ASK ANKUR SEGON, MD, MPH, MEd, if hospitalists have all the educational opportunities they need, and his answer is a definite “no.” While he is sure to travel to a few hospital medicine conferences around the country every year, he has some tips to help hospitalists launch conferences at a more local level.
“We are such a big specialty, and we are constantly growing,” says Dr. Segon, who three years ago became hospital medicine division chief at UT Health San Antonio in San Antonio, Texas. “I don’t think there are enough conferences to meet hospitalists’ needs, so this is an untapped area where academic medical centers can do more.”
That was one big reason why he and his division last year decided to launch a hospital medicine conference. Last year’s debut, which drew 110 attendees, was so successful that UT Health is holding its second annual update in hospital medicine this fall, Oct. 4-6. Dr. Segon spoke with Today’s Hospitalist.
Putting on such a conference must be a heavy lift. What are the benefits?
By doing a conference this size, you’re building your own brand and your presence in the community. With 70% of last year’s attendees coming from in or around San Antonio, we definitely provided education to our local community hospitalists.
“By doing a conference this size, you’re building your own brand and your presence in the community.”
Ankur Segon, MD, MPH, MEd
UT Health San Antonio
In a big academic center like ours, where a number of conference faculty are academic hospitalists, this gives them an opportunity to speak at a national meeting. That builds their skills and allows them to get in-depth on a topic, which ultimately helps with academic promotion.
Plus, it’s great for local networking. We used the e-mail addresses from last year’s attendees to generate interest in launching an SHM chapter in San Antonio, a plan we hope will be approved.
In pulling a conference together, how closely do you work with your CME division?
That division is definitely part of the team effort, but we found last year that a lot of their exhibitor rosters weren’t hospital-medicine specific. So you can’t leave everything to the CME division, whether it’s advertising and getting the word out or lining up vendors, exhibitors and sponsors.
It has to be a collaborative effort, and our own division administrative people made holding the conference a top priority. The first year I was here, I met with all our local pharma reps and pharma companies—and a lot of them were exhibitors at our conference. I also used my own contacts to get other local hospitalist groups to exhibit as well.
Your agenda this year is heavily clinical.
We feel that clinical is what attendees are most interested in—and ultimately, you do want a positive financial margin.
This year, we added two procedure courses, one on ultrasound-guided paracentesis and the other on ultrasound-guided thoracentesis. Next year, I want to invite local hospitalist group leaders to hold either a panel discussion or a session on practice management. Eventually, we also want to have a medical education element, with residents and medical students putting up posters.
Lessons learned from doing this last year?
You have to be very careful with costs, which include food and room costs. This year, we’re cutting back on the number of rooms we’re booking ahead of time for out-of-town attendees. If those rooms aren’t booked, we have to eat those costs.
We also learned to be very aggressive with sponsorship, advertising and exhibitors. To line those up last year, we reached out every month to potential sponsors. This year, it’s been every two weeks to get people’s attention. And make sure you maintain the relationships you build with sponsors year-round. I’ve met with all our exhibitors at least once this past year, and that’s made it much easier to go back to them and ask for their support this year.
This year, we’re also doing much more in terms of social media, tapping into a lot more educators and hospitalists nationwide. We also spread the word locally, working local contacts and reaching out to division chiefs at other hospitals and our local VA.
You also need to pay close attention to logistics. Does the CME office, for instance, have the latest version of faculty presentations? If not, that can really throw presenters off. And we opened last year’s conference—as well as this year’s—to pharmacists and nurses. But those professions have different CME credits and costs than doctors do, so make sure all the paperwork for those is done ahead of time so you’re not scrambling at the end.
What’s surprised you the most about planning and holding these conferences?
The most positive surprise is how willing all the faculty are to come and speak. We offer them only conference registration, not an honorarium, but we’ve still had a100% success rate with getting great speakers.
Phyllis Maguire is Executive Editor of Today’s Hospitalist.
