It was the largest allergy meeting in the United States to date!
The virtual 2020 ACAAI Annual Scientific Meeting wrapped up yesterday, and meeting registrations broke records! More than 3,600 physicians, nurses/allied staff and other medical professionals registered for the meeting. There were tens of thousands of entries into meeting booths and views of sessions.
Attendees had rave reviews:
- Andrea D’Mello, MD: “The live and recorded sessions have been very informative and educational.”
- Caroline Caperton, MD: “The virtual meeting is fantastic! Thank you to the ACAAI leadership, the planning committee, and everyone involved. The dedication and hard work truly shows. Navigation is seamless.”
- Howard Druce, MD: “The College has done a great job of making this feel like a real meeting. Thank you.”
- Carol Smith, MD: “Congrats to Allen Meadows and the rest of the ACAAI team for pulling this all together! The Virtual meeting is so organized and user-friendly.”
During the Annual Business Meeting on Saturday, award recipients were recognized and Luz Fonacier, MD, FACAAI was installed as ACAAI president. In her remarks she said, “It is an honor to be selected as the fourth female and first Asian American president of the College. You can’t imagine what this means to me and every under-represented allergist in the world. My theme for the upcoming year is to innovate, diversify and expand.”
With a wide variety of educational opportunities, attendees had their pick of sessions on topics ranging from COVID-19, racial disparities in allergies and asthma, therapies for atopic dermatitis, food allergy and more! Physicians can earn more than 30 hours of CME credit and other health care professionals can earn CE.
If attendees missed sessions or want to revisit sessions they attended, they will have access to the meeting platform until early February 2021. Those who did not register for the meeting will have access to the sessions on the College Learning Connection next month.
The Presidential Plenary titled “The Changing Payment System – Challenge Accepted” recorded the highest attendance ever for a Presidential Plenary. More than 1,100 people tuned in live to hear Harold Miller, President and CEO Center for Healthcare Quality and Payment Reform. In addition, on Saturday, there were more than 1,000 unique visitors to the e-posters area.
One popular aspect of the meeting was the chat in Networking Lounge. People greeted each other, asked questions and commented on sessions.
- After the Jeopardy-style “What’s that Rash” session, attendee David Khan, MD, chatted, “Jeopardy session was outstanding! Great way to engage the audience and the live panel made it that much better. Lots of work to pull off I’m sure but you succeeded.”
- Attendee Kathryn Oliver wrote, “I especially enjoyed the presentation Addressing Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Allergy/Immunology Populations. Proud to be part of a practice that employs many of the suggestions for providers. I have learned about things we can implement to improve further. Thank you for an interesting virtual conference!”
Social media challenges, magic tricks in the Networking Lounge and question/answer sessions after some programs helped keep people connected. The College is looking forward to next year’s meeting, Nov. 4 – 8, 2021 in New Orleans.
