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April 11-13, 2013. ACP is for American College of Physicians, and their show is all about Excellence in Medical Education. ACP’s goal is to provide clinicians with recommendations based on the best available evidence; to inform clinicians of when there is no evidence; and to help clinicians deliver the best health care possible. ACP develops three different types of clinical recommendations: Clinical Practice Guidelines, Clinical Guidance Statements, and Best Practice Advice. The guidelines and guidance statements are based on a systematic review of current discipline-specific literature, while best practice advice is developed through a review of available evidence and guidelines, evaluating the value of diagnostic tests and therapeutic interventions. A specialist section provides physicians with team-based practices for screening, diagnosis, and management of depression in primary care settings. So cheer up…
April 7-11, 2013. CLMA is the Clinical Laboratory Management Association, an international association of nearly 3,000 clinical laboratory professionals. CLMA provides leadership in the clinical laboratory industry, supporting laboratory professionals at any stage of their career. The association educates and advocates on behalf of members, and plays a leadership role in enhancing the image and increasing the visibility of the laboratory management profession. Education is a big focus, with courses like the Fundamentals of Laboratory Leadership course, a new addition to CLMA’s professional development program, with content customized for new laboratory leaders within their first three years. With class size limited to maximize learning, the Fundamentals of Laboratory Leadership helps to enhance participants’ leadership capability and develop the skills and competencies required to successfully lead the operations of a clinical laboratory. And no, since you ask, freshmen students are not referred to as “lab-rats”…
March 3-7, 2013. This is largely about IT and its applications in healthcare. Presenters and attendees at HIMSS 2013 said healthcare organizations are overlooking a major opportunity if they leave nurses and other support staff out of the mix. The focus on physicians makes sense on one level, we heard; with a couple exceptions, physicians are the only clinicians eligible for meaningful use incentives. They are the ones whose use of EHRs federal regulators will measure and judge, so they must be able to fit the technology into their workflow. But nurses can improve transition of care outcomes, which tend to be poor at most organizations. The meaningful use rules requires much of the documentation that happens during transition of care situations be made in electronic formats. So maybe the IT thing needs “nursing back to health”, like the patients…
February 12-14, 2013. MD&M West purports to be the world’s largest medical device design and manufacturing event. Delegates were on the lookout for resources to solve their medical device design, engineering, prototyping, manufacturing, assembly and packaging challenges. Visitors’ special interests included Manufacturing & Production Equipment, Contract Manufacturing Services, R&D and Design Services, Motors & Motion Control, Molding Services and Equipment, Tubing and Extrusion Kits, Cleanrooms and other Manufacturing Environments, Electronic Components, Subassemblies and Services Packaging, Sterilization, Labeling & Bar Coding, and of course Computing and Software. It’s estimated that over 14,000 decision-makers from company facilities conducted 150,000 meetings with 2,000 exhibiting companies during the Anaheim event. That’s a “healthy” ten meetings per company…
January 30 – February 1, 2013. ATIA is the Assistive Technology Industry Association. Assistive to whom, exactly? Well ATIA provides an opportunity for people with disabilities, and those who support, work with, employ or educate people with disabilities, and helps them to meet annual professional development requirements, get more out of existing AT (assistive technology) or learn about the latest tech developments. Delegates could get acquainted with professionals, users, individuals with disabilities, parents and AT manufacturers. There were 21 one- and two-day pre-conference seminar and workshop offerings, and 300 or more educational sessions. Topics ranged from Multi-Modal Communication and Learning Strategies for Children with Significant Challenges to Electronic Literacy: Demonstrating Knowledge through Writing with iTools & Assistive Technology, and Accommodating Individuals with Vision Impairments: Common Workplace Situations and Solutions. Okay, so… how may we assist you?
Dec. 3-5, 2012. Why would you call a conference the “Mid-Year Clinical Meeting” when it takes place in December? Better than 20,000 attendees at this meeting of the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP) seemed not to be much bothered by the apparent logical contradiction, in spite of (or perhaps because of) this apparently being “the largest gathering of pharmacists in the world”. (Really?) A forecast session presented key findings and recommendations from a new trends report from the Center for Health-System Pharmacy Leadership, and a panel of trend-watchers offered an assessment of health-system pharmacy, commenting on strategies that pharmacy departments could consider to improve their effectiveness. Oh and, this being Vegas, they also held a poker tournament….
Nov. 25-28, 2012. Smile! GNYDM is the Greater New York Dental Meeting — what else? Delegates were showing off their pearly whites at one of the largest Dental Congresses in the world, with well over 50,000 health care professionals looking over 1500 technical exhibits, and demonstrating the newest technology for the dental profession. There was a choice of full-day seminars, half-day seminars, essays, hands-on workshops, glass-enclosed and Live Patient Demonstration Area. Booth teams were there in force to demonstrate and teach visitors about new products and technology from around the world. They could touch, use and compare the newest materials and technology in dentistry today. Everyone said they attended the speeches to learn something; but actually they were just checking out the speakers’ caps and bridgework…
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