How does one begin to summarize such a spectacular meeting? This year represented the largest submission of didactics, abstracts,
and innovations ever for the annual meeting. In order to showcase these spectacular submissions, your Program Committee has
scheduled the most didactics, abstracts, and innovations in the history of SAEM. We were able to secure a wonderful keynote speaker,
Dr. Thomas Frieden, Director of the CDC, as one of the highlights of the meeting. This keynote address will occur on Thursday, May 16,
from 2:00 - 3:00 pm, just prior to the Plenary Session from 3:30 - 5:00 pm. This year we also decided to recognize the best abstract
submissions to the meeting by showcasing them in the “Gallery of Excellence.” This extravaganza will run concurrently with the opening
reception, also on Thursday, May 16, and our hope is that you will be able to browse through the offerings and enjoy the quality of the
abstracts whilst enjoying the company of colleagues and friends. This year’s Consensus Conference, “Global Health and Emergency
Care: A Research Agenda,” will focus on emergency medicine on a global scale. Our specialty is expanding worldwide with a phenomenal
trajectory, so be sure to register to participate and contribute to the ongoing development of emergency medicine on an international
scale. The perennial favorites SIM Wars and SonoGames™ are back, so feel free to come and cheer on the teams as they aim for
SAEM glory as victors of the games. Senior and Junior Faculty Development Forums, Resident Leadership Forum, Medical Student
Symposium, Residency and Fellowship Fair…the list goes on! Worried about missing important parts of the meeting? Don’t. This year’s
digital and social media will keep you up and running. With your own personal planner available on the website, the mobile app, email
updates, Twitter feeds, Facebook updates, and message boards, you will be able to keep it all straight and enjoy everything SAEM has
to offer.
This year’s meeting should meet the needs of everyone in the emergency department, from medical student to seasoned veteran.
This meeting is a dynamic forum for educators, researchers, policy makers, and administrators to exhibit the very best of the specialty.
It will provide you with opportunities to learn something new, develop new ideas, improve your patient care, network with a colleague,
and most importantly, pause to appreciate what we as a specialty have achieved and inspired.