Background Material for December 7 Conference Call - Alliance for ...

get a head count for last day lunches to save food. Provide tables for breakfast
There was nothing on healthcare reform, ARRAA. Need more business oriented programs to compete with
MGMA
Include a summary of the institution/Department/Division in the list of attendees so that indivudals can
focus on finding those who may be best to discuss current problems (public/private, hospital affiliation, #
faculty, annual budget).
best meeting ever - useful
The topics need to be interesting and the speakers, especially the workshop leaders, need to be experts, at
least a little bit more than the attendees. The workshop sessions titles were incredibly boring; more so than
at previous meetings (I have been attending regularly for 6 years and this was the worst selection I have
seen in that time). Also, there was one session that i really wanted to attend (the one on recruitment) but
there was no space at all even to get into the room, so I ended up going to something else. THe session
on having difficult conversations was really interesting and well done. I wish more sessions would be like
that one. Every workshop involves breaking up into small groups - this doesn’t always work, probably
because the leaders are not more active about directing people. Many of the workshops are disappointing
because the leaders are really no more experienced in the topic than us (and I still think of myself as a
junior guy). I come out thinking that they had no business trying to teach us anything. This is really
frustrating, because I consider the APDIM meetings to be prime times for career development. Many times,
it seems like just a way for some of these workshop leaders to get some “scholarship” on their CV but not
actually benefit us attendees. Workshops I have attended in the past that really had a great impact, just as
examples: Procedure teaching (Diane Wayne) a few years ago; Humanities (Aronowitz, I think). These
were interesting and really well done. They are becoming exceptions.
Philadelphia Marriott Downtown is a very nice hotel (both the public areas and proximity to tourist areas)
and the meeting areas are well situated BUT I was very disappointed in the actual room amenities. For the
price, the bed was way too soft, the towels were thin and threadbare, the bathroom implements were cheap
plastic, the furniture was “bargain” level. I was very surprised - don’t remember that from the last meeting
there a few years ago.
I do like to see national speakers as anchors.
A very good meeting with excellent choices of workshops and an excellent venue
Sometimes a bit too much time between sessions but I understand it is helpful to have this breathing room.
My opinion of the meeting site--good food! For once, the conference rooms were not freezing. Thanks for
the reminders to turn off cell phones (although they still went off).
A more rigorous sign up process would allow for adequate space for interested parties to attend workshops.
Really enjoyed this meeting and Philadelphia. Staff did a great job. Without a hitch.
Meeting is better when it is over 2 days rather than 3 days
very well put together except very minor issues
I would welcome advanced training on how to evaluate the competencies.... What is the difference between
systems-based-practice and practice-based-learning anyway.......
there should only be one yearly meeting - we don’t need two. the workshops should be shortened to 45 min
and we should be able to double the number we attend.
EIP programs should present their updates/innovations early on in the apdim program.
the conference could have been shorter by packing more in on each day. saw no reason to stretch to
Sunday when some of those sessions could have been done on the previous evening or save the assemblys
or something...not sure, but too much time without much to do.
confirm size of rooms and project crowds.
Would have been nice to be able to view more talk presentations ahead of time; only a minority were
available on site. even a draft version of the final would be helpful to give a flavor of what the speakers will
cover to help determine which workshop to attend. in general, there were too many workshops per session,
and either more repetition of those sessions rated by mtg organizers as most likley to be popular would be
nice, and/or having more frequent (? shorter) workshops to be able to attend more.
More workshops and less plenary sessions. More specific, helpful info, less overviews.
Please don’t give too much downtime during APDIm there were many sessions that could have been
repeated so that we could attend, Friday morning was a complete waste of our time
Academic Internal Medicine Week 2009 Evaluation Summary Page 23