democratic processes to the work of the annual conference committee.
“We created numerous email surveys to go out to the 20 committee members for their vote. So many great topics were proposed for HM19, with so many great faculty, that we had to make hard choices – although we see that as a good problem. It was my job to make sure that we had a process that works,” Dr. Smith explained. “We have planned what we believe will be another well-attended and well-received hospital medicine conference. Every year it’s been great, but every year we try something to make it a little better.”
The SHM annual conference committee meets in person at the conference to kick off planning for the following year’s conference, then holds weekly conference calls for the next 4-5 months, Dr. Smith said. “These are all highly creative leaders in hospital medicine, with voices to be heard and taken under consideration.”
Committee members wear badges at the annual meeting to encourage attendees to offer them feedback and suggestions. “We have our ears to the ground. We look at the session ratings from prior years, speaker ratings, and all of the feedback we have received, and we take all of that into account to come up with new ideas for educational tracks,” Dr. Smith said. New for 2019 are “Between the Guidelines” and “Clinical Mastery”. “We went around the table at our meeting and asked everybody for their ideas for new tracks, and then we voted in the most popular ones.”
One change for 2019 was to “completely open” the call for submission of proposals – and for nominations of content to be covered and who should present it – for all sessions at HM19, not just for the workshop tracks. Dr. Smith said all submissions were peer reviewed by committee members and scored with objective ratings.
“For example, there was a lot of interest in emergency and disaster preparedness for hospitalists in a number of the submissions. Whether we’re talking about wildfires or mass shootings, it affects hospitals, and we are among the frontline practitioners for whatever happens in those hospitals. So we may need to be able to respond to large-scale emergencies,” he said. “But most of us haven’t been trained for that.”
A love of teaching
Dr. Smith’s preparation for being the HM19 course director includes his work teaching medical students, residents, and physicians at Emory University where he also attended medical school. He chairs the Emory division of hospital medicine’s education council, directs hospital medicine grand rounds at Emory, and serves as associate program director for the J. Willis Hurst Internal Medicine Residency Program at Emory as well as a section chief for education in medical specialty at the Atlanta Veterans Affairs Medical Center. Dr. Smith has also codirected, since 2012, the annual Southern Hospital Medicine regional conference.
“I have long had an interest in medical education for medical students, trainees, and faculty and I wanted to do more of it – with a number of mentors encouraging me along the way,” he said. “I have planned and coordinated teaching sessions needed for maintenance of board certification, which is similar to what we will present at HM19. Based on that experience, I applied to be on SHM’s annual conference committee, starting in 2012 for the planning of Hospital Medicine 2013. I believe I have been preparing myself all along to take on this role.”
A well-rounded program
The HM19 educational program will be well rounded, Dr. Smith said, offering clinical updates on topics such as sepsis, heart failure, and new clinical practice guidelines.
“You will see a big focus on wellness and how to avoid burnout, as well as other sessions on how to develop and sustain a career in hospital medicine,” he said. Another important HM19 theme will be the delivery of new models of population health and accountable care and their impact on both patients and hospital operations.
The 2019 agenda emphasizes other interactive formats, such as the “Great Debates,” where experts in the field are paired to debate clinical conundrums in hospital medicine. The number of Great Debates has grown from one on perioperative medicine at the 2017 annual conference, to three in 2018, and now to seven planned for 2019. “This format is very popular. We’re also planning ‘Medical Jeopardy,’ with three brilliant master clinicians in a quiz show format, and two ‘Stump the Professor’ sessions with expert diagnosticians,” Dr. Smith said.
It’s important to make every session at the conference interactive to engage attendees in learning from, and talking to, experts in the field, he said. “But it’s also important for some of them to be more entertaining in approach as a way to encourage learning. We know that this actually increases retention of information.”
The annual conference course director typically is selected several years in advance, in order to plan for the time commitment that will be required, and spends the year before this term as assistant course director. “It is a big honor to serve as course director. It’s fun and exciting to work with such a talented and diverse committee, but it’s also a lot of work,” Dr. Smith acknowledged. “I reviewed all 450 session proposals from this year’s open call for course content. The volume of emails is pretty outstanding, and I was extremely busy with conference planning for a season.”
Dr. Smith has continued to pursue his full-time commitments at Emory, without getting dedicated time off for planning the SHM conference. “But as a parent of three young children, I already feel busy all the time,” he said. “I put in a lot of late nights, but I found a way to make it work.”
