The use of handheld computers in medicine has grown dramatically. This session is intended for those who have a handheld computer (Palm or Pocket PC), or are considering purchasing one, but who have not yet learned how to use it. The goal of the session is to help the beginner achieve a working familiarity with handheld computing such that they will leave the session ready, able and eager to use their own device in their daily life and clinical practice. Ideally, all participants should bring their own handheld. The session will include an overview of the devices and their desktop software; mastery of the basic (built-in) functions: datebook/calendar, address book, memo pad, to-do lists; and add-on applications: where to find them, how to install them and what applications are available specific to clinical pediatrics. Participants should be familiar with the use of personal computers and the Internet, but no prior knowledge of handheld computing is assumed.

Introductions and Overview of Mini Course

Lecture (with Audience Participation)—PDA Basics, Hardware and Software, the Palm OS and Its Functions

Palm OS Functions, Continued; PPC OS

Medical and Pediatric Applications for the PDA
 

In the current climate of funding opportunities, the ability to successfully obtain extramural support involves applying for grants that are appropriate for an investigator's career stage and drafting a clear and focused application. In this session, we will discuss career-stage-appropriate funding opportunities from the NIH. We will also address how to write a grant application, focusing on strategies with proven success. The working of NIH study sections will be reviewed along with how to best address the concerns of review panels. We will also focus on how to obtain funding for fellowship postdoctoral training and early stages of an academic career.
 

Background: Observational research studies have become increasingly complex. The results of observational research studies can be driven by properties other than chance or causation. While these factors may drive the p values of the results, they also change the appropriate interpretation.

Workshop Methods: In the first half of this workshop, we will formally define confounding, effect modification, restriction vs. heterogeneity of exposure, intermediate variables, selection bias and differential vs. nondifferential information bias. In the second half, we will use a case-based approach to illustrate examples of studies in which the results are driven by these factors and compare differences in the appropriate interpretation in the presence and absence of these factors. Minimal math skills will be needed, however, familiarity with basic concepts of study design and data analysis (case control vs. cohort study, interpretation of Ors, etc.) is recommended. We will specifically illustrate examples of effect modification vs. confounding, intermediate variables vs. confounding, selection bias, underpowered studies, and the role of measurement error in determining effect estimates.
 

In this the second year of the Minority Faculty Development seminar/workshop, the leaders will review the probable career paths of clinical and basic research faculty. The session will begin with a detailed description of important considerations for young faculty when choosing their first position after residency/fellowship. The various promotion tracks and sampling of a number of institutions around the country will provide concrete examples. Strategies for time management, negotiating protected research time, special funding opportunities for minority faculty, and innovative funding sources will be discussed using an interactive format to allow interchange of information among junior, mid-career and more senior faculty. A special emphasis on mentoring and career development will be featured. Local and national support networks for faculty will be reviewed. The integration of the issues of race and medicine will be highlighted.
 

Through this interactive session, the participants will 1) identify the factors that influence the mentor/mentee relationship, 2) prioritize which factors are necessary in creating and sustaining a successful relationship, and 3) problem-solve vignettes that illustrate common pitfalls in mentor–mentee relationships. The goal of this workshop is to utilize the collective experience we have all gained as mentors and/or mentees to raise awareness of what makes for a successful and productive mentor–mentee relationship. The intended outcome is the incorporation of new strategies for creating and sustaining these relationships.
 

This seminar is intended to help pediatric fellows and young junior faculty with challenges they face at each stage of their training including: how to identify worthwhile research projects, how to apportion time between research and course work, how to choose and work with a mentor, how to complete projects during one's fellowship, when and how to write grants, how to get and negotiate a job, how to balance career and family and how to transition to life as a junior faculty member. This workshop will be of particular interest to current pediatric fellows of any year, but it will also provide useful insights for those who recently completed or are considering a fellowship. The facilitators will include faculty at all stages of their career and will include both clinician-scientists and clinician-educators. There will be ample time for open discussion and question and answer.
 

The goal of this interactive workshop is for participants to improve their teaching skills as they strive for teaching excellence. The characteristics of outstanding teachers will be defined and applied to a variety of different teaching scenarios. Several teaching methods used by expert instructors will be presented and discussed. Opportunity for practice will be provided. Participants will be challenged to apply what they have learned to their own teaching settings.
 

