Get jazzed up for Internal Medicine Meeting 2018

Now more than ever, ACP is committed to creating a culture of happy and healthy internists.

In addition to launching its Physician Well-being & Professional Satisfaction initiative in January, the College has baked several wellness initiatives into the agenda for Internal Medicine Meeting 2018, to be held next month in New Orleans.

New this year, the “Boost Your Well-being and Professional Satisfaction at Home and Work: Practical Skills for Positive Results” precourse will offer attendees evidence-based ways to beat burnout by applying positive psychology and resilience techniques.

Two panel sessions in the Scientific Program will also focus on physician wellness. The first, titled “Health Care as Collaboration: Using Patient–Physician Engagement to Bring Joy and Value to Your Patients, Your Practice, and You (or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Engaged Patients),” will offer strategies for working with patients who Google first, then visit their internist, as well as using the EHR to promote patient engagement.

During the second session, “Promoting Physician Well-being: Reducing the Burdens and Restoring the Purpose of Practice,” attendees will learn more about the impact of administrative burdens on physicians and what ACP is doing to help alleviate them.

Another wellness-focused feature is the new ACP Relaxation Station, located behind the ACP sland in the Exhibit Hall. “It will have facilities for yoga, meditation, chair massages, and a reflective wall where attendees can post and share messages with others,” said Barbara Licht, Director of Educational Meetings and Conferences for ACP.

The Scientific Program runs from Thursday, April 19, through Saturday, April 21, with precourses on April 17 and 18, at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in New Orleans. Keynote speaker Karen DeSalvo, MD, MPH, MSc, FACP, formerly the health commissioner for New Orleans and the national coordinator for health information technology at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, will lead the opening ceremony.

The Annals of Internal Medicine: “On Being a Doctor” Story Slam, another new feature, is based on the popular series of personal essays the journal has published for more than 20 years. Ten physicians will share their stories about the medical profession at 9:30 a.m. on Saturday, April 21.

A change at this year's meeting will be in the way session attendees claim Maintenance of Certification (MOC) points. Previously, attendees were required to complete multiple-choice question modules, but now they will need to complete a brief learning assessment reflecting on what they learned at the meeting. “It's a less burdensome process,” Ms. Licht noted.

One feature returning for a second year is the rapid-fire PechaKucha™ session, in which five speakers each present a condensed clinical topic in 6 minutes and 40 seconds. As part of the PechaKucha™ format (the name means “chit-chat” in Japanese), each talk includes 20 slides that automatically progress in 20-second intervals. “It was very popular last year, so we are planning on making it a permanent feature of the meeting,” Ms. Licht said.

PechaKucha™ speakers will talk about avoiding acute kidney injury in hospitalized patients, channeling creativity through Leonardo da Vinci, the shoulder exam, coagulation, and monoclonal proteins. Marc J. Kahn, MD, MBA, MACP, Chair of the 2018 Internal Medicine Scientific Program Committee, will introduce the speakers—and hit a gong if they go over their allotted time.

Another special feature of the meeting is the ACP Innovation Challenge 2018: Re-imagining the Practice of Internal Medicine, which received more than 60 submissions proposing ways to transform practice on a national level. Four finalists will present their ideas in brief videos at the Opening Ceremony before diving into the live “Shark Tank”-style competition at 11:15 a.m. on Thursday, April 19.

“The audience votes for its favorite, and that score is combined with the three judges' score. … They certainly have more prize money this year: It's $25,000 in prize money to the winners,” said Ms. Licht.

This year's meeting returns to New Orleans for the first time since 2012, and “registration has been early and strong,” she said.

Much like San Diego, where ACP held last year's meeting, New Orleans should have terrific weather, said Dr. Kahn, who is professor and senior associate dean at the city's Tulane University School of Medicine. “The weather in mid-April in New Orleans ought to be pretty ideal,” he said. “It can get warm sometimes, but it shouldn't be our 95-degree warm.”

Exploring the unique cuisine and French Quarter are popular leisure-time activities for New Orleans meeting attendees, and the historians among them may also want to check out the National WWII Museum, Dr. Kahn said. “The World War II museum is now listed as one of the best museums in the world. I think that's something they should definitely do,” he said.