It’s a Med Ed Maelstrom!

No, not really.

But this is a very busy weekend for EM and Med Ed types with five (yes, five) great medical conferences running simultaneously.  In the past you’d have been lucky to attend one or two of these, but thanks to the wonders of the interwebs and an amazing community of educators and learners, you can now soak up the wisdom pouring out of all 5 meetings right from the comfort of your ___________ (fill-in your favorite down-time spot).

You thought the polar vortex was bad?

The FOAM world is still dealing with the aftershocks of SMACCgold and now we have these to sort through:

• Critical Care: Resuscitation 2014 (#Resus14)
• Toxicology: ACMT 2014 (#ACMT2014)
• Ultrasound: AIUM 2014 (#AIUM14)
• Emergency Medicine Education: CORD-EM (#CORDAA14)
• Transport Medicine: Critical Care Transport Medicine Conference (#CCTMC14)

Here’s how you’re going to stay on top of it all

Keep up with these, and other meetings in future, by using any/all of the following strategies:

1. Visit the Conferences section on this website for a listing of upcoming meetings, their hashtags and twitter accounts, and affiliated websites.
2. Follow each conference # (hashtag) individually on Twitter or using a multi-list app such as Tweetdeck.
   1. This is the simplest method, but the most labor intensive.
   2. You’ll have to look up each hashtag, save your searches, and then check each feed in your app.
3. Follow key persons at each meeting.
   1. Some meetings will have official, and session specific, twitter accounts.  For example: @CORD_SMW and @SAEMonline
   2. Resuscitation 2014 had a social media team.  Instead of following the entire public conversation, you could follow only team members to see high yield posts from dedicated iReporters.
   3. Follow @ALiEMconf – The twitter account used by Academic Life in Emergency Medicine (ALiEM) iReporters during conferences.  Always high yield.
4. Go to the Live Conferences page at FOAMfeeds to see all the conversations (hashtag feeds) on one page.
5. Join any Google+ communities centered around the conferences
6. Keep an eye out for bloggers’ meeting summaries.  Examples: Bodymender’s Storify and this by Minh Le Cong on SMACC Gold

Breathe In – Breathe Out

Remember, you don’t have to contribute.  And this doesn’t have to take over your life.  You can simply scan the feed when you have a few minutes and click on any interesting links.  Save them for later.  Discuss them with your colleagues.  If you do have a question, or if you disagree with something that was said, just fit your message in 140 characters or less and be sure to include the conference hashtag.  Someone will probably get back to you.  If you’re lucky it might even be one of the speakers.  For more on how to make your tweets count see Conference Tweeting: Don’t Start Tweet with @ Symbol by Bryan Hayes on Academic Life in Emergency Medicine.

Happy learning!  If you have any other tips I hope you’ll share them in the comments box below.

~David

Full Disclosure: I am a member of the Resus 2014 social media team and have served on the SAEM Social Media Committee