The field of medicine is replete with examples of ways that handheld computers may be used to educate, organize and inform clinicians. There are also examples of how researchers may benefit from this technology. During this more advanced session, we will discuss some of these uses of handheld computers. We will provide examples of software in a variety of domains and discuss their historical, current and future use. We also will demonstrate some future technology and discuss its implications. At the conclusion of this session, participants will have increased familiarity with state-of-the-art applications, techniques to install them and the future of handheld computers and wireless networking.

Introductions and Overview of Mini Course

Lecture with Audience Participation: The Top 10 Novel Uses of PDAs in Health Care

Exercises and Demonstrations
 

NIH Mentored Career Development Awards are an ideal way for junior faculty to obtain a secure source of funding as they develop the skills and experience needed to become an independent researcher. These awards provide support for 3–5 years of multidisciplinary didactic training and supervised research for clinically trained professionals. In this workshop we will discuss:

• Who should consider applying for a K08 or K23 award
• When to apply
• How one should choose a mentor and plan the proposal
• Specific components of the proposal
• A time line for successful submission
• Specific examples of K23 and K08 proposals
• What to do if you are not funded the first time

Workshop participants will have the opportunity to develop specific aims and to outline a sample research plan for their area of interest. These will be discussed in small group settings with their peers and with faculty who have had a K08 or K23 successfully funded.
 

This workshop will address multiple aspects of publication in scientific journals. Presenters will discuss preparation of materials, including the initial decision that the data are sufficient to justify publication. Issues related to manuscript writing will include length, focus, adherence to journal formats and referencing. The editorial process, from submission to publication, will be described in depth, with particular attention to ways in which authors can interact with journal editors. Another section of the workshop will cover ethical issues in publication including review boards, authorship, duplicate publication, intellectual property rights and conflict of interest. There will be open discussion of sample cases and questions derived from the experiences of the participants.
 

What does success mean to you? Academic success can be difficult in our current society due to multiple, conflicting personal and professional responsibilities that compete for our time. Developing effective techniques to achieve "balance" in our lives can be challenging. Participants in this workshop will define individual success, set personal and professional goals and develop innovative techniques to achieve them. Through round table and small group discussions, individual exercises and role plays, participants will explore successful approaches to working with a reduced FTE ("part-time"), developing an educator’s portfolio, establishing a relationship with a mentor, tackling the promotion and tenure process and negotiating with supervisors. Breakout sessions on individual topics will allow participants ample time to share experiences and problem solve. Creative ways to achieve success and maintain balance in life will be presented, discussed and practiced.
 

The process of interviewing and negotiating for a faculty position is a common experience of most fellows and many residents and junior faculty. There is little, if any, training in this process. This seminar will 1) identify key concepts of the interviewing and negotiation process, 2) increase the awareness of residents, fellows and junior faculty of these concepts when applying for positions in academic medicine and 3) develop skills in utilizing them. These concepts include preparation for, and elements of, the first and subsequent interviews, stages and styles of the negotiation process and core issues such as compensation, office space, research resources, promotion guidelines and family considerations. Brief didactic presentations and case-directed discussions will highlight these concepts. Participants will have the opportunity to apply concepts learned to simulated interview situations.
 

This seminar will focus on the unique issues related to the challenges of women in academic medicine. The first topic will be the various tracks within the academic community and the expectations related to promotion within these tracks. The second topic to be discussed will be maintaining a balance between professional and personal life, and the presentation will include a discussion of the pros and cons and ups and downs of part-time employment. The last issue to be discussed will be negotiation skills for women in academia. Problematic scenarios will be presented and strategies for solutions will be proposed.
 

The core of the academic meeting is the dissemination of new information through abstracts. This session will provide the young investigator with an approach to the preparation and presentation of abstracts. Innovative science requires crafting an innovative abstract to ensure program selection. Points concerning abstract presentation to enhance acceptance and the dos and don'ts of platform and poster presentations will be presented in depth.
 

