Educational Sessions Proposals

In response to feedback from both attendees and the Program Committee, we invite proposal submissions sessions that focus on the following topics. While these areas are encouraged, we welcome proposals on all topics relevant to the field.

This year’s highlighted workshop and institute topics are grouped into the following themes:

• • Preventive and General Adolescent Care – example subtopics include vaccine updates or lifestyle medicine skills development (e.g. advanced nicotine cessation strategies).
  • Musculoskeletal and Sports Medicine – example subtopics include upper extremity injuries or sports/exercise considerations for athletes of different abilities and special needs.
  • Neurological and Developmental Disorders – example subtopics include seizure disorders or selective mutism (as part of broader mental health discussion).
  • Cardiovascular and Autonomic Conditions – example topics include arrhythmias or postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS).
  • Immunology and Rheumatology – example subtopics include connective tissue disorders and functional syndromes (e.g., functional pain).
  • Nutrition and Gastroenterology – example subtopics include obesity medicine or orthostatic abnormalities in patients with malnutrition/eating disorders.
  • Professional Development – example subtopics include faculty development on mentoring or quality improvement training.
  • Mental Health and Substance Use – example subtopics include suboxone management and other practical treatment modalities.

Important note: We encourage all proposals to include multidisciplinary relevance when applicable.

Format of Sessions: Workshops are 1.25 hours (75 minutes). Institutes are 2.5 hours, with one 30-minute break for a total time of 3 hours. A limited number of presentation slots of institutes are available.

Presenter Requirements: Presenters must be available to present at the time and date assigned by the Program Committee between March 2-5, 2027. Trainee-led presentations need to have at least one attending physician presenter. If your submission is accepted for presentation, ALL presenting faculty are required to register to attend the in-person meeting at the standard rates. Registration fees will be waived for our Youth Presenter(s) as stated in the Youth Presenter Disclosure. Note: All presenters must be 18 years or older.

Registration Waivers: Occasionally, Workshop/Institute leaders have invited, as a co-faculty member, an eminent leader or expert who is ONLY able to attend the presentation and cannot attend any other portion of the conference and have asked the Program Committee to waive registration fees for that presenter. If this applies to your submission, please indicate in the request in the author screen on the submission website and complete the following form prior to submitting your proposal or for accepted proposals, the request needs to be submitted prior to the Faculty Confirmation Deadline on December 8, 2026 through this form. Registration waivers will not be considered after this period.

Proofreading and Publication: Proofreading, including spelling and punctuation, is the responsibility of the submitting author. Please review the proposal carefully before submission as your writing is a reflection of you, your organization and SAHM if accepted. Sections of accepted proposals will be published on the SAHM 2027 Annual Meeting website and the meeting conference app.

Program Selection: In selecting workshops and institutes, the Program Committee strives to present a balanced program that meets the needs of our culturally diverse, multidisciplinary meeting attendees from throughout the world. Acceptance of workshops and institutes is at the sole discretion of the committee.

Workshops and institutes are categorized within the program schedule using the educational tracks listed below. The online submission proposal form will allow you to select which track is most applicable to your proposal.

Clinical Foundations: Sessions that provide an evidence-based review or reinforcement of knowledge, ‎skills, or management guidelines of core issues addressed in clinical care. (Intended audience: primary care health professionals including physicians and advanced practice providers, nurses, dieticians, psychologists, social workers, trainees etc.)

Clinical Advances: Sessions that address advanced knowledge or highlight innovations or new advances in ‎diagnostic, treatment, or management strategies of issues addressed in clinical care. (Intended audience: subspecialty physicians, advanced practice providers and nurses working in specialty clinics, dieticians, psychologists, etc.)

Professional Development/Training/Education: Sessions to enhance professional leadership, networking, ‎wellness, or trainee education skills; not patient/client education. (Intended audience: all attendees)

Public Health/Advocacy: Sessions about public health promotion, health policy, or advocacy skills; not the ‎provision of clinical care in a community based or school setting. ‎(Intended audience: attendees from all disciplines interested or working in public health or advocacy fields, trainees from all disciplines.)

Research: Presentations designed to enhance research method skills, introduce newer research methodologies, or highlight innovative content areas for ‎adolescent health and medicine research. ‎(Intended audience: trainees from all disciplines, academic physicians and clinicians, professionals engaged in research or interested in becoming engaged in research)

Youth Engagement and Empowerment: Sessions that meaningfully include adolescents and young adults ‎‎(AYA) as live presenters who have collaborated in the ‎initiation, planning, and/or delivery of the project, program, research, or presentation with co-presenters. Note: All presenters must be 18 years or older.

