LAS VEGAS—For the next two and a half days at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino, some 3,000 hospitalists attending SHM’s annual meeting will have 10 learning tracks and 115 educational sessions to choose from. Which raises a good question: How does a hospitalist make the difficult choice between two sessions of interest that are scheduled at the same time?
“What’s guiding me is: What’s more relevant to what I’m doing?” says hospitalist and first-time attendee Uzoeshi Anukam, MD, of Methodist Mansfield Medical Center in Texas. “What’s more relevant to my patient care? I see a lot of chest pain, so I’m going to jump on chest pain [sessions]. It’s relevant for me.”
The smorgasbord of educational tracks, rapid-fire sessions, and small-group workshops is a recipe for conflict, though. Multiple sessions could offer similar relevance.
“It’s pick your poison, sort of,” says Curt Lawrence, MD, a hospitalist who does locums tenens work in Miami. “To me, most of the topics are pretty interesting and informative. It’s a good problem to have, wanting to go to multiple things.”
Dr. Lawrence says SHM’s online repository of presentations, podcasts, and on-demand videos helps to fill the gaps when he misses a session. And Dr. Anukam says the HM14 At Hand application for smartphones and tablets assists in winnowing down choices and setting goals for which sessions to attend.
“Objectives put things in perspective and guide what things to go to,” Dr. Lawrence says. “My goal is to get as much as information as you can. As a hospitalist, it’s go-go-go-go. I want to spend this time to just stop and get information.”