Clinician-educators are those physicians whose career activities combine patient care and teaching and whose scholarly activities promote excellence in medical education. With this interactive workshop, it is expected that participants will learn a practical approach to their career development and will:

1. have a better understanding of the motivations, career plans and challenges of clinician-educators;
2. be able to develop a career ‘map’ for junior clinician-educators;
3. learn how a mentoring program can help the clinician-educator plan and develop his/her career, including suggestions on how mentors and ‘mentees’ can contribute to enhancing professional academic skills;
4. be able to identify faculty development needs and participate in useful and effective faculty development activities, having a better understanding of specific faculty development activities and the evidence for the effectiveness of these activities; and
5. have a better understanding of the evaluation of teachers and how these evaluations are used for faculty development and promotion and will learn guidelines for developing an effective Teaching Dossier.

This workshop will be of interest to both junior faculty with an interest in developing their academic careers as clinician-educators and to administrators responsible for supporting junior faculty in the areas of teaching and education.
 

The publication and dissemination of new knowledge has long been the gold standard of academic pediatrics. However, inertia remains a substantial barrier to successful publications and presentations for many faculty. A well-organized and systematic approach to the presentation of scientific data can substantially reduce the impediments to success and lead to high-quality and well-received efforts. This seminar will take a practical and focused approach to the conceptualization, derivation and presentation of scientific material to be presented as a manuscript, abstract or oral presentation. Group discussions, critique and analysis will be an inherent component of this seminar.
 

This interactive session will provide the attendee with basic information on publication of a manuscript, as derived from the perspective of an editor. Issues (with data provided when possible) to be discussed are:

A. View From the Inside

1. Characters involved
2. Manuscript flow
3. Peer review process
4. Working with the author

B. View From the Outside

1. How to choose the right journal for your paper
2. How to prepare the cover letter
3. How to prepare the abstract
4. How to prepare the body of the manuscript
5. How to prepare the references

C. Conflict of Interest and Ethics
 

The 21st century heralds a paradigm shift in medical education with a focus turned to competence and outcomes. The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) is spearheading a competency-based system of graduate medical education coincident with the American Board of Pediatrics’ (ABP) initiative to transition from periodic "recertification" to "maintenance of certification." Our greatest challenge as educators lies in developing tools to evaluate competence during training and to equip all trainees with the skills necessary to achieve quality continuous professional development in order to maintain their certification in pediatrics.

The overarching goal of this workshop is to explore the value of using technology as a tool for promoting self-assessment and lifelong learning in continuous professional development. We will demonstrate how physicians can use an innovative web-centered tool to document competence in practice-based learning and improvement. Participants will discover how to create and manage a personal list of educational needs based on their professional experiences, develop individualized learning plans to address these needs and then document the impact of learning on their practice.

The outcome of implementing this web-based technology will be the ability to demonstrate competence of our trainees in the domain of practice-based learning and improvement to the ACGME and the preparation of tomorrow’s physicians to demonstrate evidence of continuous professional development in maintaining their certification.
 

As healthcare organizations become more complex, quality leadership is an increasingly precious resource. Many health systems are turning to physician leaders because they are uniquely qualified to integrate clinical, educational, research and administrative functions. To be successful, these physician leaders must build and sustain high performance teams.

Teams are successful when the right people are working together to do the right job with the right outcomes. Leaders must: (1) create the vision and scope, (2) determine what and to whom to delegate, (3) remove the barriers by dealing with the difficult people and situations and (4) specify the metrics and hold the team accountable. Building upon the 2002 Physician Leadership PAS education seminar, the focus for this workshop will be on delegation and dealing with difficult people and situations.
 

Career and program development in pediatric departments is increasingly tied to the generation of resources that support these efforts as well as cost-containment efforts. This seminar will address the application of business principles and approaches that should be useful to current directors of programs, or those who aspire to be directors, as they plan and manage these programs. Concepts to be introduced in a case discussion format include cost analyses, longitudinal budgeting, mission-based budgeting, business plan development and productivity analysis and enhancement.
 

What should you do when parents want you to continue burdensome treatments, which you think are futile? What should you do when parents want you to stop intensive care treatment, the continuation of which you think is in the best interests of the child? Who ought to make decisions for the not yet competent? Is it the parents, the doctors, the ethics committee, society or some other disinterested third party? The goal of this seminar is to consider the complexity of these difficult decisions, looking at factual and evaluative considerations. Through interactive case discussion we will identify the problems and potential pitfalls in decision-making for the pediatric population.
 

