901 N. Washington Ave. • Lansing, MI 48906-5137 • (517) 485-5484 • saem@saem.org • www.saem.org JULY/AUGUST 2008
President’s Message I hope everyone is having a wonderful summer. By now, the 2008 Annual Meeting is a near distant memory. After exceptional service, Jim Hoekstra, Catherine Marco and Megan Ranney rotated off the Board of Directors. We welcome O. John Ma, Cherri Hobgood and Joe Becker to the 2008-09 Board of Directors and congratulate Jill Baren Katherine Heilpern, MD on her election as President-Elect. We have all returned to our home institutions and plunged back in to the world of patient care delivery, research, administrative responsibilities and teaching. The ‘dog days of summer’ seem to have little meaning for academic emergency medicine as the graduating residents exit, the new interns arrive and the emergency department’s census rises with the summer temperatures. At the same time, hundreds of SAEM faculty, residents, students and administrative staff are hard at work to advance the mission and goals of the Society. It’s difficult to distill these enormous efforts into one page, but I’ve attempted to capture the highlights (see SAEM Highlights 2008-09 Committees and Task Forces). The Society has always functioned well in a vertical construct with harddriving committee members completing objectives, delivering reports to the Board of Directors, white papers, manuscripts, and educational products. This year is no different but, in a bit of an experiment, I have asked multiple committees to interact with one another toward shared objectives, believing that horizontal strength, in addition to vertical strength, will serve the Society well. It’s our hope this will invite collaboration, ingenuity and crosspollination. So go ahead -- pull up the SAEM website and peruse the committee objectives. In addition, the Regional Meetings are a real Society strength. For the past decade, they have functioned with regional independence with little to no opportunity for course leaders to interact with one another, or identify pearls and pitfalls. This year, under (Continued on page 2)
Volume XXIII
Number 4
2008 SAEM Annual Meeting Follow-up Report Craig Newgard, MD, MPH Chair, Program Committee
The 2008 SAEM Annual Meeting in Washington, DC was a huge success. There were 2,359 registered attendees, the largest ever for an annual meeting, plus very well attended pre-day events. Thanks to everyone that attended the meeting and to the many people that contributed to its success. Below is a summary of the numbers, award winners, a few highlights, and links to pictures. 2,359 attendees 565 scientific abstract presentations 36 didactic sessions 325 AEM Consensus Conference on simulation (pre-day) 116 Emergency Care Research Networks (pre-day) 25 NIH Grant Workshop (pre-day) 224 Chief Resident Forum 168 Medical Student Symposium 48 Fun Run 300+ Dodgeball Best Faculty Presentation: Amy Plint, MD Best Young Investigator Presentation: Lynn Babcock‑Cimpello, MD Best Basic Science Presentation: Joseph Piktel, MD Best Fellow Presentation: Erik Hess, MD Best Resident Presentation: Anna Marie Chang, MD Best Medical Student Presentation: Maria Nelson The special events sessions were also heavily attended and very well-received. Over 1,000 people were present for the Keynote Townhall that featured representatives from the 3 political campaigns discussing the future of U.S. health care and its impact on emergency care. In another session, Dr. Craig Vanderwagen from the Department of Health and Human Services spoke about the state of disaster preparedness in the U.S. Approximately 250 people enjoyed the Friday morning buffet breakfast networking session and 48 runners woke up in time the (Continued on page 4)
“to improve patient care by advancing research and education in emergency medicine”