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This past week I spent time in Old Town Alexandria, Virginia at the ACFAOM 2014 conference. I've been to a good number of conferences, local, regional, and national, and I have to say right at the start this was one of the best conferences I've attended. No frills or pretty language. This conference was excellent.
And, yes, most of you missed it.
For the sake of disclosure, I will tell you that I was invited to "speak" at this conference, though I did not speak in the typical conference sense, and I was paid for my presence. I can also tell you this is the first time I've been to this conference.
Now, I know what you're thinking: "I attend the big conferences, and they serve me well and give me everything I need." That may be very true. I've attended the Western and ACFAS conferences, and I have very little to critique. They're very good (I'm not a fan of the APMA Conference – no offense APMA people). However, this year's ACFAOM conference was unique. I'll explain my perspective and why it was too bad you missed it.
 Compared to the largest conferences like ACFAS, where the attendance is around 3000 or so, this year's ACFAOM conference was attended by only about 150 people. That's a small number, right? In this case that's an advantage. To start, this meeting had the overall feel of the PRESENT Residency Summits I've been to, in the sense that due to the smaller number of people, it felt much more intimate.
I met up with a few friends I've known for a while, but even better, I made a lot of new friends and colleagues. I can't describe how refreshing I found the friendly, collegial attitudes of not only the attendees but the conference faculty as well. This was a highly welcoming and – very importantly – nonhierarchical – meeting. When you attend some other conferences, there seems to be a separation of the faculty – many of them nationally and internationally known – and the attendees. This meeting was different.
Think about your last major conference experience for a moment. You sat in a large room listening passively to a lecture by a national expert on something. You may have taken notes or snoozed in the back, depending upon your inclination. You may even have signed in and left. You were probably one of a very large number of people milling through a crowd, finding out about a new product, and it was probably easy to get lost in the crowd. On the contrary with the ACFAOM conference.
 The format was unique to every conference I've been to except two: the PRESENT Residency Summit and the American Association of Medical Colleges (AAMC), the body that runs MD undergraduate programs in the United States. This year's ACFAOM conference, rather than having 20-minute lecture after 20-minute lecture, was different. Each half-day session was broken up into case discussions covering a range of topics. Participants sat at round tables in a large conference room and heard short lectures mixed with small group discussions that then broadened out into larger audience participation. This format led to the most direct, active learning experience I have had at a national conference.
The interactions between the speakers and the audience was excellent, with such a vibrant back and forth flow that in many cases the speakers felt more like facilitators of a discussion and the audience the experts. It felt a lot like those times when you're sitting around a table with a bunch of your podiatric colleagues discussing cases. Additionally, most of the lectures did contain strong evidence-based recommendations. You might also be interested to know the case-based method utilized during the conference has been shown to be a superior method for adult learning.
 This brings up an important point. I would say – hopefully diplomatically – that the attendees were mostly "experienced" physicians who've been around a little while. It seemed most of the people I spoke to were in practice longer than me.
I have a couple of thoughts regarding this. First, I have to warn ACFAOM that if they don't somehow entice younger doctors to attend, the long-term viability of the conference might be at stake. Second, these mature providers were much more likely to have a deep discussion of the various topics important to podiatric medicine. My residents would have benefited greatly from attending this conference and listening to the various perspectives and accumulated experience. Additionally, for those of you residents looking for a future job, this would have been a good place to meet potential future bosses and partners.
I would love to see the larger conferences utilize even a modified version of this meeting where attendees break up into groups for discussion. I know it's possible even for our large conferences since the AAMC does it to some degree, and they have very large numbers of attendees.
There's one final benefit many of us would attain by attending the ACFAOM conferences: the lack of surgery. I know, I know, podiatry is ever more surgical in nature, you say.
I say to hell with that.
Our profession has done itself a grave disservice by separating out the "medicine" aspect from the "surgical" aspect. The fact that we even have separate national organizations and conferences is sad. The fact that everyone equates "biomechanics" with "orthoses" is sad. The fact that our residents and young practitioners just want to be surgeons and be like those guys – yes, guys (they're mostly men with a few exceptions) – on the national stage is a shame.
 In reality, most of podiatry is medical. With few exceptions, most podiatrists are in the office more than they are in the OR. And for those who want to be surgeons, you have to understand the "medical" side, including medicine, biomechanics, and the cognitive parts of surgery, to be able to appropriately choose, perform, and follow-up on your patients.
I'll steal a smart comment from Dr. Warren Joseph and ask, are you a physician or technician?
Going to a conference should not be about comparing the lengths of our ex-fixes (or other things). It's not about who did the biggest reconstruction or who did the largest number of cases in a year. It's about knowing how to treat patients. It's about knowing how to think.
And this, my friends, is why you missed out.
I'd like to thank Stephen Albert, DPM, Javier Cavazos, DPM and the rest of the ACFAOM community for a warm reception and an excellent learning experience. I hope to see you again next year.
Best wishes,
Jarrod Shapiro, DPM
PRESENT Practice Perfect Editor
[email protected]
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ACFAOM 2014 Conference:
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