This program will give a "pediatric perspective" to smallpox bioterrorism preparedness planning efforts now under way within federal, state and local public health agencies. It will include a review of smallpox epidemiology, clinical disease, smallpox (vaccinia) vaccine and lessons learned from the WHO Smallpox Eradication Program. The nature of the current threat and responses to that threat will be discussed.

This session will delineate the patterns of academic clinical practice. Co-led by a general pediatrician and pediatric subspecialist, the session will address the following topics.

1. How do I decide if I want to pursue a career in academic medicine or in community practice?
2. Are there models of practice that allow me to combine academic medicine and community practice?
3. How do I decide if I want to become a general pediatrician or want to subspecialize?
4. What are the requirements for a career in general academic pediatrics? What for subspecialists?
5. How and when do I apply for fellowships?
6. Who in my institution can help me with these career decisions?
    

This workshop is aimed at the M.D. junior faculty member (or fellow) in a department of pediatrics. The goals of the workshop will be to: (1) Review career paths in academic medicine, focusing on career decisions that are key to developing an independent research program; (2) Choosing a research project (asking a good question); (3) Carrying out a research project during the earliest stages of one’s career (taking advantage of opportunities and surmounting obstacles); (4) Moving beyond a "research project" to development of a research program. In anticipation of the workshop, participants are encouraged to reflect on the career choices and research decisions they have already made and to come prepared to participate in an open discussion about these choices.
 

Participants in this seminar will receive information on how the NIH receives, assigns, reviews and funds applications for support of various types of research, training and career development. The variety of support mechanisms available at different career stages will be described, along with areas of special current research interest to the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.
 

Participants at this workshop will learn about several models of Faculty Development (FD) appropriate for pediatric educators and will engage in discussion of perceived needs and challenges related to FD.

Several invited presenters, representing different models, will share FD successes through platform presentations or through interactive poster presentations. The presenters have been competitively selected by workshop leaders after review of invited submissions. They have been asked to address challenges and solutions, design of curricular materials and evaluation methods. Workshop leaders will facilitate an interactive review of each model and will present a summary of basic principles for successful FD implementation.

This combination of platform presentations, posters and interactive discussions will allow participants to pool creative ideas and curricular materials, to network with FD experts and to consider ways to implement FD at their own institutions.
 

Today's medical students represent tomorrow's resident teachers. Although many residency-training programs have incorporated curricula to enhance the teaching skills of residents, few describe how faculty are preparing medical students for their role as resident teachers. Programs that do exist describe their participants as receptive to learning theory and enthusiastic about their teaching roles.

This workshop will review current literature, demonstrate existing models, and assist participants in identifying important considerations in developing a model student-as-teachers programs in their own institutions. Participants will work in small groups to identify possible mechanisms to prepare medical students for their role as future resident teachers and to reflect upon methods for introducing them into curriculum at their institutions. Participants will view and discuss videotapes of medical students from different programs in the various teaching roles that they can assume. After viewing the videotapes, interactive breakout sessions will allow participants the opportunity to review observations, needs and strategies for program development. Provisions will be made for ongoing interaction post-workshop to assist individuals interested in initiating a similar program in their own institution.
 

This workshop will discuss academic leadership. There will be three distinct perspectives presented: (1) leadership at an institutional level—climbing the academic ladder; (2) leadership at an organizational level—opportunities to become involved with national organizations such as the American Academy of Pediatrics, the Ambulatory Pediatric Association, American Pediatric Society; and (3) networking: differences in gender styles and opportunities. There will be a panel discussion following individual presentations and an opportunity for workshop participants to discuss their personal experiences. The discussion will also include differentiating leadership from positions of leadership.
 

Receive helpful pointers to make your talks memorable and useful. This session will introduce methods of planning and organizing presentations, preparing and designing visual aids, handouts and clear delivery.
 

