After many long years, the pulmonary, critical care, and sleep medicine community is reuniting in person for CHEST 2022.
Welcome back to immersive sessions full of the latest research and practice-changing updates. Welcome back to hands-on education mixed with entertainment. Welcome back to a one-of-a-kind atmosphere that fosters connections and collaboration.
“There is something positive that bubbles up when you are with people. One of the phrases I’ve heard used is ‘collective effervescence,’” said Program Chair, Subani Chandra, MD, FCCP. “I think we understand now more than ever before that, while we can do things really well in the virtual space, there is an energy of positivity in being together physically in the same space.”
As attendees gather in Nashville for CHEST 2022, that energy will be felt in familiar activities like live simulation courses, problem-based learning sessions, and Meet the Professor sessions. In addition to networking receptions and other social functions, newer small-group conversation areas in the convention center will make it easy for attendees to meet someone new or catch up with old friends.
More than 300 educational sessions will help spark discussions on the hottest topics in chest medicine, including intratumoral therapies for lung cancer, OSA, pulmonary disease in pregnancy, perioperative sleep-disordered breathing, and renal replacement therapy. Attendees will be able to apply real-life perspectives to the latest COVID-19 trends or CHEST guidelines on thromboprophylaxis, antithrombotic therapy for VTE, and lung cancer screening. And along with dedicated sessions on health care disparities and biases, presentations throughout the meeting program will carefully consider and address ongoing conversations surrounding diversity, equity, and inclusion.
“As always, it’s going to be a great chance to catch up and better understand the papers and literature we read, so we can better apply that knowledge—‘How does this change how I treat the next patient I see?’” Dr. Chandra said.
And it wouldn’t be a CHEST Annual Meeting without a heavy dose of edutainment. The popular Pardon the Interruption debate sessions have expanded their fast-paced review of clinical controversies. The CHEST Challenge Championship will showcase the brightest fellows in the nation during one of the meeting’s biggest celebrations. And CHEST’s innovative games and escape rooms will once again help attendees test their knowledge in unique ways.
“You learn in a way that it sticks,” Dr. Chandra said. “All the learning is not going to happen sitting in a lecture hall with somebody giving a talk. You can learn in various interactive and fun ways, where you’re learning, but you don’t even realize that’s what’s happening. You are just having fun.”
Whether this is their first or 15th CHEST Annual Meeting, all attendees should discover new insights, new perspectives, and a renewed energy for the work they do.
“We all juggle so many balls in real life. Leave some of them on the shelf for those few days of the meeting,” Dr. Chandra said. “When attendees go back, I want them to feel way higher energy than they did coming in. I want them to leave excited because they had fun; because they indulged in their own learning and in connecting with friends, colleagues, and collaborators; and because they are excited to use and apply the many things that they learned.”