This year, I had the pleasure of being invited to speak at this past weekend’s PRESENT Podiatric Residency Education Summit Midwest in Chicago. It’s been five years since the last time I spoke, so this event was like attending a new conference. There were a lot of highlights!

For those of you who might not be familiar with these conferences, PRESENT e-Learning Systems hosts two conferences per year specifically oriented toward podiatric resident education. These conferences are free to all residents with the exception of travel. Yes, PRESENT even pays for the hotel rooms. These folks really know how to take care of their attendees with free ample delicious food during the event. Yes, the food was a highlight! How many podiatric conferences can you say that about? This is the kind of resident support all conferences should model.

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“PRESENT spends a lot of time, effort, and money to create quality conferences that are free to residents”

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I know what you’re thinking: “You get paid by PRESENT to write these editorials so you’re biased.” Yes, I do and I am biased, but the fact is these folks spend a lot of time, effort, and money to create quality conferences that are free to residents. Don’t believe me? Come to the next one and see for yourself.

The best part of the conference was the opportunity to meet up with some of my former students and meet new friends. It’s always exciting to see how former students are doing. Seeing that last step of the educational process before our young colleagues start practice is very gratifying. How much more rewarding can that be for someone that spends much of his time educating students and residents?

Next came the lectures. The unique academic aspect that I’ve always enjoyed at these conferences is the mixture of big names and thought leaders such as Drs Robert Frykberg, Harold Schoenhaus, and Lowell Weil, Jr and others who, although may be less known, provide fresh and unique views on various subjects. As an educator, I love that they had a lecture series that focused on becoming a new practitioner. In fact, the professional development and practice management topics were highly relevant to both new docs as well as seasoned providers. I learned some very practical ways to improve my own practice.

From a purely entertaining standpoint, it was a lot of fun to watch the Residency Rumble. It’s interesting to see what our nation’s residents’ strengths are and how they’ve taken advantage of their learning opportunities. It’s amazing how the same teams place in the top five Residency Rumble winners category year after year. The last two years, Marie Williams’ Aventura Hospital and Medical Center and Colleen Napolitano’s DVA – Hines/Loyola came in 1^st and 2^nd as they did in 2016! Cream clearly rises to the top. It also reminds me just how varied and complex is the lower extremity. There’s a lot of pathology, which easily keeps us busy.

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“Our profession needs to focus more energy on making it possible for more residents to take advantage of these opportunities.”

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What about the critique? First, I was surprised that there weren’t more than the 50-plus resident attendees (though I’m told the Summit in Teaneck, NJ is about twice as large). It’s not for lack of advertising since PRESENT sent out a large number of email invitations and ads. There must be another reason, and after speaking with others, and considering my own experience as a residency director that didn’t send residents this year, it appears to be a combination of travel expenses such as airline tickets (the major issue in my opinion) and difficulty with some programs not being able to release their residents. I can’t fault the PRESENT folks for this. Our profession needs to focus more energy on making it possible for more residents to take advantage of these opportunities. More on this in the future.

Given that the Summit is relatively small (compared to other national conferences), it would be a great opportunity to have more problem-based learning activities. I’d like to see how the residents would handle case discussions and then maybe incorporate summative reviews with the faculty who are experts in those topics. Creating workshops that are focused toward patient simulation aspects of the boards would be greatly beneficial for our trainees. However, as someone who has experience with small-group problem based learning methods, I can tell you this is an incredibly challenging activity to run at a conference.

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“I learned more about podiatry this weekend than I taught as a speaker”

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Before arriving at the conference, I expected to hear a lot of boring basic lectures geared towards residents about topics I already knew. Boy was I wrong. What I actually experienced was a vibrant, information-packed, highly engaging learning experience and the opportunity to meet some dynamic podiatrists doing fantastic work. Clearly, I learned more about podiatry this weekend than I taught as a speaker. And, yes, I received CME for the event. If you weren’t there, you missed out. Come to one of the two yearly Summits next time and receive some quality education.

SAVE THE DATES

Podiatric Residency Education Summit East - August 10-12, 2018
Podiatric Residency Education Summit Midwest - September 28–30, 2018