The 2001 World Trade Center and anthrax attacks established terrorism as a reality in this country. In addition to anthrax, critical biological agents include smallpox, plague, tularemia, botulinum toxin, and viral hemorrhagic fever. Release of sarin nerve gas in the Tokyo subway system by the Aum Shinrikyo cult in 1995 resulted in some 5,000 casualties, including 12 deaths, and the threat of a radiation incident perpetrated by terrorists is also real. Pediatricians have a key role in the management of illness after a terrorist incident, including biological, chemical or nuclear releases. Effective preparedness requires an increased index of suspicion for unusual diseases or clusters of illness, with prompt reporting to public health authorities to facilitate recognition of an outbreak and subsequent intervention. Psychological effects of a domestic terrorist disaster on children will also need to be managed appropriately. This workshop will address the epidemiologic, clinical, preparedness and response issues relevant to biological, chemical and nuclear threats to children, who are especially vulnerable. Specific and detailed diagnostic and management information will be provided, as well as emergency contact and educational resource information.
 

Physicians are frequently asked to shoulder administrative responsibilities in addition to their more traditional clinical and teaching duties. Balancing these new responsibilities can be a challenge. Often, time does not permit formal preparation and training for these duties. This workshop provides a formal preparation and training for these duties. This workshop provides a "hands-on" practical overview of basic skills needed for effective administrative leadership.

Using an interactive format, the workshop will begin with a general approach to administration looking at fiscal, personnel and quality improvement issues. Participants will review standard financial reports such as program profit/loss (P&Ls) and budget vs. actual variance reports. Participants will discuss how to use the information from these basic reports to manage a budget or cost center. After developing familiarity with fiscal issues, participants will discuss human resource issues such as job descriptions and evaluations. Finally the value of a quality improvement (QI) process will be discussed. At the conclusion of the workshop, participants will have used real-life examples to gain experience that is applicable to their own program and that will help them review standard reports and manage a budget, recruit and retain staff and participate in QI efforts.
 

In the face of dramatic alterations in health care delivery during the 1990s, the roles of pediatric generalists and subspecialists have changed. This has led to national debate as to how general pediatricians and subspecialists should be trained, how they should interact and what final product or solution is desired. Both the United States and Canada are affected by these changes. In this session three experts will cover important aspects of this emerging problem.

In this educational workshop we will provide a brief overview of NICHD priorities, funding and peer review, which will be followed by participant's presentations of their own research goals and ambitions to the workshop leaders and their peers. We will use an interactive group problem-solving approach using a flipchart to generate an outline of a research action plan for each presenting participant. We have used this approach with junior faculty immediately post-fellowship in another academic society venue with great success.

The participants will be divided into groups of ten and will critique each other's plans as they are presented. The focus will be on each investigator articulating specific aims and hypotheses, with support from the NICHD staff. Additionally, specific inquiry paths for funding opportunities will be made available to each participant. The initial overview of priorities for funding and review will take no more than 30 minutes, immediately followed by the first cohort of investigator presentations.
 

Family presence for procedures is a relatively new concept in pediatric medicine. Studies have shown that many parents prefer to be with their children when they undergo painful or invasive procedures. Some physicians are reluctant to accept this break with tradition and refuse to allow parents in the room. The purpose of this workshop is to develop an approach to successful procedures with parental presence. Workshop leaders (including physicians, social work, housestaff) will address critical issues such as:

• Review of the literature—what do parents/families want?
• What is best for the children?
• What rights do the parents have? How about the physicians?
• Are some situations/procedures (i.e., resuscitations) "off-limits"?
• How can we instill confidence in trainees when the family is watching?
• Can we preserve teaching opportunities?
• Are there safety risks? Legal issues?
• Enlisting the help of others: the role of liaisons, social workers, therapists

Using case scenarios and role-playing, workshop leaders will address the pros and cons of family presence for procedures. Participants will be expected to share their experiences and ideas to move forward with this "unconventional" approach to medical care. It is expected that through discussion and debate we will implement a system for success.
 

