Refer to your invitation letter for your assigned session’s Presentation Format. The format is carefully identified for each session by members of the Scientific Program Committee and requests to change the assigned presentation format will not be accommodated. The Clinical Questions Form, also included in your invitation letter, provides information specific to your topic. The clinical questions/learning objectives provided serve to guide the focus of your presentation.
Meet the Professor (MTP)
General Description
Meet the Professor sessions (MTPs) are single-presenter lectures, utilizing PowerPoint presentation slides, that are designed to give attendees the opportunity to hear acknowledged experts provide the most current information and their views about the topic being presented. MTPs are the most common format presented at the annual meeting and are typically held in rooms that seat well over 500 attendees. Though this limits the opportunity to address individual needs, time reserved for Q&A discussion at the end of your presentation allows you to address questions submitted by the audience via the ACP Meeting app.
Goals of the MTP Format
Attendees should achieve the following goals by attending your session:
- Acquire skills in reasoning regarding differential diagnosis and diagnostic logic.
- Analyze controversial issues, recent advances, and new developments concerning the selected topic.
- Gain knowledge of pathophysiology.
- Learn from colleagues as their questions and issues are identified and explored.
Conducting the Session
Meet the Professor format sessions should begin with a presentation of the most current information and guidelines, if applicable, on the topic. This should be followed by your analysis of the data presented and implications for patient care. Using brief “problems” or cases during the presentation can be very helpful. Your formal presentation should be approximately two-thirds of the total time allotted for you session, with the remaining time used to answer questions submitted by the audience during your session via the ACP Meeting app. It is generally better to hold questions until you complete your presentation. Taking questions during the presentation may get the session off track, both in terms of time and content.
Clinical Triad (CT)
General Description
Clinical Triad (CT) sessions typically attract an audience of approximately 500. CTs are 60-minute sessions divided into three 20-minute segments. Each CT session has an overarching theme that unifies three different segments of a topic. Faculty consists of one moderator and three panelists. The CT moderator is a member of ACP’s Internal Medicine Meeting Scientific Program Committee who is responsible for inviting panelists and coordinating the presentations. Each panelist is assigned one segment to present. These sessions are extremely fast-paced, with panelists providing concise answers to the clinical questions they will receive when they are invited to participate. There is no audience Q&A time included for this format.
Please refer to the Clinical Questions Form for specific information about the segment for which you have been assigned.
Conducting the Session
The session will proceed at a very brisk pace, so the moderator’s role on site is primarily that of timekeeper. Each panelist will have no more than 20 minutes to present their segment, using approximately 15-20 slides. At the start of the session, the moderator will tell the audience that he/she will step in if a speaker goes over the time limit, thereby ensuring that each of the three panelists has twenty minutes. The moderator will also announce that there will be no audience Q&A discussion following the presentations.
Panel (PN)
General Description
The purpose of these sessions is to give participants insight into a wide range of issues. The topics are often related to health care delivery, the politics and economics of health care, as well as clinical issues. Audience size varies depending on the subject being presented and could be anywhere from 200 to 1,000 attendees.
Goals of the Panel Format
Attendees should achieve the following goals by attending your session:
- Explore with panels of experts a range of perspectives on complex or controversial issues.
- Review current patient management approaches to complicated problems.
- Identify challenges confronting the medical practice environment and obtain expert views on finding solutions.
Conducting the Session
Panel sessions are either 45- or 60-minutes in length. (Refer to your invitation letter for the length of your session.) The panel moderator should open the session by introducing himself or herself and the other panelists, mentioning each individual’s field of expertise or special interest and the topic each will present. The moderator may make a presentation and participate in the discussion but should avoid taking sides or allowing any of the participants to monopolize the session. The session should be designed so that each speaker has adequate time to present their information. The formal presentations should be approximately two-thirds of the total time allotted for you session, with the remaining time used to answer questions submitted by the audience during your session via the ACP Meeting app. It is generally better to hold questions until you complete your presentation. Taking questions during the presentation may get the session off track, both in terms of time and content.
