I’ve just returned from the American College of Physician’s annual meeting, held this year in sunny (really!) San Francisco. That’s part of the reason I haven’t been posting much in the past few weeks.
Anyway, I’ve gone nearly every year for 16 years, not counting when COVID made travel more iffy.
As with most large meetings, it takes a while to figure out which talks are worth going to, and which….aren’t. Or might not be.
The ACP meeting is huge: many thousands of doctors, up to 11 lectures at the same time. It’s hard to decide where to spend your time.
If you are planning to go to the annual meeting in the future (in Los Angeles in 2027, Washington DC in 2028, and San Diego in 2029), I am going to go through my picks for the best talks to attend.
Of course, what you want to get out of a meeting might be very different than what I want to get out of it.
I am not looking to find a new job.
I’m not as good at networking as a I should be; of course, I’m also not looking for a job.
What I prefer are talks that will
- Teach me about new things: new medications, new guidelines, new research.
- Teach or remind me about rare things.
- Focus on the humanistic part of medicine, such as through history, or art.
Without further ado, here are the winning talks and activities that I have found over the years, and which I advise you to place high on your list when putting together your schedule.
The Consult Talk. Internal Medicine meets Car Talk. Silly puns, interesting historical tidbits and interesting medicine all jumbled into one excellent hour.
Any lecture Dr. Salvatore Mangione decides to give. This is a more humanistic look at medicine.
The drug update given by Dr. Douglas Paauw. There are always important details he digs up about meds that you are probably prescribing every day.
The Clinical Pearls sessions. It looks like Dr. Bundrick, who ran the sessions for years, is handing it over to a younger colleague. They cover 2-3 different specialties each session (usually 1 per day), reviewing updates and zebras in a refreshing format.
New in Annals of Internal Medicine (usually a plenary session). The authors of 3 top articles are invited to present them to several thousand doctors. Even if you aren’t super interested in the papers, you know people will be talking about them, so it is a great way to stay current. But honestly, the articles chosen are usually super interesting.
The yearly Updates in [specialty] can be hit or miss. But the GI updates have been very good in the past 2 to 3 years.
In the past few years, I have very much enjoyed attending the poster sessions. Eager students and residents presenting unusual cases can definitely teach me a thing or two about medicine.
These are my personal recommendations of which lectures to attend at the ACP. There are still many unaccounted for hours at the meeting for you to try other talks that meet your fancy. Or check out the sessions for career advancement.
If any ACP members are reading this, I will ask: what are you favorite things to do at the ACP meeting?