The incidence of lawsuits in the United States continues to rise. Within this environment, pediatricians are vulnerable to litigation yet often have limited experience and information about the legal process and relevant principles of law. Legal dilemmas are particularly common in acute care settings and frequently are managed without the immediate advice of counsel. In this workshop, participants will explore basic legal issues that impact on medical practitioners, gain familiarity with the litigation process and examine strategies for testifying in court. A team of specialists in pediatric emergency medicine, malpractice issues, court testimony and forensic medicine will begin the workshop with an interactive presentation of case scenarios that highlight common statutory dilemmas, malpractice issues and the litigation process (civil and criminal). Participants will then view videotapes of court testimony and discuss strategies for testifying as a fact or expert witness. Workshop leaders and participants will conclude the session with small group discussions of individual experiences with civil or criminal proceedings and legal testimony. A complete syllabus will be provided for the workshop that is designed for use as a teaching manual.
 

Al Aynsley-Green, National Clinical Director for Children, Department of Health, Her Majesty's Government, Nuffield Professor of Child Health, The Institute of Child Health, University College London
University of London, Director of Clinical Research & Development, Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children and The Institute of Child Health, London

What happens when there is a public national concern about excessive poor outcomes at a Children's Medical Center? This was the scenario in Bristol, England, where a crisis in the outcome of children after cardiac surgery developed even when well–trained, committed, concerned clinicians and subspecialists were intimately involved. Because of this, Professor Al Aynsley-Green, President of the Academic Paediatricians, was appointed to the new post of National Clinical Director for Children by Parliament and to Chair a Children's Taskforce to answer the question of how can such a negative experience like this be turned into positive outcomes for children? He is charged to secure the health and well-being of all children throughout childhood into adult life by developing a National Service Framework for children's services across health, social care and education.

Lessons he has learned and experiences he has lived will be shared to help pediatricians around the world with our quest to improve the lives and health of children. The goals, activities and experiences of the Children's Taskforce, as well as six external working groups, are exportable, practical and logical. Strategies used for developing opportunities not only to improve child health at a local level but also at a national level will be discussed.

Opportunities for questions and discussion will be provided so attendees can share effective techniques to improve child life and health.

This symposium covers four issues in vaccination. The American Academy of Pediatrics and CDC currently are moving toward a recommendation for universal annual vaccination of infants with killed or live influenza vaccine. Why is this? Now that Rotashield is off the market, a new rotavirus vaccine is needed and may be on the way. Despite good protection of children by vaccination, pertussis infections are rising in adolescents and adults. Can they be controlled? Recent disruptions in vaccine supply have caused pediatricians significant problems. What are the causes and solutions?

Outcome measures are a vital part of research design. Many studies continue to use morbidity and mortality, admission to the hospital, cost of care and other gross measures that do not define true outcomes for patients. A model for outcome determination using disease specific outcomes that define long-term outcomes, proximate outcomes, global long term outcomes and global proximate outcomes can serve as the conceptual framework for decisions about assigning specific outcome measures for a study. A conceptual framework using disease-specific and global outcomes based on diversity and severity of the process to be studied will be discussed. Quality of Care Measures will be differentiated from true outcome measures.

Applying the methods and tools of outcomes research and the evaluation of the impact of health care on the health outcomes or "end result" of patients and populations to various clinical domains are critical to research design. They are an integral part of translational research.

Translating, disseminating and implementing research results and applying them to clinical care and policies affecting clinical care are critical to improving patient outcomes. A hierarchy of research impact and an approach to translational/implementation research will be discussed. Implementation research examines the science of translating clinical and organizational research into practice and policy. Evidence-based implementation strategies are in turn based on the findings of implementation research. Results of implementation research, including research in children’s health care, will be discussed. Models will be given that can be applied to research protocols.

The educational portfolio in medicine functions both for learner assessment (ongoing authentic evaluation and self-reflection) and documentation of professional learning and career accomplishments. This selective and purposeful collection provides rich documentation of the medical educators’ practical and intellectual property as related to their professional learning and personal development.

The objectives of this workshop are to 1) understand the theoretical foundation and need for educational portfolios, 2) translate content to an electronic format and 3) provide a hands-on exercise to create e-portfolios using Lectora.

This interactive workshop will begin with a brief overview followed by small group discussions of the electronic portfolio within the context of learning processes and participants’ teaching environments. Lectora, an easy-to-use, versatile, powerful authoring tool, will then be demonstrated in the development of an e-portfolio, and participants will have the opportunity to develop their own e-portfolios using sample content and custom templates. Lectora’s potential will be demonstrated using a variety of media types (text, images, audio, video, animation) and popular Internet technologies such as Shockwave, Flash, HTML and JavaScript.
 

