Mastodon AAHPM Preview - 2/17 - AM & PM Sessions ~ Pallimed

Sunday, February 11, 2007

AAHPM Preview - 2/17 - AM & PM Sessions

This is the sixth and final post in a series previewing the sessions at the American Academy of Hospice & Palliative Medicine's Annual Assembly.

You can see all the posts in the series below:
2/14 - Pre-conferences
2/15 - AM Sessions
2/15 - PM Sessions
2/16 - AM Sessions

2/16 - PM Sessions
2/17 - AM & PM Sessions

Click here for the AAHPM Annual Assembly Brochure 2007 (pdf)

Register soon
if you have not already!
Saturday, February 17th - AM Sessions

7-7:45am - SIG meetings
Pick one that you are interested in and go. These are great ways to meet peers who share your concerns and get involved with the AAHPM. I will plan on being at the PIT-SIG meeting as I think this will be my last year actively supporting the PIT-SIG as it is time to pass the torch to the next batch of upstarts who want to get some recognition for fellow within the Academy and field.

8-9am & 9:15-10:15am
Now if you are a reader of this blog, I sincerely hope that you come to the Professionals in Training Case Conference - Part 1 and Part 2. This will be the third year in a row for the case conference which has allowed palliative medicine fellows to present at the national meeting. Typically in a year long fellowship, you have no chance to submit a talk to the national meeting because the submission deadlines are not friendly to the academic year. If you do present it is likely as a generous tag along with a senior faculty member as I did my first year at the AAHPM. I learned so much from presenting at the AAHPM in 2004. I gave a talk on methadone to over 500 people. Ever since then talking in front of people has not been difficult at all, although the Harvard PCEP course did help as I mentioned before. So I and a rotating group of faculty have made an agreement with the AAHPM to allow this case conference to have later deadlines so fellows can submit. This case conference does not get much publicity because it misses a lot of printing deadlines, no one knows what the PIT Case Conference is, or what the PIT-SIG is, or what cases will be presented.

But this case conference is critical to ongoing involvement of the next generation of leaders of the AAHPM. Please come out and support them and see their cases, and ask great questions. Especially if you know them or are part of their program. (Ahem Fellowship Directors!)

Here are the cases for Part 1 & Part 2 (And Drew will be there as well, facilitating):

Professionals-in-Training Case Conference - Part 1
8-9am

Choreoathetosis in a frail elderly female hospice patient taking low dose trazodone: a case report
Charina Gayomali, MD
Summa Health System
Akron, OH

Communication challenges in a Puerto Rican gentleman with oropharyngeal cancer
Winnie Suen, MD, MSc
Massachusetts General Hospital
Boston, MA

Communication challenges in a patient with multiple myeloma and developmental delay
Cindy Lien, MD
Dana Farber Cancer Institute
Boston, MA

Professionals-in-Training Case Conference - Part 2
9:15-10:15am

It’s never too late
Kelly Ryder Letsinger, MD
VCU Medical Center
Richmond, VA

Communication challenges: denial, language and cultural barriers
Sarah E. Harrington, MD
VCU Medical Center
Richmond, VA

ICU as a comfort measure: treating the anxiety of a lung transplant patient who has survived it all
Lise Taylor Barbour, MD
Medical College of Wisconsin
Milwaukee, WI


No comments on other sessions during this slot although I do admit there are some interesting talks. Especially the one in which my partner Ann Allegre receives an award from the American Academy of Hospice & Palliative Medicine and the Project on Death in America for Palliative Medicine Community Leadership. She really deserves it for what she has accomplished in the Kansas City area with Kansas City Hospice & Palliative Care.

10:45-11:45am
Couple of good talks here. Bruera and Fatigue should be good, although I don't know how much of a sea change there is, unless he is announcing something spectacular. I don't know if we have had a talk solely devoted to updated legal issues, although this one may be good to follow as hospice and palliative medicine becomes more ubiquitous it will be hard to keep up the great press and high expectations because of all the different programs growing out there. Medical futility and religion is a very good topic as this can be a huge barrier/opportunity to finding consensus. No big comments on the speakers although there are some big names in this time slot.

Noon-1:30pm

Now as some longtime readers may know, I am not a huge fan of pharma sponsored activities. I have been underwhelmed with these presentations in the past, and so last year did not sign up for it and was relieved to find that there were many people that I was excited to run into and have lunch with. It allowed for some great networking and catching up. This may be your last chance before the end of the conference to catch up with people.

1:45-2:45pm

Another candidate for intriguing but leave me guessing title is "A Complex Case Awaits Your Input." Picking titles is key to getting your talk accepted, so I hope the abstract was what they focused on, so this might be a gem. But I guess you could say the same thing about the PIT Case Conf being enigmatic as well.

Another talk during this time is about research papers, which is a good sign I hope of trying to improve the caliber of research done in our field. I would love to do some research but it somehow never finds the time to reach my desk and get completed. I have a ton of great questions as I am sure most HPM providers do.

Other than that, not much that thrills me at this time.

3–4:15 pm
Plenary Session
State of the Science
Daniel Fischberg, MD PhD, The Queen’s Medical Center
Nathan E. Goldstein, MD, Mount Sinai School of Medicine

This has been a great talk the last two years I have been to it. Goldstein and Fischberg do an excellent job of going through the key articles in our field with humor and insight. Get to this talk if you do nothing else. That being said, I will miss it. I have to catch a earlier flight home to be there for my twins first birthday. I think Goldstein and Fischberg would understand.

And with that I am done. Leave any thoughts if you would like. ( I decided not to review the paper cases. Not enough time. I got to prepare for my 4 talks!)

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