The key submission proposal scoring/ selection criteria are the following:

• • Innovative session content that can change and/or challenge how attendees conduct clinical practice, education, research, and/or programming.
  • Topic proposal is timely and relevant to the particular focus with the field of adolescent health and medicine.
  • Well-described interactive and/or engaging teaching methods within the proposal.
  • Clear, appropriately scoped, and achievable learning-based objectives.
  • Inclusion of three peer-reviewed references that are within the past five years.
  • Proposal demonstrates a clear effort to support SAHM’s organizational values of community impact, accessibility and social determinants of health and does not intentionally exclude specific populations.
  • Diverse representation of presenters based on background, nationality, country, geographic region, size of clinical program, perspective, and/or discipline (e.g. across disciplines and/or across specialties.
  • Anticipated roles of presenters are clearly defined.
  • Proposal covers one of the Program Committee’s suggested topics for this year’s Annual Meeting .(No points are assigned to this criteria).

Download the AM27 Educational Sessions Scoring Rubric

The Program Committee is seeking proposals that prominently feature youth voices for placement within the Youth Engagement and Empowerment track. We also welcome, but do not require, the inclusion of adolescent and young adult voices within all session track types. For those considering submitting a proposal that includes Youth Presenters, please review our Principles of Youth Engagement in Conference Presentations. For the 2027 Annual Meeting, all Youth Presenters must be over the age of 18 at the time of the meeting. SAHM is evaluating the inclusion of Youth Presenters under the age of 18 for future meetings.

Youth Presenters include anyone between the ages of 18 and 25 who cannot be categorized under another SAHM member/attendee category, such as medical/graduate students, fellows, or trainees. For submissions that include a Youth Presenter, you will be asked to provide their name/s. There will be flexibility to replace the Youth Presenter named in the original proposal with a new Youth Presenter if the original becomes unavailable, up until December 8, 2026.

If a proposal with a Youth Presenter(s) is accepted, SAHM will waive the youth presenter(s) registration fees if they cannot be categorized under another SAHM member/attendee category. SAHM does not provide financial support for Youth Presenters’ travel, lodging, or meals except for the meals provided to attendees during conference days.

It is the expectation of the Program Committee that sessions that include Youth Presenters will engage them in the planning and delivery of the session. Include a description in the workshop/institute submission of how youth will be engaged. The SAHM Youth Engagement Committee will be available to provide additional guidance and support as needed.

To complete your workshop or institute submission, please provide the following through the online submission system:

• • Proposal Type: Workshop (1hr 15mins) or Institute (2hrs 30mins)
  • Workshop or Institute Title (Up to 120 characters, excluding spaces)
  • Description of Innovative Workshop/Institute Content (up to 3,000 characters excluding spaces): Include a description of the session content and how it can change clinical practice of those in attendance and/or challenge how attendees conduct training, treatment, research, or programming. If this is a workshop you have previously presented at SAHM in the last five years, please describe how the content has been updated with new clinical or research information. Include a description (if applicable to the content focus of the proposal) of how the session content supports SAHM’s goal to be inclusive of diverse populations, encourages international voices, and applies to a multidisciplinary audience and membership. To ensure your submission receives fair review, DO NOT include presenter names in the description or the anticipated roles of the presenters. Doing so may cause your proposal to not be considered for inclusion in the program. Please note: If accepted, this description will be listed on the SAHM 2027 Annual Meeting website and conference app. The description should be written to a potential attendee, and citations do not need to be inline.
  • Description of Interactive Educational Methods (up to 1,000 characters, excluding space): Include a description of how the teaching methods will be interactive, engaging, and achieve the learning objectives. Include how the session will be organized and describe the educational activities/formats that will be used (e.g. small group, interactive, didactic, case-based presentation/discussion, panel discussion). DO NOT include presenter names here
  • References (up to 800 characters, excluding spaces): Include three recent academic references within the last five years) to justify why the workshop topic/teaching method is timely, relevant or innovative. References/citations do not need to be included in the proposal description.
  • Learning Outcome (up to 250 characters, excluding spaces) Briefly describe your proposal’s learning outcome(s).  A learning outcome describes the overall purpose or goal of an educational activity.
  • Educational Objectives (up to 250 characters excluding spaces per objective): All workshop/institute submissions require a minimum of three educational learning objectives, which should be measurable descriptions of what attendees should be able to do upon completion of attending the session. Objectives are used to structure the content of an educational activity, and may include tasks such as “list”, “compare”, or “explain. Do not use words: understand, appreciate, learn, know, or familiarize. Please note that learning objectives are not an overview or outline of the presentation. Objectives of accepted proposals will be listed on the SAHM 2027 Annual Meeting website and conference app.

Example of objectives:
Analyze the current epidemiology of the global HIV/AIDS epidemic.
Identify and verbalize effective HIV prevention strategies.
State an alternative intervention framework for approaching prevention of HIV among adolescents and young adults.