Recent financial scandals affecting successful and respected companies have focused public attention on conflicts of interest involving corporate officers, stockholders, and customers. In the medical research world, too, recent events have raised questions about conflicts of interest affecting investigators, research subjects and patients. Examples of the latter include the financial interests of gene-transfer experimenters (the Gelsinger case at the University of Pennsylvania) and study goals versus individual subject/patient interests in the Kennedy Krieger law suit (Hopkins lead abatement study). Despite the potential pitfalls, pediatric researchers receive only perfunctory training in handling them. This workshop will provide investigators with a framework for and experience with considering real and perceived conflicts of interest in their research. We seek to provide guidance and support for investigators who need to recognize and face ethical concerns that may arise from proposed and actual research. During the workshop, we will describe potential conflicts of interest affecting: (1) individual researchers, (2) institutions (hospitals and universities), (3) research subjects/patients and (4) the public at large, including the mass media. Short presentations will set the stage for attendees to participate in role playing with a variety of scenarios and to present and discuss their own cases.
 

Recent research has shown that medical professionals believe that they do not know enough about alternative therapies to answer patient questions about these treatment modalities. This is an important gap in their education, as mind–body therapies and stress management training have demonstrated effects such as decreasing health care utilization in both healthy and chronically ill populations. Medical professionals themselves suffer from overwhelming demands and unremitting stressors and could benefit from training in stress management. This workshop offers hands-on training for medical professionals to learn about several different mind–body stress management techniques to use themselves and discuss with patients. Meditation, biofeedback, yoga and cognitive-behavioral strategies will be reviewed and demonstrated. Participants will develop a familiarity with these therapies and know how to find further training.

This session will address the topic of "perinatal origins of adult disease." The three speakers will address different aspects related to the early origins of adult disease. Dr. Kent Thornburg will address the issues related to the fetal origins of adult-onset cardiovascular disease, Dr. Guiseppe Colasurdo will discuss the impact on adult-onset reactive airway disease due to postnatal exposure to environmental stimulants, and Dr. Pinchas Cohen will cover the influence of postnatal insulin-like growth factor on the development of carcinogenesis. All three speakers will shed light on the mechanisms underlying the phenomenon of "Perinatal Origins of Adult Disease" in three different disease states using various animal models. This session will provide cutting edge information that will help set the stage for future interventions targeted at the mechanisms outlined.

Academic Medical Centers (AMCs) are the result of unique partnerships between medical schools, research institutes, and teaching hospitals and are among the treasures of our society. During the past century, AMCs have evolved in response to need and opportunity as well as to social and economic forces. They have made possible unprecedented advances in human health, in biological sciences, in medical technology, and in the education of a very specialized and knowledgeable cadre of scientists, physicians, and other health care professionals. In the process, AMCs have grown large and ever more complex and require continuous inputs of resources to sustain them. Despite the apparent success of AMCs and their widely appreciated intrinsic value, they are challenged as never before. The diversity and complexity of missions has created stresses upon the social order. Financial pressures resulting from a fragmented, market driven reimbursement system, lack of adequate attention to preventive services and to cost of care issues, questions about true measures of quality, ever more expensive research infrastructure requirements, changing social expectations combined with a relative illiteracy regarding science and health in the general public threaten AMCs existence as we know them. Despite fears that these factors have the potential to create a "perfect storm" that will derail the momentum for progress, a detailed understanding of AMCs history, current circumstances, and future prospects gives cause for optimism. With thoughtful leadership, commitment to values, and a willingness to lead change in many areas, AMCs can continue to thrive and achieve even greater success.

The speakers in this symposium are a practitioner of medicine and historian who has written two very widely read and highly acclaimed books about these issues, Learning to Heal and Time to Heal (Kenneth Ludmerer) and a former medical school clinician, teacher, investigator, and dean who is now one of the nations most ardent and eloquent spokespersons for AMCs in his role as president of the Association of American Medical Colleges (Jordan Cohen).