As course director for the Society of Hospital Medicine’s 2019 annual conference – Hospital Medicine 2019 (HM19) – to be held March 24-27 in National Harbor, Md., Dustin T. Smith, MD, SFHM, hospitalist and associate professor of medicine at Emory University, Atlanta, tried his best to apply democratic processes to the work of the annual conference committee.
“We created numerous email surveys to go out to the 20 committee members for their vote. So many great topics were proposed for HM19, with so many great faculty, that we had to make hard choices – although we see that as a good problem. It was my job to make sure that we had a process that works,” Dr. Smith explained. “We have planned what we believe will be another well-attended and well-received hospital medicine conference. Every year it’s been great, but every year we try something to make it a little better.”
The SHM annual conference committee meets in person at the conference to kick off planning for the following year’s conference, then holds weekly conference calls for the next 4-5 months, Dr. Smith said. “These are all highly creative leaders in hospital medicine, with voices to be heard and taken under consideration.”
Committee members wear badges at the annual meeting to encourage attendees to offer them feedback and suggestions. “We have our ears to the ground. We look at the session ratings from prior years, speaker ratings, and all of the feedback we have received, and we take all of that into account to come up with new ideas for educational tracks,” Dr. Smith said. New for 2019 are “Between the Guidelines” and “Clinical Mastery”. “We went around the table at our meeting and asked everybody for their ideas for new tracks, and then we voted in the most popular ones.”
One change for 2019 was to “completely open” the call for submission of proposals – and for nominations of content to be covered and who should present it – for all sessions at HM19, not just for the workshop tracks. Dr. Smith said all submissions were peer reviewed by committee members and scored with objective ratings.
“For example, there was a lot of interest in emergency and disaster preparedness for hospitalists in a number of the submissions. Whether we’re talking about wildfires or mass shootings, it affects hospitals, and we are among the frontline practitioners for whatever happens in those hospitals. So we may need to be able to respond to large-scale emergencies,” he said. “But most of us haven’t been trained for that.”
A love of teaching
Dr. Smith’s preparation for being the HM19 course director includes his work teaching medical students, residents, and physicians at Emory University where he also attended medical school. He chairs the Emory division of hospital medicine’s education council, directs hospital medicine grand rounds at Emory, and serves as associate program director for the J. Willis Hurst Internal Medicine Residency Program at Emory as well as a section chief for education in medical specialty at the Atlanta Veterans Affairs Medical Center. Dr. Smith has also codirected, since 2012, the annual Southern Hospital Medicine regional conference.
“I have long had an interest in medical education for medical students, trainees, and faculty and I wanted to do more of it – with a number of mentors encouraging me along the way,” he said. “I have planned and coordinated teaching sessions needed for maintenance of board certification, which is similar to what we will present at HM19. Based on that experience, I applied to be on SHM’s annual conference committee, starting in 2012 for the planning of Hospital Medicine 2013. I believe I have been preparing myself all along to take on this role.”
A well-rounded program
The HM19 educational program will be well rounded, Dr. Smith said, offering clinical updates on topics such as sepsis, heart failure, and new clinical practice guidelines.
“You will see a big focus on wellness and how to avoid burnout, as well as other sessions on how to develop and sustain a career in hospital medicine,” he said. Another important HM19 theme will be the delivery of new models of population health and accountable care and their impact on both patients and hospital operations.
The 2019 agenda emphasizes other interactive formats, such as the “Great Debates,” where experts in the field are paired to debate clinical conundrums in hospital medicine. The number of Great Debates has grown from one on perioperative medicine at the 2017 annual conference, to three in 2018, and now to seven planned for 2019. “This format is very popular. We’re also planning ‘Medical Jeopardy,’ with three brilliant master clinicians in a quiz show format, and two ‘Stump the Professor’ sessions with expert diagnosticians,” Dr. Smith said.
It’s important to make every session at the conference interactive to engage attendees in learning from, and talking to, experts in the field, he said. “But it’s also important for some of them to be more entertaining in approach as a way to encourage learning. We know that this actually increases retention of information.”
The annual conference course director typically is selected several years in advance, in order to plan for the time commitment that will be required, and spends the year before this term as assistant course director. “It is a big honor to serve as course director. It’s fun and exciting to work with such a talented and diverse committee, but it’s also a lot of work,” Dr. Smith acknowledged. “I reviewed all 450 session proposals from this year’s open call for course content. The volume of emails is pretty outstanding, and I was extremely busy with conference planning for a season.”
Dr. Smith has continued to pursue his full-time commitments at Emory, without getting dedicated time off for planning the SHM conference. “But as a parent of three young children, I already feel busy all the time,” he said. “I put in a lot of late nights, but I found a way to make it work.”