 For additional guidance on creating objectives, please visit: Writing Learning Objectives: Writing Learning Objectives (aamc.org)

• Educational Track: Select the track that best represents your submission. See track descriptions above.
• Topics: Choose a minimum of one and up to three topic areas that best fit your presentation. If you choose “other” please specify. Topic options include: Allergy, Immunology, and Rheumatology; Cardiology and Pulmonology; Core Knowledge in Scholarly Activities; Dermatology; Endocrinology; Ethics, Legal Issues, and Health Equity; Gastroenterology; Head, Eye, Ear, Nose, and Throat; Hematology and Oncology; Infectious Diseases; Mental and Behavioral Health; Musculoskeletal Health and Sports Medicine; Nephrology and Urology; Neurology; Nutrition and Disordered Eating; Preventive and General Adolescent Care; Reproductive Health; Safety, Injury, and Violence; Sexuality and Gender; Sexually Transmitted Infections; Substance-Related Issues and Addictive Disorders; and Other (please specify in provided text box).
• Presenter(s) Primary Discipline (100 characters or less, excluding spaces.) Please list the primary discipline and subspecialty (if applicable) of each presenter from which they will be contributing to the workshop content (e.g., primary care physician, subspeciality physician, advanced practitioner, nursing, public health, psychology, social work, sociology, nutrition, law, AYA as live presenter, etc.). DO NOT include presenter names here. For example, if your workshop includes three presenters in which one will be presenting as a physician, one as a nurse, and one as a psychologist, write: “physician, nursing, psychology.”
• Name & Contact information for each presenter/panelist. Presenters will be listed on the SAHM 2027 Annual Meeting website and conference app in the same order in which they are entered in this section. The primary session leader (name listed first) will serve as the primary contact for all correspondence related to the proposal and is responsible for sharing correspondence with co-presenters. All presenters are expected to be present in person. Virtual presentations are not available. For proposals that include a Youth Presenter, please provide their name and email address. There will be flexibility to replace the Youth Presenter named in the original proposal if the original Youth Presenter becomes unavailable up until December 8, 2026. If accepted, all faculty will need to complete a financial disclosure form and may need to provide additional information to our accreditation partner. Information required: Full name, credentials, institution and email address.
• Presenter Expertise (400 characters, excluding spaces.) Please briefly describe the presenter’s expertise by listing relevant clinical experience; a summary of prior teaching, speaking, and publishing on this topic; and any additional training attended/received in this area. Please also include here if presenter is an attending physician, has an academic/professional title, or trainee.
• Presenter Curriculum Vitae (CV): CVs for all presenters, including Youth Presenters, are required upon submission. Please upload CVs for ALL named presenters with the following naming convention: presenter’s last name, first name in the document name, for example: Smith, John. Documents must be uploaded as a PDF. Word documents are not accepted.
• Virtual Learning Adaptability Throughout the Year (Yes/No response): If your proposal is accepted to the SAHM 2027 Annual Meeting program, is your proposal adaptable for virtual learning opportunities either synchronously or asynchronously via an online platform, such as Zoom Meetings, before or after the in-person meeting throughout the year? (Please note: Responses to this question are for informational purposes for planning and will not impact the Program Committees decision to accept your proposal).
• Youth Presenters (Yes/No response): Are you including young people in your proposal? Youth presenters include anyone between the ages of 18 and 25-years-old who cannot be categorized under another SAHM member/attendee category, such as medical/graduate students, fellows, or trainees. Youth Presenters must be over the age of 18 to attend the SAHM annual meeting.
• Willingness to Provide MOC II Credits (Yes/No response): If accepted, we would be willing to provide information needed to provide MOC II credits for our educational session. (Please note: Responses to this question are for informational purposes for planning and will not impact the Program Committees decision to accept your proposal).
• SAHM Committee (Yes/No response): This educational session proposal is being submitted by a SAHM Committee.
• Faculty Disclosures: ALL workshop/institute presenters are considered faculty for the annual meeting and MUST disclose whether or not they have any financial relationship with commercial interests, including but not limited to, participation on speaker bureaus or advisory boards, receipt of grant support, etc. Should the proposal be accepted, the lead presenter associated with the submission will receive a link to a disclosure survey that must be shared with each presenter on the panel. The disclosure must be completed by each presenter by December 8, 2026.

In order to submit your proposal, you must acknowledge the following statements.

