The ACPM annual conference continues to serve as the best time for public health preventive medicine (PM) physicians to network with each other and with others interested in advancing the specialty in the common pursuit of the collective vision of optimizing population health in the U.S. and globally. I have found prior conferences to be a great time to not only meet other preventive medicine doctors, but also to reinvigorate my passion for this shared vision.
As vice chair of this year’s conference, I am grateful to have the opportunity to do my part in making this longstanding event an effective and impactful endeavor for attendees. We are trying several different approaches for Preventive Medicine 2024 to achieve this goal. First, we have re-arranged the conference tracks to be better aligned with the actual foci of the work of preventive medicine physicians. For example, the Community and Population Health track recognizes preventive medicine physicians use the same skillset to do population-level work both within the broader community and governmental public health setting (i.e., community health) and within the healthcare system (i.e., population health). Similarly, the Clinical Preventive Medicine track recognizes that lifestyle medicine is included in this component of preventive medicine practice, in addition to historically traditional areas of clinical preventive medicine, such as screenings and health behavior change.Second, to assure attendees obtain the greatest possible net benefit from the conference, we are offering four track-specific and skills-oriented workshops that include active, hands-on practice led by various expert speakers, and focusing on high-impact and highly relevant areas for our specialty, such as brief action planning and motivational interviewing and artificial intelligence.
Finally, we are bringing greater emphasis to listening to the voices of the members of ACPM and prior conference attendees. For example, the bulk of the above changes were made in response to listening to the feedback of prior preventive medicine conference attendees. Also, we are allocating protected time during the conference to allow PM residency programs, and other groups within the college, to independently organize social meetups with their close-knit residency colleagues or friends without having to sacrifice attendance at or missing out on another concurrent PM 2024 session or event. We think these changes, among many others, will make for a fun, productive, and impactful conference. See you all in Washington D.C. next year!
Yuri T. Jadotte, MD, PhD, MPH, FACPM
Founding Editor-in-Chief, AJPM Focus
Vice Chair, ACPM Conference Planning Committee