Slide Show (SS)
General Description
The purpose of these sessions is to present visual correlates for clinical entities that are important for the practicing internist. These sessions offer opportunities to see an expert clinician interpret and use visual clues useful to diagnosis and therapy. They are usually held in rooms that can accommodate large audiences (400 to 1,000 attendees).
Goals for the Slide Show Format
Attendees should achieve the following goals by attending your session:
- Increase familiarity with visual correlates of the selected clinical entities.
- Increase the ability to make important clinical distinctions among visual correlates.
Conducting the Session
Faculty should begin the session with a brief introduction of the topic (5-10 minutes), providing some background information. The majority of the presentation should be spent presenting visual findings and correlating these with clinical disease states. Allow approximately 10-15 minutes for Q&A discussion at the end of the session to answer questions submitted by the audience during your session via the ACP Meeting app. It is generally better to hold questions until you complete your presentation. Taking questions during the presentation may get the session off track, both in terms of time and content.
Update (UD)
General Description
The Update format presents information from those 6-12 papers published during the past 12-15 months that, in the view of the Presenter, have made the most difference in the practice or understanding of the subspecialty. The discussion should emphasize diagnostic and therapeutic approaches that are now available in practice, at least in tertiary care centers. The Update should evaluate developments broadly over several areas of the field. The presentation should be divided into approximately three content areas, each containing the material from 2-4 papers relevant to that area. The Updates are among the most popular sessions of the Scientific Program and are conducted in auditoriums that seat approximately 1,000 attendees.
Your Update presentation should consist of concise, “bulleted” summaries of the major findings in each paper. It is crucial to indicate during the presentation why each paper and its findings are significant, especially its relevance to clinical practice. No more than 10 minutes should be allotted to each paper. Material referred to in Update presentations must not include work done in the presenter’s own laboratory or department unless the paper is of unusual or extraordinary significance.
Learning Objectives for Updates
- Identify the 6 to 12 most significant published advances from the medical (primarily journal) literature in the previous 12-15 months.
- Assess the strength and scope of the evidence presented in the selected literature.
- Apply information from the literature to modify current clinical practice methods.
Conducting the Session
Update sessions are 60-minutes in length. The Presenter should begin by describing the purpose and format of the session. If a Co-Presenter is involved, the Presenter should introduce them briefly, mentioning their individual field of expertise or special interest. Approximately 45-50 minutes should be used for presentation of content. After the content is presented, the final 10 minutes or so should be devoted to a Q&A period to answer questions submitted by the audience during your session via the ACP Meeting app. It is generally better to hold questions until you complete your presentation, as taking questions during the presentation may get the session off track both in terms of time and content.
Workshop (WSO)
General Description
Workshops are designed to be practical teaching exercises. These sessions are conducted as discussion groups involving close contact and frequent interchange between participants and faculty, using case material freely. These are not standard lectures. Rather, participants should be asked to discuss cases or other clinical material that the faculty has prepared.
Goals of the Workshop Format
Attendees should achieve the following goals by attending your session:
- Acquire a discriminative, intensive overview of a medical domain.
- Appraise the strength and scope of evidence supporting current “best practice” in that domain.
- Access recent changes in current “best practice” as evidenced in practice guidelines, outcomes research or consensus conference statements.
Conducting the Session
Workshops are 45 or 60 minutes in length. Refer to your invitation letter for the exact time of your session. Your formal presentation should be approximately two-thirds of the total time allotted for your session with the remaining time used to answer questions submitted by the audience during your session via the ACP Meeting app. It is generally better to hold questions until you complete your presentation. Taking questions during the presentation may get the session off track, both in terms of time and content.
The subject under discussion should be reasonably circumscribed and topical and should offer a significant element of challenge to the participants. The clinical questions to be addressed and intended level of sophistication must be clearly delineated so that registrants may select programs appropriate to their needs. Participants who are too sophisticated or naïve may detract from the discussion or may be disappointed. In general, the workshop should be designed for the “excellent internist” in practice who may not have the opportunity for frequent exposure to a formal academic environment. However, workshops may be designed specifically for other groups (e.g., College Associates, subspecialists, etc.).