• Meeting Room: All meeting rooms will be equipped with one laptop, screen, LCD projector, and microphone. Each session room will be set theatre style (rows of chairs). Meeting rooms do not have virtual presentation capabilities.
• Presenter Availability: Presenters/authors/facilitators/organizers will be available to present at the time and date decided by the Program Committee between March 2-5, 2027.
• Conference Registration Fees: Presenters/authors/facilitators/organizers are required to register to attend the meeting at the standard rates based on training and membership status.
• Remuneration: I understand that I will receive no remuneration from the Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine (SAHM) for my participation in the Annual Meeting other than that specified in writing by the Society.
• Assurance of Confidentiality: I understand that I am responsible for ensuring that any information presented regarding a client of health services or any other patient sufficiently edited or modified to ensure the confidentiality of the client unless I have obtained specific permission according to applicable ethical standards, laws and regulations from the client or patient about whom identifying information is presented.
• Permission for Use of Names and Likeness: I hereby give SAHM, its agents and representatives the right to use my name and likeness in promotional and other materials published in relation to the meeting.
• Presentation Permission Form: I hereby give permission for SAHM, its agents and representatives to make electronic recordings such as via audio tape or digital media of my presentation and grant SAHM a nonexclusive, royalty-free license to distribute those recordings, and to use the material they contain, including any printed materials I may provide, for any lawful purpose, including publication in a conference proceeds, sales to members and the general public, and/or distributions via the internet. I understand that I receive no remuneration from SAHM for such usage. (SAHM respects the copyrights and materials presented during media presentations; therefore, these presentations are exempt from the audio or videotaping done in other sessions).
• Handouts/Slides: Presenters are required to provide their slides in advance to the Speaker Ready Room at the meeting venue. Speakers will make available a handout of the slides to attendees via the meeting app or by instructions specified during their presentation.
• Permission for Publication of Material: To the extent that this work is not in the public domain (e.g., by virtue of being performed by an employee of the U.S. Federal Government as part of their official duties), I agree to grant the Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine copyright permissions for publication of material I may provide for inclusion in the proceedings for the conference which may be published in print and online on the SAHM Web site. The copyright consists of any and all rights allowed by the copyright laws of the United States and all foreign countries. I understand that the proceedings, including my contribution, will be made available in printed form to the attendees of the conference, members of SAHM, and other interested parties pursuant to policies established by the SAHM Board of Directors. I understand that SAHM will hold the copyright for the proceedings and its contents. I understand that the copyright of the compilation of materials in the proceedings is not the same as the copyright of an individual item of material included in the proceedings. I understand that I am encouraged to include copyright notices as appropriate on all the materials I submit to SAHM for publication. I understand that SAHM takes no responsibility for registering my copyright and advises me to take all appropriate steps to do so. I authorize SAHM to sell or otherwise distribute said proceedings to the membership and general public. In return, I understand that SAHM grants me the right to reprint my contribution in any publication. I affirm that my contribution contains no matter that is defamatory or is otherwise unlawful or invades individual privacy, or infringes on any proprietary right or statutory copyright. I affirm that my contribution is original with me or that I have obtained permission at my own expense from the copyright holder for publication and will submit documentation, showing permission for use, to SAHM at the time of submission of the materials to be distributed.
• Indemnification Agreement: I agree to indemnify and hold harmless the Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine, its agents and its representatives should the material I present or provide for publication be determined to defame, libel or slander an individual or organization, violate the confidentiality of any individual or organization, or infringe on another’s copyright.

 Proposals will only be accepted through the CATALYST site. To submit a proposal for consideration for the SAHM 2027 Annual Meeting in Chicago please do the following:

1. 1. Go to the SAHM 2027 Annual Meeting CATALYST site: https://catalyst.omnipress.com/sahm_2027

   2. Sign in to your existing CATALYST account or create a new one. Please note that if you have ever submitted your account using CATALYST, you can use that account.

   3. Select the Submission Type you would like to submit.

   4. Follow the onscreen instructions to submit your proposal.

Please only start a submission if you plan on completing it. If you encounter any issues with the proposal management system, please reach out to CATALYST support through the site. Submitting authors can revise submitted proposals until the submission deadline on July 28, 2026 at 11:59pm CT (Chicago).

Correspondence: All emails regarding your submission will be sent to the lead presenter/author listed on the proposal. If you are using a professional email, not personal such as Gmail or Yahoo, PLEASE be certain to whitelist, ‘omnipress.com’, ‘CATALYST@omnipress.com’, and, ‘noreply@omnipress.com’ to ensure they received all emails. If you do not, emails regarding the submission may be blocked. It is the responsibility of the lead presenter/author to share all communications from SAHM regarding your proposal with the author group.

Important Information: If you re-enter the site and make changes after you have finalized your submission and submitted it, please make sure you resubmit your submission. Once the submission site closes on July 28, 2026 at 11:59pm CT, edits will not be possible.

Thank you for considering a submission and we hope to see you in Chicago! For questions, contact SAHM staff at info@adolescenthealth.org.