After an outstanding annual meeting in New Orleans, with the greatest number of attendees and a number of other firsts, and with the holidays rapidly approaching, you might think there would be a lull in activity, but your CHEST leadership and staff have been busy. Let’s start with a CHEST 2019 recap.
Dr. Stephanie M. Levine
This year’s meeting had a total of 5,960 medical professionals and 8,593 total attendees. All were the highest in CHEST history! In addition, there were more international attendees, and CHEST 2019 saw the largest number of fellows-in-training and the largest number of advanced practice providers attending.
Since CHEST 2019, we have held five live learning sessions at headquarters in Glenview, with a total of 281 attendees, including: Extracorporeal Support for Respiratory and Cardiac Failure in Adults; Critical Care Ultrasound: Integration Into Clinical Practice; Comprehensive Pleural Procedures; Ultrasonography: Essentials in Critical Care; and the Advanced Critical Care Echocardiography Board Review Exam Course. In case you missed those opportunities, in the near future, CHEST will be holding the following 2020 courses: Comprehensive Bronchoscopy With Endobronchial Ultrasound February 20 – 22, Mechanical Ventilation: Advanced Critical Care Management February 27 - 29, Ultrasonography: Essentials in Critical Care March 5 - 7, Bronchoscopy and Chest Tubes in the ICU March 20 - 21, Advanced Clinical Training in Pulmonary Function Testing March 27 - 28, Critical Skills for Critical Care: A State-of-the-Art Update, and Procedures for ICU Providers April 30 - May 2. For additional information, check out the events at chestnet.org.
Internationally, the program for the Italian CHEST Congress, to be held with the Italian CHEST Chapter in Bologna in June (June 25-27), is finished. This meeting will be designed on a smaller scale of that of the annual CHEST meeting, with plenty of educational opportunities in the areas of pulmonary, critical care, and sleep medicine, and will also feature faculty from around the world. Come experience all the education, as well as the beauty of Italy in June! CHEST has continued other international activities with leadership attendance and lectures at the Asian Pacific Society of Respirology (APSR), where we engaged with multiple societies as CHEST continues to grow our international strategy to educate those who request further education in our fields. CHEST also sent selected young investigators to the APSR meeting.
Plans are well under way to hold another successful annual meeting in Chicago - CHEST 2020. The call for topics has ended, and proposal grading is ongoing. The call for abstracts has gone out and will close March 31. We encourage all, including our learners in training, to submit high quality abstracts and case reports, and we will offer suggestions for those needing editorial assistance. This is one of the many ways to get CHEST-involved. In addition to the innovations and experiences we offered last year, there will be continued social media presence and new exciting offerings at this year’s annual meeting. Save the dates - October 17-21, in our home town of Chicago!
One of my goals for this year is to evaluate ways to increase engagement and leadership opportunities within the organization, with our CHEST NetWorks being one example. The work of the NetWorks task force is ongoing. Expect to see pilots of twitter handles, infographics, and e-bytes coming from some NetWorks in the near future.
The editorial board for the next volume of SEEK Critical Care has been selected, and work is under way for delivery of the next print edition and library update at the summer Board Review Courses in August in Washington DC. Your CHEST Journal Editorial Board has also been busy. The redesigned issue with the new content structure has hit mailboxes, and you can expect to see updated guidelines for “Managing Chronic Cough as a Symptom in Children and Management Algorithms: CHEST Guideline and Expert Panel Report” and “Chronic Cough Due to Stable Chronic Bronchitis: CHEST Expert Panel Report” out soon. Also, look for publications that CHEST has endorsed to include the College of American Pathologists’ supplement “Collection and Handling of Thoracic Small Biopsy and Cytology Specimens for Ancillary Studies” and the Society of Critical Care Medicine’s algorithm and bundle for the “Surviving Sepsis Campaign International Guidelines for the Management of Septic Shock and Sepsis-Associated Organ Dysfunction in Children.” CHEST had representatives to both of these writing groups. In addition, more podcasts will soon be on the horizon.
The CHEST Foundation gala, The Golden Era of EP (Erin Popovich) was held in early December at the AT & T center in San Antonio, with over 500 people in attendance, including many from the San Antonio community, current and former Spurs players and coaches, in addition to our leadership and staff. The Erin Popovich (EP) endowment is dedicated to empowerment and access for patients with interstitial lung disease, as well as research in this area. Over 3 million dollars have been raised to date to directly support this endowment. One of the early products from this endowment is the soon to be available Oxygen Access Toolkit, developed for use by provider offices, clinicians, DME suppliers, patients, and caregivers to answer some of the basic facts about access to oxygen that so many of our patients with ILD and other lung diseases need. Other resources will include the ILD Tree, Get a Second Opinion, You’re Not Alone Patient Journey, Mnemonic for ILD Patients, the Patients’ Bill of Rights, and a co-morbidities one–page information sheet.
After the next quarterly Board Meeting in January, I will update you on decisions regarding future strategy that emerge from that meeting. The agenda will include many of the topics mentioned above, in addition to a strategic discussion regarding CHEST’s increased role in advocacy, which has been requested by many members.
Of course, all these events and activities could not be accomplished without the incredible effort by your CHEST staff and volunteer leadership. I look forward to many updates in my next report. As always, please reach out to me with any comments, questions, or suggestions, and if I am unable to respond, I will address it with the appropriate staff person. Thank you all for being the most important reason that CHEST exists. Have a great 2020!