Annual Meeting News

SAHM Annual Meeting Update 

By Nicholas J. Westers, PsyD, ABPP 
Director of Programs 

Can you believe that when we meet in Baltimore it will have been four years since we last met in person for a SAHM annual meeting? An entire cohort of new adolescent medicine physicians and healthcare professionals have yet to experience the energy, excitement, hospitality, networking, and great educational content with which we are all familiar when we interact in person! We do still recognize the pandemic is ongoing and public health guidance is still evolving. Nevertheless, we hope you choose to join us in person in Baltimore and both contribute to and benefit from the energy and content that are at the heartbeat of our annual meeting.  

You may have noticed the date for next year’s conference is scheduled Tuesday-Friday, March 7-10, 2023. Our initial contract with the hotel in Baltimore was for 2021, and when the pandemic forced us to hold virtual meetings, the hotel in Baltimore chose to honor and extend our contract for 2023 at no additional expense. However, because the hotel did not have Saturday available in 2023, we had to shift the days of the annual meeting to Tuesday through Friday (from Wednesday through Saturday). We hope you enjoy having your Saturday free for sightseeing, travel, rest and family time! 

In recent years, we have received extensive feedback from annual meeting attendees about a desire for more clinically focused content. It was for this reason that we rolled out the new Invited Workshop Series initiative at the 2022 meeting and will again in 2023. It is also for this reason that we have chosen this year’s theme to be Collaborations in Adolescent Health: Improving Clinical Care through Translational Science. Members and attendees who do clinical work prioritize empirically supported treatments and evidence-based practice, and those who do research strive to make their findings useful in clinical settings. In other words, clinicians and public health experts depend on research that includes pragmatic application (i.e., translational science), and researchers depend on clinicians and public health experts to know what questions are worth exploring. In turn, these collaborations enable us to more effectively advocate for adolescent health and wellbeing. To this end, our plenary sessions will be directly linked to the conference theme. 

Relatedly, we have an open Call for Proposals for Educational Sessions (deadline Tuesday, August 16) and Scientific Research Presentations (deadline Monday, September 12) and strongly encourage you to submit your proposals for workshops, institutes and research. We invite submissions of all types and topics, especially clinically focused educational sessions that are innovative and can change or challenge how attendees conduct clinical practice, education, research or programming. Learn more about the calls for submissions. Although submissions are not required or even expected to be related to the theme, we welcome those that are in line with this year’s theme. To be clear, proposals will not be evaluated based on any connection to the theme. In an effort to be as transparent as possible, we have again made public the rubric that reviewers are guided by in scoring proposals. Additionally, information for educational submissions that include youth presenters can be found in the Call for Proposals. The Youth Engagement subcommittee will be available to provide additional guidance and support as needed. 

I would like to thank Chinwe Efuribe, MD, MPH, for her role as Associate Director of Programs, and introduce Kari Harris, MD, as the incoming Director of Programs. Dr. Efuribe has contributed greatly behind the scenes, documenting in detail the processes involved in planning our annual meetings as well as the role descriptions of each chair of the Program Committee. Her contributions will forever be appreciated, including next year when Dr. Harris becomes Director of Programs. Please thank both Drs. Efuribe and Harris for their time and contributions to our organization when you see them in Baltimore! 

While registration for the Annual Meeting will not be available for a few more months, it is important to note that you must renew your SAHM membership for 2023 before you will be eligible to receive the discounted member rate.  

The Program Committee is working hard on planning a broad range of quality activities and sessions to meet the diverse needs of our membership. We hope everyone can attend in person, and we hope you choose to stay through the last day of the conference and celebrate during our inaugural in-person Closing Session to be held immediately following our final plenary session. There will be a lot to celebrate! In the meantime, please stay healthy and safe. 

Nicholas J. Westers, PsyD, ABPP 
Director of Programs  
Children’s Medical Center Dallas & UT Southwestern Medical Center 
nicholas.westers@childrens.com